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MAGIC GRASS FOR SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION IN PERUM PERHUTANI KPH KENDAL

2010-01-09T19:57:25+01:00

Exposed soil and cultivated land in riparian zones are important environment concerns in Perum Perhutani. Land tillage (or cultivation) is inappropriate by conservation rules and bare land increases erosion which can decrease river quality. Perum Perhutani has committed to overcome these problems in 2007 by conducting rehabilitation in riparian zones.

Unfortunately, the rehabilitation program in 2005-2006 was not effective in minimizing soil erosion and sedimentation. Despite restoration efforts, a physical monitoring report showed the quality of river water in the year 2005-2006 continued to decline. From this experience and others we have learned that young plantations (tree species) do not always contribute to controlling soil erosion and sedimentation. Therefore, a new system or added technique is needed to cope with the problem efficiently and safely for the environment.

TFT - Java Plantation Team have introduced a soil and water conservation technology based on bioengineering. The technology is called the Vetiver System. Vetiver grass, Vetiveria zizanioides has proven useful in many countries, and can be used for degraded land rehabilitation, infrastructure stabilization, steep slope protection, flood control, mine and quarry rehabilitation, river banks protection and riparian zone rehabilitation. This grass can live in temperature -12°C - >55°C, soil pH <3 - >10, annual rainfall 300 mm - 5000 mm, and also shows high tolerance towards fire, saline soils and heavy metal. Most importantly, the species is not competitive and is non invasive so it will not interfere significantly with other species. Vetiver grass is a native species in Java and Bali.

KPH Ciamis was the first management unit in Perhutani to introduce the Vetiver System in 2006. They have also developed nursery for the propagation. KPH Kendal and KPH Kebonharjo introduced this method in 2007.

A large area of riparian zone in KPH Kendal is cultivated by farmers for agriculture, due to land shortage and the fertile qualities of the land. KPH Kendal needs to control land tillage by acknowledging the social aspects but without ignoring the environment aspects. The Vetiver System may help provide solutions to balancing multiple land uses and minimizing environmental impact.

The first trial of Vetiver planting in KPH Kendal was carried out in riparian zone compartment 84 b ( 2 hectares) in RPH Ngareanak, BKPH Boja and in compartment 56 a, 56 d and 57 (7.8 hectares) in RPH Trayu, BKPH Boja. The pictures show planted Vetiver amongst other crops in riparian zones.

Strip of Vetiver grass amongst Maize crops.

Production

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

In December 2006, the TFT Java Community Mahogany (JCM) Program, based in the Kebumen District of Central Java, began producing its first shipments of mahogany for a TFT member's supply chain. The first farmers' group to produce the wood was the Subur Mulya group in Giripurno village. As of January, production had reached 25 m3 and 3 farmers' groups have completed inventorying their trees and have determined that they can harvest approximately 60-80m3 per group annually.

Measuring the tree

Felling the chosen tree

The TFT facilitated the entire production process, focusing on giving farmers' training in harvesting, marketing and administration, Chain of Custody (CoC) monitoring, and community mahogany legality requirements. Since most farmers are already familiar with techniques for growing mahogany, training in wood production is the aspect that is most needed among farmers groups.

The production process is more complex with communities than in natural forest areas because it involves working with many different stakeholders on their private land. For example, most farmers only harvest trees when they need money, making harvest schedules difficult to plan.

Marking the stump

Giripurno village provides an example of the process used for determining which farmers will harvest in each group. When it came time to do the first harvesting, the group recorded all the farmers who wanted to sell wood and the group agreed on who would harvest first, based on the group's sustainable annual allowable cut. Based on this list, the harvesting was conducted and the trees were carried to the edge of the road.

Carrying the cut log

The production system used by the TFT JCM groups is unique compared to other community wood in Java because it involves chain of custody (CoC) monitoring. In CoC, numbers are written on the stump and logs so that each log can be traced directly back to its original stump and the group member who sold the wood. Using this system, volumes at each stage of production are recorded, from the original inventoried tree until the graded log that arrives at the factory. After harvesting and skidding, the wood is brought to a community-managed log yard for sorting into size diameter and length classes. The log yard provides jobs to local community group members. One leader records the identity number, length and diameter of all wood entering and leaving the log yard. Additional people work as laborers carrying the logs to their appropriate group.

