Bulungan. In the interior of North Kalimantan Province, there still exists a forest tribe that truly lives within the jungle. This tribe is dubbed the last hunters and gatherers of Kalimantan.

Its name is the Punan Batu Benau Community, a small group living along the upper banks of the Sajau River and the surrounding forests of Mount Benau, precisely in Neighborhood Unit 11, Sajau Village, Tanjung Palas District, Bulungan Regency, North Kalimantan Province.

They inhabit cave dwellings scattered throughout the Mount Benau forest. The community consists of 35 households with a total of 106 people.

From birth until old age, they have spent their lives entirely in the forest. This community still relies on ancestral traditions to utilize forest resources. Almost every aspect of their lives depends on the forest’s existence.

They do not recognize permanent houses as dwellings. When leaving their caves, they only build huts made of bamboo with tarpaulin roofs, usually along the Sajau River. Their daily life consists of roaming the Mount Benau forest in search of food sources.

They gather various foods and medicines from nature. As for modern medicine, the only one they know is Bodrex (a common painkiller). In terms of education, they have never attended school, learning only from ancestral wisdom passed down orally. This community truly lives differently from mainstream society. They only know how to survive in the forest and refuse to engage with the outside world.

For them, the forest is not merely a place to find food but also a fortress of identity and a cultural space. From the forest, they obtain tubers, honey, forest products, and hunted animals. In the past, the forest also provided economic resources such as agarwood, balam wood, and swiftlet nests, which they sold to the heirs of Sultan Maulana Bulungan. But now, the situation has changed drastically.

Adi Prasetijo, an anthropology lecturer at Diponegoro University and Head of the Integrated Team for Punan Batu Customary Forest Verification, explained that this community is the last forest tribe in Borneo. Genetic research has revealed that their DNA is among the oldest in the world, and they even possess an ancient language little known elsewhere.

Their traditions and way of life fall into the hunter-gatherer category, a lifestyle that should only exist in the ancestral history of the Indonesian people.

The community was also awarded the 2024 Kalpataru Award in the Environmental Savior category. This award, stated in the Minister of Environment and Forestry Decree No. 574/2024, serves as national recognition of their commitment to protecting the forest, even though in reality the forest continues to be under threat.

A Threatened Living Space

For their survival, in June 2023, the Bulungan Regency Government, through Regent Syarwani, handed over an official recognition document of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to Punan Batu elders. This recognition was also supported by the Nusantara Nature Conservation Foundation (YKAN). It serves as a foundation for them to secure rights to manage forests and natural resources in their territory.

Nevertheless, their existence is increasingly threatened by forest clearing, which has drastically reduced their roaming territory. Land clearing for plantations is among the greatest threats to their survival.

“The forest is already dwindling,” said Adi Prasetijo. Based on compiled information, the Punan Batu Community is currently striving to save forests being massively encroached upon.

They have even submitted an official letter to the North Kalimantan Forestry Law Enforcement Complaint Post, urging strict action to stop environmental destruction.

The area they protect is actually in the process of being proposed as a geopark to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. However, instead of being preserved, the area has repeatedly been subjected to encroachment.

Akim Asut, an elder of the Punan Batu Benau–Sajau community, said that at Mount Batu Benau, the traditional habitat of swiftlet nests inherited for generations, encroachment has been carried out using heavy machinery, accompanied by land transactions with outsiders.

“In this area, forest encroachment is done with heavy equipment, and land is being sold to outsiders,” he explained.

This destruction has affected an expanse of 18,000 hectares, which in fact serves as the home of the Punan Batu. In accordance with Presidential Regulation No. 5/2025, anyone engaging in forest encroachment may be subject to criminal penalties and fines.

Now, they can only hope for law enforcement by the central government. They feel overwhelmed in safeguarding the environment that is their very source of life. “We hope the central government can put an end to this destruction,” they plead.

Meanwhile, YKAN’s Senior Terrestrial Program Manager, Niel Makinuddin, emphasized that the Punan Batu Benau–Sajau Indigenous community has been officially recognized through the Bulungan Regent’s decree and the 2024 Kalpataru Award. The government should therefore prioritize the protection of their living space.

“As the last hunter-gatherer group in Kalimantan, they urgently need protection as their living space is increasingly threatened,” he said.

According to him, the most urgent need of the Punan Batu is legal certainty over their living territory. The ongoing technical verification process is seen as an important momentum to ensure the legality and security of their customary land.

YKAN stresses that the acceleration of the Punan Batu Customary Forest designation by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry is the key to saving Kalimantan’s last forest-dwelling community from encroachment and deforestation.