Kalpataru winners -- `lone rangers' of environments
By Ati Nurbaiti
JAKARTA (JP): For over 50 years, villager Bahuddin Hi Pabbite of Donggala regency, Palu, Central Sulawesi, has been collecting bird's eggs. He sees to it personally that they hatch and add to the endangered population of the macrocephalon maleo.
In the hatching season which lasts from January to August, the 78-year-old Bahuddin walks along the 2,000 square meters of Tomini Bay, gathering up to 20 eggs a day before taking them to a self-made box in his hut in the village of Sausu Peore.
Bahuddin competes with poachers who aim to breed the game bird for its meat and liver.
Thanks to Bahuddin's patient routine, the maleo is not merely the mascot of Central Sulawesi. His concern over the fate of the rare bird earned him a Kalpataru (Tree of Life) environment award in the pioneer category during a ceremony at the State Palace last Monday.
Bahuddin was one of three recipients of the award in the pioneer category. Others were awarded for "environment devotee" (pengabdi lingkungan) and the "savior" categories - while the jury said none of the total of 193 candidates was deserving in the category of conservationists (pembina lingkungan).
"Out of 10 eggs, seven will hatch," said Bahuddin. The box, warmed by a nearby fire, holds up to 80 eggs which hatch in three months.
The maleo fledglings are then kept in an enclosure for around seven days, or until he considers them strong enough to be let loose into the wild - when they can crack pebbles, dig in the sand, run and finally fly.
"I feel glad when I train them and see them fly," said Bahuddin, who has chosen to remain single until now.
He is naturally worried about who will carry on his work - "Even if I teach people what I do, they are afraid to live near the birds."
But the government has started to help, the first step being a larger enclosure, with the next a program to get others to become familiar with the birds - and vice versa.
"They don't bite me, they're afraid of my hair," said the illiterate Bahuddin of his long, gray locks which give him an eccentric air.
He may also pass on his tips on connecting with the birds, "I feed them the rice which I have chewed," he said.
The birds, he said, are left "to God" while he spends at least three exhausting days in the national glare of Jakarta.
Threatened rattan
On another island, Muslim Lubis of Pasaman regency, West Sumatra has renewed the supply of the locally threatened rattan, the main source of livelihood for the local community.
The farmer of Taming Mudik hamlet in Sepakat Mudik village, Perwakilan Sungai Beremas district was also awarded the Kalpataru for initiating conservation efforts, particularly of the manau rattan, which is relied upon for many types of furniture.
Like the general attitude towards Bahuddin, people considered Muslim's work of planting the rattan in his rubber-tree plantation since 1970 to be a waste of time, thinking "there's still plenty of rattan around."
Time proved them wrong, and Muslim said he felt concern for villagers who eventually had to venture as far as 10 kilometers across rough, steep terrain in search of the rattan.
"Once one of them got lost for two days before we found him," said Muslim, who claims to be 55. "I also felt sad seeing my children come home late every night after looking for rattan, so I began to try to plant it myself."
For more than 20 years he had only his children - the youngest of eight is still in elementary school - to help him before he led a group of interested fellow farmers in 1990.
He now oversees a total of 150 hectares planted with around 30,000 rattan stalks.
Echoing Bahuddin, Muslim says he has always kept his parents' advice in mind - to preserve the valuable rattan.
Sick animals
Another Kalpataru winner is a self-trained "veterinarian" in Bitung Tengah district of Bitung township in North Sulawesi.
The Kalpataru selection team considered Mrs. Jevelin Milka Gumolung's 14 years of work worth noting, because awareness of caring for sick animals in an area far from where veterinarians are centered in the capital, Manado, is rubbing off on the local community.
The 174 creatures of around 50 species which still live around her backyard range from the tarsius spektrum, a 15-centimeter- tall monkey, to the kepiting kenari crab.
Her first "patient" was a deer wounded in a hunting round. She offered one of her cows in return for the deer, which was about to be butchered.
Jevelin admits her initial love of animals was not natural, but stemmed more from her annoyance at her husband who "spent too much time" with his pet birds.
She has no special pet. "I love them all," she says, "it is sometimes hard for the animals to let go of her sanctuary, where food is plentiful. We let them loose and they keep coming back."
The other Kalpataru awards for the "environment devotees" category went to Sukijo of Wonogiri regency in Central Java and Mayar, a honorary employee of Meru Betiri National Park in Sukamade, East Java.
Sukijo, a resident of Tawangharjo village in Giriwoyo, is considered responsible for his decade-long effort to persuade fellow villagers to change their cattle breeding ways which previously threatened the local grass supply - and much more.
"There was the danger of erosion," said Sukijo, the secretary of the staff in charge of Wonogiri dam.
He started planting rumput gajah grass which eventually reached 90 hectares, fertilized by cattle dung.
Mayar is considered a model for his turtle conservation practices; the green turtle (chelonia mydas), now an endangered species, the hawksbill (eretmopcheylys imbricata), the ridley (lepidochelys) and the leatherback turtle (dermochelys coriacea).
Around Banyuwangi at least, the delicious eggs of the green turtle are not found in markets.
For 30 years the "turtle man" has saved over 800,000 eggs - for which he was suddenly summoned to East Java's capital at midnight on Thursday.
He will never forget his ordeal in order to receive the award directly from President Soeharto. On his way to Banyuwangi with his son, both on motorcycles, at 2 a.m. the next morning, he encountered none other than the tidal wave which killed two guards at the National Park post on the beach and some 200 more.
"We managed to throw the motorcycles aside and I held on to a tree for 15 minutes," Mayar said.
Another example of initiative is represented by students of the Al-Amin pesantren (traditional Islamic school), who, led by Kyai (religious leader) Anwar Soleh, succeeded in building a dam from four springs in three years along with members of the surrounding community. For this, the school, located in Toba village, Perwakilan Sekampung district of Jabung in Central Lampung regency in Lampung, South Sumatra, received the Kalpataru in the "savior" category.