Forest community creates eco-friendly products

Forest community creates eco-friendly products

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Never could Edi have imagined that the rattan handicrafts,
produced by local residents in South Sulawesi, and now on display
in an exhibition held at the Surabaya Youth Hall, would be sought
after by the public.

Edi, who heads the Sipakilala rattan craftsmen group in
Palopo, South Sulawesi, said that rattan material gathered up by
area residents from the nearby forest, had been turned into
household furniture and sold for up to Rp 150,000 at the
exhibition. Previously, the residents were engaged in illegal
logging of teakwood.

Even though he is not exactly wealthy, his products have
gained recognition among the public in spite of just being
involved in the business for three months.

"This is the first exhibition participated in by the rattan
craftsmen from Latuppa village, Palopo, South Sulawesi. We are
grateful to the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) for
promoting our products that have received recognition from the
public," said Edi.

The business, managed by Edi, is a project initiated by Walhi
and the People's Forest System Consortium (KPSHR), in their
efforts to preserve the forest.

Walhi and the consortium have empowered local residents so as
to be able to produce non-timber handicrafts, in place of their
past activity of processing teakwood, as the basic material for
making traditional handicrafts.

"We have educated people in the area and provided them with an
awareness of forest sustainability. We have taught them that
forests have been damaged and illegal logging must stop," said
the coordinator of the consortium, Joko Waluyo.

The program has been running for about five months, and now
comprizes dozens of community network groups around forest areas
that are working with non-timber forest products.

The consortium has also provided training in the manufacture
of a variety of non-timber handicrafts, as well as helping to
market and promote the products; as is the case in the week-long
exhibition at the Surabaya Youth Hall, which will run through
Dec. 14.

Edi added that it was hard to get public acceptance at first
because rattan and non-timber materials were considered less
valuable in pure economic terms compared to timber.

"They slowly have begun to understand that illegal logging
could damage nature's ecosystem. After receiving counseling from
environmental activists on the benefits of non-timber products,
only then did they truly realize that processed rattan had an
economic value comparable to timber," Edi said.

Residents can sell rattan to handicraft producers for between
Rp 1,000 and Rp 8,000 per kilogram, which would then be made into
various kinds of handicrafts and furniture by the craftsmen.

Another group at the exhibition is the Dukuh Lestari Salak
farmers group from Sibetan village in Bali, which produces salak
(zalacca or snake-skin fruit) wine.

The leader of the group, Ing Karsa, said that the wine, made
from fermented salak, would be exported to Australia. Their
success in processing salak has been quite beneficial for the
local farmers.