Stacks of processed logs

Small Scale Furniture Production

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

As many of you will know, TFT is involved with a number of community programs, working with smallholder farmers in Indonesia to manage their on-farm agroforest trees sustainably and get FSC-certification. One of the main issues facing the sustainability of these farmers is economic as farmers can be cheated out of good prices for their wood, or prevented by complex government licenses from direct access to international markets, they are less likely to replant the trees after harvesting. In Kendari, where TFT and a regional NGO-partner, JAUH, is working with the KHJL (Cooperative for Sustainable Forests), we've seen direct evidence that farmers choose to plant more trees on their land when the prices go up due to better market access.

A lounger made at a small scale factory

The current community programs have focused on helping farmers sell graded square logs, rather than trees, and to sell directly to factories rather than middlemen. This has significantly increased the price farmers receive by up to 100% in some places. Similarly, if farmers could sell sawn timber, furniture components or even completed furniture directly to factories, more profit would be held by the farmers and more jobs would be created in the villages. At the same time, taking on such tasks can be complex in terms of gaining the necessary licenses, negotiating contracts with factories and learning to do the work to the quality standards required by international markets. I wanted to look for examples of community groups subcontracted to sell furniture to factories for the export market.

I was led to a wonderful example quite quickly--one of the community farmers' groups (LMDH) working with Perhutani's KPH Cepu. The group is called ‘Wani Tani Makmur' and is located in Nglebur village. Based on an agreement with Perhutani Cepu, after a cutting block has been harvested, community members can gather teak stumps & roots free of charge for use in furniture production. Two craftsmen with a great deal of experience working as subcontractors for furniture factories in Semarang & Jepara were brought to the group to train the members on how to make furniture & furniture components for factories supplying to the European market. An initial loan from Perhutani and downpayment & order from one factory in Semarang enabled the group to buy the necessary equipment and start producing while they learn!

Stumps and Roots gathered from KPH Cepu

The logs are sawn to a regular thickness and then the component is sketched onto the board to avoid knots and weak sections. The components are then cut and dried before assembly. The assembled products are then sanded, ready to be shipped to the factory to be packaged for Europe.

Initial sawing of the stumps

The Homemade Kiln

Components ready for Assembly

The example of the Wana Tani Makmur group shows that factories can subcontract some aspects of furniture production to farmer groups in villages-and farmers can make the furniture without an expensive factory of their own, and without too many huge machines & expensive equipment. However, as one of my TFT colleagues, Aris Priambodo pointed out, factories must be willing to take some teak which may have darker colours or other aspects of teak from stumps & roots! So factories must be very clear on the grade of wood expected from the farmers.

It's exciting to see that small, farmer owned and run businesses can take on the challenge of furniture production for the international market in their own villages-with Wana Tani Makmur as proof!

Cows, Cats and Communities

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

In October last year I travelled to Ixiamus in northern Bolivia as part of the TFT's support for the BOLFOR II project jointly funded by USAID and The Nature Conservancy. There are some 2 million hectares of FSC certified forest in Bolivia but precious little of the wood harvested finds its way to export markets. There are many more hectares not yet FSC certified but still commercially managed - increasingly by forest dependent communities - according to Bolivia's strict forestry regulations that mirror the FSC Principles. There are some excellent industries producing flooring, doors and garden furniture amongst other products but given the quality and volume of the wood available, much more could be exported, creating value for the government, forest managers, forest and factory workers and their families and with much of it carrying an FSC logo, there should be good market opportunities.

A magnificent Bolivian forest specimin

Pablo Pinell from TNC had organised a series of excellent ‘business round table' meetings with some of the communities managing forest in the area and had arranged a visit to one of the community managed forests. Travelling for more than two hours through vast areas of former forest, now grassland, the occasional herd of cows provided the only distraction. Close to losing the will to live we suddenly found ourselves emerging from the grassland into a forest resplendent with greenery and beauty.

Some of the many Cows in Bolivia

The forest canopy

Magnificent old forest giants, beautiful under storey plants, birds and exotic looking insects greeted us as part of a forest landscape that had only recently been commercially harvested. Climbing from the cars, we all felt as though we'd arrived home. We spent the next hours speaking with the community forest managers, walking in the cool, shaded environment through the forest, along roads and harvesting tracks. Jaguar footprints running down the middle of the main access road showed us we really were in a special place, a place where big cats, small insects and everything in between lived side by side with people sustaining their livelihoods by managing their forests rather than clearing them.

Jaguar paw print

It was a great experience and it was with heavy hearts that we drove back toward the grassy wasteland on our way to Ixiamus.

