Hasballah

This portrait is about Hasballah, he is the field coordinator of Mane’s Conservation Response Unit (CRU, see project description). I had seen him a few times in the office, but the first time I really got to know him was during our time in the field visiting the camp of Mane. It was clear that Hasballah belonged in the field, rather than an office. Mane is a geographically remote area that has a heavy historical past. The Mane region was the most affected during the civil war in Aceh, which ended less then ten years ago. Hasballah has created, in this context, a close relationship with the local population and the field team.

Like my other portraits I asked him how he felt about the elephant. He answered with two distinct points: he started first by saying, “the elephant is a huge animal. It can also be a scary animal.” He then added that if we pay attention to their behavior and their characters, “because each animal has a well defined character,” you will fall in love with this species with whom we can build a “real friendship.”

Hasballah studied forest management and began his career by getting involved in a student organization that worked on nature related projects. He found his first job with BPN, the institution in charge of the land management of Indonesia. According to him, this work was too bureaucratic and he needed “concrete action.” He then moved back to Aceh in 1998, where he worked one year with CARITAS NGO and implemented a program to raise awareness in the local population about the negative impact of clearing the land using fire. He then joined the team of Flora and Fauna International (FFI, see project description) in 1999 where he started off as a field coordinator in a different regions before becoming part of the management team in the newly created CRU in Mane in 2009. Since he was involved with the camp since the beginning, you can feel his attachment to the CRU. In the camp, he is in charge of facilitating the collaboration between the different parties involved: the people, the local government, the field team, FFI office’s, etc.

When asked about the conflict between man and elephant, Hasballah does not describe it as a general conflict between a whole species and the human race, but between a small part of the local population and an individual of an elephant herd. The conflict began when there was an increase of destruction by elephants in cultivated fields. He ,“understands the plight of the local people who have to deal with these attacks.” Initially, Hasballah says it was simple, the elephants had an established territory where they could find food. He explained that elephants often follow the same path and return to the sites where they know there is food. However, local people have extended their fields, “and now it no longer belongs to elephants and their territory is reduced. The villagers see the elephants as a species that live on their property, when in fact they are the ones who have entered its’ territory.” At the beginning, the main mission of the CRU was to educate the public about the human-elephant conflict, Hasballah, “explained why conflicts occurred, because it was necessary, the basis of environmental conservation.” He also taught the skills needed to respond to a conflict.

For Hasballah, the main goal of the CRUs is to avoid the escalation of conflict. The CRUs are there to respond to conflicts and, “create a win-win situation for the elephants and the community.” Without the CRUs, it would not be possible. One of the other primary goals of the CRU is to educate the local population on the principle of environmental conservation and Hasballah feels that on this subject, they have not yet reached their goal. He hopes that one day a chain reaction, where one group that is already aware of the importance of environmental protection, will share their knowledge to other groups, and so on. If this is achieved, “the conflict will be treated as it should be.”