Orchid traders keep ecosystem balanced
Orchid traders keep ecosystem balanced
Ita Nurita Wanggai proudly displays an ugly but beautiful, rare
orchid.
"My late husband was the first who introduced this rare
orchid. He named it anggrek kribo, meaning frizzy or curly
orchid. The petals are just like our wavy hair," she said.
It's 77cm stalk has more than five flowers. The sepals and
petals are greenish-cream, with abstract red-brown markings all
over, except for the edges.
The shape of the sepals and petals are wide, twisted,
distorted, and curled at the end.
People who have seen the orchid described the flower as
"grotesquely beautiful." The bizarrely beautiful orchid is a
family member of Dendrobium spetabile. This species is found in
Papua (the eastern part of Indonesia), Papua New Guinea, and the
Solomon Islands.
Fifty-five-year-old Ita then showed other orchids. "These are
the Dendrobium discolor, Dendrobium lasianthera and Dendrobium
canaliculatum. All of them are the curly orchid species," she
said.
On her small plot of land she grows more than 200 different
orchid species and out of these, she could only name 175. The
other 25 orchids remain anonymous for she could not trace their
families nor find someone who could help her out to identify the
species.
Ita continues what had been started by her late husband,
Sofyan Wanggai. Sofyan spent a lot of time hunting for the orchid
from the Papua deep wild forests. Initially, in 1972, the
gardening hobbyist paid a visit to the Cyclops Nature Reserve,
just outside Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. He enjoyed
the rich collection there and if he was lucky, he could go home
with an orchid or two to plant at home.
Later in 1977 Sofyan decided to give up his job as a civil
servant as he found that he earned more from selling orchids. For
a small Dendrobium spectabile seedling he could get Rp 100,000
(US$11) which was a lot of money then. From the business he was
able to send his three sons and four daughters to university, to
obtain a better education than the parents.
"All of us (Sofyan's children) graduated from university. One
of my brothers is even studying in Adelaide, Australia, now,"
said the eldest child, Suzana Wanggai. The 34-year-old now
assists her mother in running their orchid business.
"When my brother Tony attended university in Jakarta, my
father did not give him any money. Instead he gave him orchid
seedlings. Tony grew them and sold the orchids to pay for his
university fees," Suzana adds.
The Wanggais now runs an orchid nursery in Jayapura and rely
on selling orchids and other plants for their livelihood. They,
of course, are not the only family that benefits from Cyclops
Mountain Nature Reserve and other conservation areas in Papua.
Yesaya Saway, 60, also conserves, breeds and sells orchid
seedlings to make ends meet for his family.
His love of orchids grew when he worked at the Papua
provincial forestry ministry office. It was around 1967 that he
started to collect orchids and started his business selling
plants in 1977 on a one-hectare site.
The Wanggai and Saway families have proved that they can
benefit from forests without damaging them, as they do not fell
trees or hunt animals, thereby not disrupting the balance of the
ecosystem.
--Harry Surjadi