This scene is repeated across Bolivia and across so much of Latin America where soy bean or cattle farms are being established on cleared forest land. There is of course a place for all land uses and Bolivia is fortunate in still having an extensive forest estate. The fear is that without adequate economic returns, these great community forest managers will decide that forestry is just too difficult and will pursue the quick dollars obtainable through short term decisions to farm cattle. Forces are aligned against them in many places - the community forest managers we spoke to reported that they were having trouble with the cattle farmers stopping the transport so the communities couldn't get cash for their logs. By choking off the communities' livelihoods, the farmers hoped to convince them of the merits of selling them their forest land for more cow farms.

What future for these communities, these forests and the rich joy they support? These forests will never be protected in national parks but they're globally significant nonetheless because they're disappearing and we must do what we can to conserve them. Yes, these forests' ecology is changed from harvesting but the Jaguar and the insects still live there so it's not changed so much that it has no ecological value.

For me, this trip was great evidence that we must all do what we can to develop and sustain a responsible forest industry that through trade can give value to these last ancient forests as forests, not as cattle farms.

Nursery

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

At this time, Subur Mulya farmer's group has established a mahogany seedbed with a 5,000-seed capacity. All the supplies and work for the nursery was done by the farmers' group, with TFT only providing technical assistance and facilitation. Two thousand of the seeds came from local sources.

Planting the new seedlings

Seeds and seedlings are gathered from beneath mahogany trees already growing on members' land. Seedlings are immediately put into polybags with manure fertilizer, but seeds are given 3 weeks to germinate before transferring them into polybags. Once in the polybags, the seeds are given 6-8 weeks to grow, until they have 4-6 leaves. From there, they are put into a seed bed for 3-4 weeks, until finally they are distributed for planting on members' land.

The seedling are planted in the shade of older trees

Distribution among members is based on each members' need and the amount of land they want to plant with mahogany.

A fully planted bed

TFT's signs MOU with Rindang Jaya Farmer Group, Indonesia

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

On 25^th June 2007, TFT (Java Community Mahogany) signed a Memoradum of Understanding with the Rindang Jaya Farmer Group in Arjomulyo village, Kebumen, Indonesia. TFT will help the Rindang Jaya Farmer Group towards group certification of their Mahogany production and assist the group in accessing international markets for FSC certified timber. TFT's Java Community Mahogany program now includes 10 farmer groups.

Following the signing of the MOU, the Rindang Jaya Farmer Group are taking steps to gather information on land ownership and conducting tree inventories.

****

Pada tanggal 25 Juni 2007 TFT (Java Community Mahogany) telah melakukan MoU dengan kelompok tani Rindang Jaya di Desa Arjomulyo Kec. Adimulyo Kebumen. Pembentukan kelompok tani di Desa Arjomulyo tidak memerlukan waktu yang lama. Respon masyarakat cukup baik sehingga dalam waktu 2 minggu sudah terbentuk kelompok tani sampai pada tahap MoU. Kegiatan pertama kelompok tani Rindang Jaya setelah MoU adalah mendata para anggota kelompok berkaitan dengan kepemilikan lahan, yang selanjutnya akan dilakukan inventarisasi pohon milik anggota yang berada dilahan anggota.

Sampai dengan Juni 2007, jumlah kelompok tami yang sudah terbentuk adalah 10 KTM, satu diantaranya belum melakukan Mou dengan TFT yaitu kelompok tani Wanadadi Desa sidoagung. Rencananya kelompok tani tersebut akan melakukan MoU pada minggu 1 bulan juli 2007.

Insights from the Environmental Management Training Programme for Perhutani

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

Sustainable Forest Management, especially its focus on environment issues, increases the environmental requirements and pressure for companies, such as Perhutani, to minimize the negative impact on environment. Working towards Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of sustainable forest management in Perhutani (KPH Kendal and KPH Kebonharjo), the environment aspects are an important concern in addition to the social aspects. A training programme has been developed by Tropical Forest Trust, to improve the capability of the Perhutani staff for managing environment aspects. TFT's Java Plantation Programme has cooperated with Sylva Consultant and Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) to implement two environment management training courses on Environment Management System (EMS) ISO 14001:2004 and Management System of Biodiversity.

The EMS training from Sylva Consultant was held in TFT office, 12-16^th February 2007 with 14 people in attendance (10 from TFT's staff and 4 from Perhutani's staff). The ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems-Specification with guidance for use, specification provides and describes the required core elements of an EMS, based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act principle, and thus incorporates the concept of continual improvement. Organizations can use ISO 14001 for internal purposes and self-declaration of conformance with the standard. ISO 14001 is the only standard in the ISO 14000 series against which an organization's environmental management system can be certified following an independent third-party audit.

