Over the last few decades heated debates have taken place within the bureaucracy itself with, in some cases with a strong support from the international environmental and tribal peoples' movement. In talking about the government, it is mainly the provincial government of West Sumatra which plays a central role regarding Siberut. As this province is the homeland of the Minangkabau people, and the provincial government is heavily dominated by this ethnic group, it is also the Minangkabau version of centrally issued policies that has become a crucial element in the process of change on Siberut in addition to more locally conceived policies and decisions. In this paper I want to discuss the views of the Minangkabau regarding the natural wilderness and cultural 'wildness' 2 of Siberut both in their official positions as governmental employees as well as in their non- official positions, that is as ordinary members of the dominant ethnic group with regard to Siberut. In peasant views in general as well as in perceptions of governmental officials wilderness and wildness are often closely connected.
People living in an undomesticated nature are almost by definition 'wild', and uncivilized people.
It will be important to differentiate between between those who have come to Siberut as voluntary migrants and those who have been officially transferred to the island as civil servants. It is inhabited by about 23,000 Mentawaians and a small number of migrants, predominantly of Minangkabau origin. Siberut has been an oceanic island for at least 500,000 years and its fauna and flora have evolved in isolation from the dynamic evolutionary events on the Sunda Self. Hills rise steeply, though the highest peak on the island is less than 400 meters. Many rivers dissect through the thick forest.