A not-so-amazing race?

B

y many accounts, the recently concluded F1H2O powerboat race at Lake Toba, Balige, in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, was a big success. Some 100,000 spectators descended on the usually sleepy town to watch the international event held last 24-26 February, including no less than President Joko Widodo and First Lady Iriana, Indonesian National Armed Forces Commander Yudo Margono, National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, and several members of the Cabinet and legislature. 

The sports spectacle also received ample local and international media coverage, which authorities hoped would boost their bid to make Lake Toba become a major tourist spot and help stimulate the region’s economy. The President, in fact, had designated Lake Toba as one of five Super Priority Tourism Destinations (DPSP) areas in Indonesia. 

Already, there are reports of investors planning to build five-star hotels in the area. The F1H2O contract involving Lake Toba, after all, is for five years. According to North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi, the province has the potential to reap IDR 212 billion or approximately US$13.6 million just from the recently concluded F1H20 race in Balige’s famous lake. 

The F1H2O World Championship is the flagship international series of single-seat racing boats organized by the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM). Eight racing series are held in one championship season. Following the race in Balige, the next series this year will be in late April in Zhengzhou, China. 

On the last day of the Lake Toba race, the Indonesian Cabinet Secretariat posted an article on its website crowing over how the event had become “the pride” of the local community. It even quoted one local as saying she had “goosebumps all over my body because this is the first time an international event is held here,” and another as being “touched” after seeing the race – and Lake Toba – mentioned on TV and social media.

Yet not everyone has been cheering over the F1H2O race in Lake Toba. Some observers and green advocates, for instance, have raised concerns over the event’s environmental impact on Lake Toba and its surroundings. Members of the Indigenous Batak meanwhile say that the government has ignored their customary rights over areas that have now been taken over for the use of F1H2O. 

Royal descendants

Tulus Napitupulu says that he welcomes the waterfront development at Mulia Raja Napitupulu Harbor that was done because of the sports event. This descendant of King Mulia Raja Napitupulu of Balige, one of the Batak’s late monarchs, adds though that he would have preferred that the authorities took into consideration the historical value of several of the surrounding areas that are claimed by Batak royalty. 

Tulus argues that the central government should have first resolved the conflict between the regional government and the Indigenous people descended from King Napitupulu. At the very least, he says, the government must recognize that the Sisingamangaraja XII Balige Field and the surrounding land areas are pangeahan (Indigenous land) belonging to King Napitupulu’s descendants.

The field has now been cemented over as part of the F1H2O venue. A gas station that was a landmark building in the area was also destroyed, along with several houses and a structure believed to be almost as old as the Eiffel Tower that had been used as a local meeting place. 

The government paid for the land that it took for the event, but did not include the structures it demolished in its calculations. It also offered to pay for the land that had belonged to the Indigenous royal family, but the clan refused the money, insisting instead that the property be given back to the descendants of King Napitupulu.

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Sources: Antara News, Jakarta Globe, Sustainability Journal, F1H2O

Tulus, who has worked as an architect in Singapore, says that the loss of the grassfield and historic buildings has been a blow to Batak heritage.

“As a local and the descendant of the Indigenous people, I am crying,” he says. “Especially with the disappearance of routine activities or local wisdom, including the Sisingamangaraja Field, where I played football as a child and witnessed the Harimau Tapanuli (Hartap) Football Club, Balige’s favorite soccer team in the ’90s, and the first gas station in Balige.”

“To make matters worse, moving the onan (weekend market) away from the front of my house mentally affected my aunt, Rubiana Napitupulu, 73 years old,” Tulus says. “She becomes senile instantly. It happened on Friday morning when she opened the window for the weekend market where she used to have a dialogue with traders in the local dialect. That made me even angrier. I’m sorry, what kind of tourism eliminates livelihood and local wisdom?”

 “We understand only a court decision in 1954 where it is written here that the field (Sisingamangaraja) is still used for sports, please,” says Sebastian Hutabarat, who represents the descendants of Pomparan Mulia Raja Napitupulu (the clan’s maternal side), whipping out his cell phone where there is a shot of an old document. “But if it changes its function, the land must return to the descendants of King Napitupulu through negotiations with the government.” 