The Management System of Biodiversity training course was delivered by a Biodiversity Expert from Bogor Agricultural Institute from the 4-7^th June 2007 and 18-23^th June 2007 in TFT's office and Perhutani Forest (Kendal District). There were over 30 attendees for the training course, mostly Perhutani staff members. Perhutani staff came from KPH Kendal, KPH Kebonharjo, KPH Cepu, KPH Randublatung, Forest Planning Section and Planning Bureau of Perhutani.

The monitoring of flora and fauna is a regular activity in each forest district. The number and distribution of fauna species in the forest is monitored and mapped monthly into a GIS map by the forest management unit. The species of flora is also identified and can be found in the document of flora fauna identification in each forest district. Although the number of species and their distribution has been monitored, the data can't be used to estimate the population of each species, its abundance or species diversity. This is why we needed to conduct the management system of biodiversity training. From this training the Perhutani staff has learnt how to calculate and determine the necessary number of samples required for biodiversity surveys using proportional allocation method and optimal allocation method. They also learned how to collect the data from the field using different methods for mammals, aves, herpetofauna and flora. Field training for biodiversity survey was conducted in some different habitat of Kendal forest.

The next training for management of biodiversity will be held in September 2007. This training will focus on researching species of interest (indicator species, umbrella species or keystone species), teach principles of managing biodiversity in conservation and production area, as well as develop the capacity to design monitoring and evaluation systems for biodiversity.

Palm Oil Expansion threatens Forest in Indonesia

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

TFT received the attached letter in the mail earlier this week.

What a disaster for the forests, people and biodiversity of Irian Jaya. What a disaster for the planet as well - each hectare that is cleared will release 240 tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere - that's 120 million tonnes right there.

If the fat virgin forest in question can't be declared a National Park (though in those parts that of course doesn't guarantee its protection), then FSC certified management of the 500,000 hectares would be a preferable investment strategy. Unfortunately there's too much money to be made from palm oil these days so that's not going to happen.

PLEASE everyone understand the link between this company and you. It's not enough to recoil in disgust that such a thing could be happening. Please understand why it's happening. It's happening because consumers the world over; people like me and like you are demanding palm oil. We're demanding soy as well so this problem is not confined to SE Asia; it's happening in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America. We're all getting excited by biofuels but that's driving this and other companies' investment decisions to clear our last fat virgin forests to plant palm oil and soy plantations.

Each and every time you buy a product containing palm oil you're driving this demand.

Until credible schemes exist that allow identification of the origin and sustainable management of palm oil (and soy from Latin America) we should all assume that buying palm oil and soy containing products will be supporting the destruction of not only this fat virgin forest in Irian Jaya, but the destruction of similar forests across other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia and throughout Latin America.

Write to your local supermarkets and ask them if they know where their soy and palm oil containing products come from. My bet is that most will not know which products contain soy and palm oil let alone where it comes from.

In the meantime, we should all feel the pain of losing such a fat virgin forest to such an environmentally disastrous project.

See Letter

Comparing Modern and Traditional Methods

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

Introduction:

Based on experience of Java Community Mahogany Kebumen, we would like to explain two methods for mahogany seeding: modern and traditional.

MODERN METHOD

Seed Selection, collect good quality mahogany seed ( brown, flawless, terse )
Seedbed

Dimension : 1.5 x 10 meter

Direction : North and South

Roof : Sugar palm leaves

Media : soil : 10cm high, top soil : compost 2 cm , sawdust : 1 cm ( sawdust useful to keep humidity.

Soaking : Mahogany seed soaked for 24 hours and insinuated.

Seed spread : Seed spread with declivity 45 degree or rebah and space between seeds 2 cm. Seeds will germinate in 3 or 4 weeks.

Wean and maintain

After the seed has 2 - 4 leaves it means the seeds are ready to move to the polibag.

TRADITIONAL METHOD

Seed selection, collect good quality mahogany seed ( brown, flawless, terse )
Germination

Mahogany seeds soaked for 2-3 days and insulated. And then arrange seeds upon gunny-sack or carpet and cover it with carpet or gunny-sack. Keep in humidity around 50- 60 %. After 7-10 days mahagany seeds will germinate and ready to move to polibag.

