The chainsaw economy in Tanimbar archipelago, indonesia

The Tanimbar islands are of great interest for their biodiversity (lidon and kartiwa 2005). located in the province of maluku, indonesia, their main city, saumlaki, is also a district capital. The islands were extensively studied during the Tanimbar land-use planning project, funded by the European Commission, which covered land-use planning, biodiversity protection and biodiversity enhancement through participatory approaches (Jewell et al. 2006; astawa et al. 2006). The project team analyzed the wood production system in the southern part of Yamdena island (lidon and kartiwa 2005), where chainsaw activi- ties supply most of the wood to local villages, saumlaki, other indonesian islands, and abroad. Two villages of south Yamdena, wermatan and ilngei, specialize in chainsaw milling, although at a very rudimentary level. wermatan is accessible only by sea and has an economy shaped by its traditional social structure. ilngei, which is very close to saumlaki and connected to it by a paved road, has a comparatively advanced state of economic development that is reflected in its wood production system (shantiko et al. 2004).