He notes that with the field turned into a concrete area, it can no longer be used for football. Says Hutabarat, who also acts as Tourism Observer for Lake Toba: “If the function changes, it must be discussed. The function has now changed, but has not been discussed. That is what the community objected to. The government’s reason is always to dismantle all buildings on King Napitupulu’s customary land area. We hope that the government will be wise in this regard.”

Beautiful lake, unique traditions

The Batak is only one of Indonesia’s many Indigenous groups. Estimated to number six million, the Batak are further divided into seven groups, among them the Toba Batak who live primarily around Lake Toba, the largest crater lake in the world and among the deepest. These are among the reasons why UNESCO designated the Lake Toba caldera as a World Geopark on 7 July 2020.  But according to lawyer Alinafia Matondang of the Natural Sources Division of Medan Legal Aid, the designation was also in recognition of the lake’s natural beauty, the high biodiversity of the area, and the traditions and culture of the Toba Batak that make the place special and unique. 

Matondang says that the F1H2O will inevitably have an environmental impact on the lake, as well as on its surrounding areas. Earlier, the government had already been looking for a solution to the lake’s declining water quality, which it suspected was due to floating-net activities, as well as the disposal of hospitality and farm waste in the water. 

Environmentalist Jaya Arjuna worries that the F1H20 will affect water biodiversity, while possible oil spills due to boat accidents could only further pollute the lake. 

The race usually has 10 participating teams, with the catamarans numbering as many as 20.  The F1H2O website describes the “sleek, powerful, and lightweight” catamarans bursting into life at “10,000hp of highly tuned brute power,” and then taking “hairpin turns at over 90mph and top 140mph on the straights.” 

Matondang says that “the government must provide truthful information to the public regarding what government study has been conducted,” as well as what will be done once the F1H2O contract ends.  He argues, “This study information is critical considering that this event has the potential to cause negative impacts on Lake Toba water quality due to increased activity in the event area and increased pollution of Lake Toba water from alleged waste disposal of hotels and farms.”

He adds that if the government underestimates these issues, the utilization of the Lake Toba caldera will be limited to investment interests without considering environmental sustainability, including the conservation of protected wild animals and plants and the interests of local Indigenous peoples as mandated by Law No. 5 of 1990 on the preservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems, and Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management.

Offsetting carbon emissions

So far, though, government authorities have not presented much information about what it intends to do to offset or prevent any environmental damage from the race. In a paper published by the Swiss-based scholarly journal MDPI last 29 March,  Indonesian researchers wrote, “There are also some challenges in regard to carbon emissions from the F1H20 speedboat event, which might lead to environmental ecosystem problems in the Lake Toba region. Based on the focus group discussion held in Medan on 23 February 2023, such an event (may cause) water pollution and might threaten the environment.”

They also said, though, “In the perspective of the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, tourism events in Indonesia would recognize the importance of sustainable tourism and consider the carbon footprint. In regards to this event, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has planted around 2,500 trees to reduce up to 1,709,600 increased carbon emissions during the F1 Powerboat (F1H2O) event.”

The F1H2O organizers, for their part, have said that “local race (promoter) InJourney and Mayora have (sic) collaborated with Bank Sampah Bersinar to implement a waste management program to maintain the cleanliness of the Lake Toba area.”

In an article posted on the F1H2O website last 24 February, the race organizers said, “H2O Racing is doing its bit to offset the emissions created by the UIM F1H2O World Championship and is supporting the global sustainable green agenda by throwing its weight behind the plan to protect the habitat of Indonesia’s critically endangered orangutans.” 

“The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve is home to some of the last remaining endangered Bornean orangutans and acts as a buffer zone between oil palm plantations and the Tanjung Puting National Park,” said the organizers. “The project has been verified under the SD VISta Standard as contributing to all 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goal is to restore the forests, increase carbon stocks and provide additional habitat for wildlife.” 

They said, “H2O Racing has a strong track record of supporting sustainable development and the ongoing green agenda and is delighted to be able to lend its support to this invaluable project of forest conservation in one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. H2O Racing has calculated an emission balance of 250 tons of CO2e and compensated the total amount of emissions through the Rimba Raya project.”◉