Biodiversity Conservation Network
8. NTFPs in the Rain Forest of West Kalimantan
Location: West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Partners: Yayasan Dian Tama (YDT)
P.D. Dian Niaga
Appropriate Technology International (ATI)
Social Forestry Development Project (SFDP-GTZ)Project Title: Development of Small-Scale Forest-Based Enterprises within the Participatory Forest Management Area (PFMA) Model in Kalimantan, Indonesia. BCN Funding: $490,829 Partner Contribution: $177,044
Grant Period: October 1, 1995 - September 30, 1998
Project Overview
The forests of Kalimantan support enormous biological diversity and numerous rare or endemic species, including orangutans, flying lemurs, tarsiers, and hornbills. The Participatory Forest Management Area (PFMA) where YDT is working covers a broad range of natural and human habitats. Unsustainable hunting of endangered species and use of forest resources, however, represent significant threats to the region's biological diversity.
YDT and its collaborators intend to work within the framework of the Social Forestry Development Project (SFDP), a unique community-based forest concession begun in West Kalimantan in 1990 and supported by GTZ. In collaboration with the Indonesia Department of Forestry, the ten-year SFDP seeks to further develop national and local policies to support the sustainable extraction, utilization and commercialization of non-timber forest products. One of the ultimate goals of the SFDP is to address the primary threats to the region by establishing more clearly defined resource rights and identifying alternative income sources. The BCN-funded enterprises, which are part of this larger strategy, will be based upon the harvest, processing, and sale of several NTFPs. YDT and its partners plan to build upon their past experience and established market linkages to process damar, a resin used in paints and other industrial products, and to sell semi-processed rattan and bamboo to a manufacturer and marketer of handbags.
1996 Accomplishments
In the first year of the YDT implemented BCN project, activities have focused on building the capacity of human resources as a foundation for effective small scale forest-based enterprise development in the PFMA. Human resource development has been focused primarily in the PFMA communities, however, through cooperation with BCN, the human resources of YDT have experienced considerable benefit as well. Highlights include:
- Technology transfer on damar tapping and collection through a study visit by Dian Tama and SFDP staff to a damar production site in Lampung, Sumatra and a training on damar tapping for PFMA communities.
- Preparation of forest-based bamboo and rattan weaving enterprises through the formation of enterprise groups and a series of trainings for skills development and enterprise management.
- Preparation for factory production of bamboo and rattan bags through a month-long training with a well-known Filipino designer.
- Skills development in the PFMA for biological monitoring through a training on natural resource inventory as well as growth and yield monitoring.
- A trial run of the Yayasan Dian Tama developed social-economic monitoring method and questionnaire in the PFMA.
Success Stories
In the village of Terusan, rattan was formerly utilized only to weave baskets for private use and was regularly destroyed in the opening of new swiddens. Local people are now, however, planting bamboo and rattan plants. This is a very positive step as it demonstrates the will of the local people to think forward, particularly as the rattan planted now can only be harvested seven years from now.
Challenges
Among the PFMA forest communities, time off from school during the dry season is commonly spent tapping, processing and selling rubber in order to earn enough money to pay for the upcoming school semester. When the rubber tapping season was to begin, the dry season became a very wet one and tapping became impossible.
In the meantime, Dian Tama had been requesting damar samples for over one year, an offer which had no takers. That is, until rain fell during the rubber tapping season and families in villages throughout the PFMA spent the rainy days collecting damar and delivering it to local traders in Bantai village where the Dian Tama field office is located. Dian Tama staff who were in Bantai at the time report meeting people walking from the forest collection sites to Bantai with as much as 30 kilograms of damar on their heads and meeting them again on the way back to their villages with basic supplies and school uniforms in their baskets. In the words of Dian Tama's director, "A year of fishing without a catch can become a flood of fish overnight."
The primary challenge faced by Dian Tama in the implementation of this project concerns 1) the relationship between organizations active in the PFMA which calls for unprecedented coordination and cooperation, and 2) the related need for procedures and regulations to facilitate and monitor enterprise development and trading within the PFMA. In Dian Tama's experience, the implementation of this project is serving to act as a catalyst such that these procedures and regulations be developed and the very young organization responsible for the coordination and implementation of such regulations in the PFMA readies itself to deal with the needs of cooperating organizations, such as Dian Tama and locally active traders. Right now Dian Tama is in the midst of obtaining the necessary permission to extract and trade damar from the PFMA. However, as the process is still a long one in these early stages of damar trading, Dian Tama is faced with the difficult situation of developing contacts with potential buyers for a large amount of damar which does not yet have the permission to leave the Bantai storage unit.
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