Preserving the forest, West Lampung regency style

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Amid environmental activists' concerns about the threat of global warming, there is a glimmer of hope -- a community-based forest conservation program currently being carried out in Lampung.

The Community Forest Program (HKM), which bears the motto "people prosper with preserved forests", began in 2000 and has since involved more than 6,500 rural families living near preserved and commercial forests in West Lampung regency.

The residents are committed to the conservation and revival of the forests, which are in a critical condition due to illegal logging.

In barren areas they have planted fast-yielding shrubs that produce cooking spices, medium-yielding crops like cacao and coffee, and long-yielding plants like palm and durian.

A 12,000-hectare preserved area in Tangkit Tebak, which was previously barren, has been transformed into a green space and now provides a source of income for the farmers.

Under the program, the community organized a forest conservation group, which has been entrusted to manage the preservation of the forests for five years.

A team consisting of village heads, natural resource operators, environmentalists, forest authorities and farming groups will supervise and evaluate the group's performance annually.

"Members of the group are permitted to operate farms in and around the forest, but they are not allowed to build homes. The group is somewhat relieved as West Lampung Regent Erwin Nizar has issued lease-rights licenses, which are valid for 25 years," said executive director of the Watala environmental group, Rama Zakaria.

The farmers must pass four stages to obtain the licenses -- form a group; establish a work area; issue regulations and work-group plans; and complete a license application. Each group consists of about 50 farmers and works a different plot of land.

The groups have the right to manage the land, but not to sell it. Licenses are revoked if a group fails an annual monitoring and evaluation, does not uphold conservation efforts or violates the regulations.

Rama said community-based forest management was the best solution to prevent further destruction to forests.

"The residents have been living there for many years and have witnessed illegal logging activities, but could not do anything about them. Now, with the HKM program, they are directly involved in protecting the forest and do not hesitate in reporting offenders," he said.

According to Rama, West Lampung was chosen for the HKM pilot project and the local administration is the first to issue forest management licenses valid for 25 years.

Erfan, a HKM group member, said the program has helped improve farmers' welfare, as well as preserve the forests.

"We now have legal permission to manage the forests, the products from which we can benefit from... unlike land-clearers who are often chased by the authorities. We till the land peacefully and benefit from the harvests monthly," said Erfan, adding that farmers can harvest fast-yielding crops like ginger, turmeric and galangale once a month.

Rama said Lampung is the first province in Indonesia to trial the HKM program, which was initiated by the Forestry Ministry.

Despite showing positive results from evaluations, Rama said there were still problems associated with restoring damaged forest areas, especially in national parks and community forests.

In the Way Kambas National Park in East Lampung, 125,000 hectares or 60 percent of the area is in a critical state. An area of 365,000 hectares or 40 percent of the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is also severely damaged, while 22,000 hectares or 40 percent of Wan Abdur Rahman People's Park in Bandarlampung is in a critical condition.

Almost 33 percent -- or 1.4 million hectares -- of Lampung province's total area of 3.3 million hectares consists of forested areas. Currently, more than 65 percent of this area is in a critical condition.

Rama says it was not easy to convince the government the residents were capable of managing the forest.

"Initially, the provincial administration was doubtful the people could effectively manage the forest. However, it was proven wrong."

Bank Indonesia Applies National Clearing System

Arief Ardiansyah, TEMPO Interactive - 2007-03-05 09:58

Palembang, 02 March, 2007 (TEMPO Interactive) -: Bank indonesia will apply the national clearing system all over indonesia by the end of 2007. “Funds transfer that people perform can be completed on the same day,” said Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia. Budi Rochadi in Palembang.

During the authentication of the clearing system in Palembang yesterday, Budi said that Bank Indonesia has recorded a clearing transaction of Rp4.7 trillion during early 2007. Of the amount, Rp4.5 trillion was processed through the national clearing system of Bank Indonesia.

Bank Indonesia has inaugurated clearing areas at six offices of Bank Indonesia: Palembang, Bandar Lampung, Bengkulu, Jambi, Palangkaraya and Lhokseumawe.

Starbucks denies coffee report, Nestle says sorry

The Jakarta Post

Giant multinational coffee-shop chain Starbucks denied a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) allegation Thursday that it purchased illegally-planted coffee in Lampung province, while Switzerland-based food producer Nestle said it regretted buying the beans.