The advantages :

- Simple
- Cheaper
- Small space
- Faster to germinate

(Metode Modern VS Tradisional)

Pengantar : Berdasarkan pengalaman pembuatan pembibitan mahoni yang dilakukan di Java Community mahagony Kebumen, ada dua metode yang digunakan. Metode pertama adalah metode modern (berdasarkan keilmuan-terapan), dan metode sederhana berdasarkan pengalaman dari kelompok tani mahoni. Metode sederhana ternyata lebih menguntungkan dari metode modern.

Metode Modern

1. Seleksi Benih

Bertujuan untuk mendapatkan benih mahoni yang bagus ( Warna coklat kehitaman, Bernas, Tidak berlubang)

2. Pembuatan Bedeng Tabur

Ukuran bak tabur 1.5 x 10 meter dengan arah utara selatan, atap menggunakan daun rumbia/ aren

Media bak tabur : Tanah yang dihaluskan tinggi 10 cm, Top soil/kompos 2 cm, Serbuk gergaji 1 cm. Serbuk gergaji berguna untuk mempertahankan kelembaban Media, dan mempermudah penaburan benih.

Perendaman

Benih mahoni direndam 24 jam dalam air , kemudian diangin-anginkan.

Penaburan Benih

Benih di tabur dengan posisi miring 45 º atau rebah , dengan jarak antar benih2 cm. Benih berkecambah antara 3- 4 minggu.

3. Penyapihan danPemeliharaan

Setelah Benih mahoni berdaun 2-4, siap dipindah kan kepolibag.

Metode Tradisional

1. Seleksi Benih

Bertujuan untuk mendapatkan benih mahoni yang bagus ( Warna coklat kehitaman, Bernas, Tidak berlubang)

2. Perkecambahan

Benih mahoni direndam selama 2 sampai 3 hari, lalu diangin-anginkan. Kemudian disusun dengan rapi ditas Karung Goni/ Karpet, kemudian ditutup dengan karung goni/karpet. Kelembaban dijaga antara 50- 60 %. Setelah 7 - 10 hari benih mahoni sudah berkecambah dan siap dipindahkan ke polibag.

3. Penaburan dan Pemeliharaan

Benih yang sudah berkecambah, kemudian dipindahkan ke Polibag, dengan hati-hati supaya tidak merusak akar dan tunas yang baru tubuh.

Keuntungan metode Tradisional :

Lebih Sederhana
Biaya lebih murah
Tidak memerlukan tempat yang luas
Benih lebih cepat berkecambah

Gombong, Agustus 2007---Novi Fauzan

Our introduction week in Switzerland for an internship in tropical countries is a strange approach … But not so much!!!

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

This blog is the first entry from one of three TFT interns working with TFT and TTAP teams in Africa. For 6 months, the Master’s students from ENGREF in France, will be learning about forestry in Central Africa while undertaking research projects to fulfill their degree requirements.

Marianne writes;

Pierre, Sofian and I are three French students from ENGREF, a French Forestry School, who are doing an internship with TFT. We are working on different topics : from wood legality through to social aspects like Pygmy society. In order to prepare for this 6-month assignment, we spent one week (5^th to 9^th of May) in TFT’s Swiss office, in Crassier. During this period, we learned more about TFT’s operations, the African context, tropical logging, FSC certification and relations between developed and less developed countries. So, daily, the tropical aspects became more concrete … (and especially when we tasted Indian food!!).

Our preparation period to the tropical context continued with a forest walk in a kind of mangrove swamp, called Bidonne! Great adventure…Also, we learnt a new foreign language when Gaby explained us the functioning of the finance reports: too many strange notions! Fortunately, each day, cheeses and sausages from Felix helped us to be aware that we were in Switzerland …

More seriously, this week taught us the TFT spirit: team work, honesty, humility, trust and transparency. Now, we are ready to fly to Congo-Brazzaville (for Sofian) and to Cameroon (for Pierre and I).

A Ministerial visit in Pokola, Congo-Brazzaville!

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

On the May 25^th, the French state minister of ecology, sustainable development and sustainable land settlement, Mr Borloo, came to visit the CIB concessions in the region of Pokola. Mr Borloo is traveling in the Congo Basin for assessing the issue of forest management in this region. In that perspective CIB is an interesting case because CIB is largely involved is sustainable forest management and is one of the rare forest society in Africa which is FSC certified.

Mr Borloo was accompanied by the Congolese Minister of tourism and environment, the delegate of the Congolese Ministry of the Forestry Economy, the ambassador of France in Congo and several French journalists (France 2, LCI, Agence France Presse, Le Monde, Le Figaro and Europe1)

So, if you want more information about this visit, watch, read or listen to French media!