Ratih Gianda, head of investor relations for PT Mitra Adi Perkasa, Starbucks' Indonesian partner, said in a written statement sent to The Jakarta Post that the WWF report alleging that Starbucks had bought illegally-planted coffee from the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in southern Sumatra was inaccurate.

The statement said that Starbucks only purchased arabica coffee from Sumatra, which was grown legally in the northern part of the island. It added that Starbucks had never sourced robusta, the coffee species referred to in the WWF report, from Sumatra.

Brata T. Hardjosubroto, head of public relations for Nestle Indonesia, said his company had been unaware that the coffee Nestle purchased from Lampung was illegally planted.

"Nestle never willingly purchases coffee from dubious sources. However, the company admits the difficulty of determining the precise origin of a coffee bag which has passed through different hands before it reaches the Nestle buyer."

According to Brata, Nestle purchases between 11,500 and 12,000 tons of coffee beans from Lampung each year to make instant coffee.

He said Nestle had entered into discussions with WWF on how to avoid purchasing illegally grown coffee, and how to boost production of sustainably grown coffee and to restore wildlife habitats in the national park.

Nestle also said it hoped the Indonesian authorities would issue a regulation clarifying the precise origin of coffee grown in the region.

Suherman Harsono, chairman of the Indonesian Lampung Coffee Exporters Association, said that the members of his association could not determine if some of the coffee beans they bought were grown illegally in protected forests, although he said he was aware that many farmers grew coffee in such conservation areas.

"The government needs to be stricter in dealing with illegal practices inside the national park."

"To date, there have been no mechanisms available to differentiate between illegal and legitimate beans. However, the authorities must know more about this than us, as we only buy the beans from local traders," he said.

He said that the association would forge closer cooperation with the local government's plantation agency, forestry agency, economic affairs agency, and trade and cooperatives agency to prevent the possible rejection of Lampung's coffee exports.

According to Suherman, annual average domestic coffee consumption stood at around 150,000 tons, while last year Indonesia exported 258,000 tons of fourth grade coffee beans at a price of US$1,200-1,300 per ton. The quality of beans are ranked grade one to six.

Indonesia is the world's fourth-largest coffee producer and exporter, and second-largest producer of robusta. About 70 percent of Indonesia's coffee exports come from South Sumatra, Bengkulu and Lampung.

The WWF reported that about 15,000 local farmers worked illegally inside the park, cultivating 45,000 hectares of conserved land to grow more than 19,600 tons of coffee. Their illegal activities had destroyed about 20 percent of the forest.

Seventy percent of the 365,800-hectare Bukit Barisan Selatan national park is located in Lampung, while the rest is in Bengkulu province. It is home to a number of critically endangered species, including populations of approximately 40 Sumatran tigers, 500 Sumatran elephants and between 60 and 85 Sumatran rhinoceroses.

Govt to maximize 'local potentials' in building power plants

JAKARTA (Antara): The government will maximize the use of local resources in building coal-fired power plants outside Java currently in bidding process, a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said Tuesday.

"The local potentials include goods, manpower as well as funding," said the ministry's director general of electricity and energy utilization J Purwono.

"We will ask the contractors to use local resources including machineries, construction materials and manpower although the funding come from foreign sources, which usually are binding ones," he added.

Purwono pointed to the construction of a foreign-funded 7 megawatts (MW) coal-fired power plant which could use up to 30 percent of local content.

He also called local financial institutions to be proactive in funding power plant projects saying it could be a market for local lenders.

"Indonesian banks should also compete to finance power projects. Don't be passive," he said.

The government has announced on Dec. 19 a tender for the construction of 25 coal-fired power plants outside Java.

Four power plants will have the capacity of 100 to 200 MW to be built in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Lampung provinces.

Another four power plants with 50-65 MW of capacity slated for West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Sulawesi provinces.

There are also 17 plants with smaller capacities of 7 to 25 MW scattered nation wide in Bangka Belitung, Riau, Riau Islands, West Kalimantan, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, East Nusa Tenggara,West Nusa Tenggara, Gorontalo, Southeast Sulawesi and North Sulawesi provinces.

These power plants are part of the government's plan to generate additional 10,000 MW of electricity by 2009.

As for Java island, the government has started bidding process for 10 power plants. Seven power plants will the capacity of 300 to 400 MW while the remaining three with 600 to 700 MW of capacity.