RI rubber business set to reach new heights

Rendi Akhmad Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If booming investment in the rubber processing sector amid tight raw material supply is any indication, the country's natural rubber business is set to reach new heights in the coming year.

The Indonesian Rubber Association (Gapkindo), said 10 new rubber processing plants came into operation by local and foreign firms last year, with the largest being a unit in Jambi owned by Japan's giant trading company Itochu Corporation.

"Last year was marked by ... big corporations with integrated supply chains setting up new processing plants here. The trend is expected to continue this year," Gapkindo chairman Daud Husni Bastari told The Jakarta Post recently.

Last year's newcomers, some of them also owned by big rubber players from Thailand and Malaysia, have a combined installed capacity of 360,000 tons annually, with Itochu's unit alone contributing around 100,000 tons.

In total, the industry now has the capacity to process 3.3 million tons of rubber a year.

Raw natural rubber needs to be processed before it can be exported or transferred into another products. Processing companies are thus the middle chain in rubber trading industry, between producers and manufacturers.

Indonesia is the world's second largest rubber exporter after Thailand. In 2006, the country exported 2.28 million tons of rubber valued at $4.32 billion. In the first 10 months of last year, export reached 1.87 million tons, a 4.9 percent increase from the same period in 2006.

Gapkindo forecasted this year export was likely to increase by at least 6 to 7 percent.

Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia supply around 70 percent of the world's natural rubber.

Since 2001, Indonesia has seen the highest annual export growth, 8.94 percent, as compared to Thailand's 3.02 percent.

"The growth surely will be promising this year. I cannot cite any vital factors likely to undermine the price and output," said Azrul Latif, investment relations officer for the publicly listed plantation company PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantation.

Azrul cited higher oil prices and demand for automotive products as key factors in maintaining the rubber boom.

Gapkindo believed this growth was likely to trigger another wave of investments in the processing sector this year, as signaled by a plan from at least nine newcomers to set up plants with a combined capacity of 230,000 tons per year.

Investment for setting up a processing plant with a capacity of 48,000 tons a year is estimated at a minimum of Rp 60 billion (US$6.38 million).

For the country's rubber farmers, who are mostly operating in fairly remote villages scattered in Sumatra and part of Kalimantan, these new investments will be among the catalysts for a higher rubber price.

"Amid limited supply of natural rubber, processing companies will be racing to buy rubber ... which will increase the commodity's price. This is good for farmers," said Daud, who manages rubber processing firm PT Badja Baru.

Proceeds from planting rubber have far-reaching effects on people living in remote areas due to the fact that 85 percent of the country's 3.3-million-hectare rubber plantations are managed by farmers, with only 15 percent by corporations.

This is not the case for other booming commodities, such as oil palm, where 65 percent of the plantations are controlled by big companies, leaving only 35 percent for local farmers.

However, not all looks rosy for the rubber industry. Processing companies can only use a maximum of 70 percent of their installed production capacity due to the lack of rubber.

"I am concerned that there will be leeway for big companies, especially those from overseas, to plunder local small and medium-sized processing firms in a price war to buy rubber from farmers," said Daud.

The limited supply is primarily triggered by the inability of rubber farmers to gain capital access in revitalizing their plantations. Most of the farmers have no land certificates, which is a key requirement for applying for bank loans.

Another factor is the lack of access to high quality seeds at affordable prices.

Due to these problems, Gapkindo said productivity in the country's rubber plantations remained low compared to those of Thailand and even Vietnam, a newcomer to the rubber business.

With 3.3 million hectares, Indonesian farmers can only produce 967 kilograms per hectare per year, while Thailand, with only 2.3 million hectares, can produce 1,775 kilograms per hectare per year.

Farmers and companies in Indonesia are also reluctant to expand rubber plantations due to the fact that the oil palm business is considered more lucrative, and also because of an existing deal between major rubber producing countries not to aggressively open up new plantations in order to prevent oversupply.

Mount Kelud -- Part II: Shrouded in mystery

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Kediri, East Java

As nature is hard to predict, so is Mount Kelud, East Java's charming yet baffling volcano. The Center for Volcanology and Mitigation of Geological Disasters has stated that Mt. Kelud is demonstrating a new natural phenomenon in its history.

Nov. 2, 2007 is a date the chairman of the Mt. Kelud Monitoring Team, Umar Rosadi, will not forget. At around 16:00 hours that day, countless shallow and deep volcanic tremors occurred. Over 500 quakes have been recorded since the volcano was placed on full alert status on Oct. 16, 2007.

With seismic data registering persistent vibrations, Umar and his 10-man team immediately began scurrying away from the Margomulyo monitoring station, 7 kilometers from the peak of Mt. Kelud.

"It's going to blow!" shouted a team member to guards posted at the gate of Kelud park.

The guards were aghast at the sight of the monitoring team speeding away in their car. Instinctively, they darted away, along with local police personnel. Dozens of Sugihwaras villagers followed in panic, abandoning their homes. That day, the tranquil village resembled a motor rally.

Several hours passed, but Kelud's summit remained relatively calm. The monitoring team finally returned to their station while some local communities chose to stay in refugee camps for fear of an eventual eruption.

So far, however, Mt. Kelud has not done so. On Nov. 29, the volcano's alert status was lowered again.

"No other volcano in Indonesia has ever `survived' such (a series of) quakes. Mt. Kelud should have exploded," Umar told The Jakarta Post.

Hazardous tourist spot

In spite of its dangers, the 1,724-meter mountain on the border of the Kediri and Blitar regencies, or around 150 kilometers from the provincial capital of Surabaya, is an enchanting destination for tourists.

As one of hundreds of volcanoes in the country, Mt. Kelud has erupted 30 times since 1311, the latest taking place in 1990. In the disasters inflicted by Kelud, the cumulative death toll has reached over 15,000.

The 1990 eruption created a green lake in the crater of the volcano, offering a superb panorama. It is thus unsurprising that Mt. Kelud has become a major tourist attraction since then, generating considerable revenue for the regency coffers.

While the two regencies once disputed their jurisdiction over this are, Kediri has finally gained rightful administrative control.

A ritual offering is held annually in the Kelud area. Resembling the local people's traditional ceremonies, the ritual is, in fact, more aimed at drawing the attention of domestic and foreign tourists. Today, the rite is conducted by the caretaker of the tourist area, Mbah Ronggo. Mbah Ronggo moved to he slope to be an ascetic, and has lived there these past 15 years.

Ronggo is locally known as a witch doctor and exorcist, but those living on and around the mountain do not readily follow his advice about the volcano's imminent danger, as they prefer to consult their own village elders. Mbah Agung is one such elder.

The elder of Kalibladak village in Nglegok district, Agung has earned the villagers' trust in his views on Mt. Kelud. When the Post last saw him, Agung claimed to have received a supernatural message that the volcano would erupt at 2 o'clock -- either in the wee hours, which would result in many victims, or in the afternoon with none -- but he did not specify a date.

Several other paranormal forecasts put the time of eruption at the end of December 2007 or before New Year's, in mid-2008, or after the East Java gubernatorial election slated for June 2008.

Some "psychics" believed that the disaster would be preceded by an affliction or bloodshed -- but these are mere predictions.

"The fact is that Mt. Kelud has remained steady so far. Earlier, I thought it would erupt soon, but it seems the mountain is too shy to accept my proposal," joked Surono, head of the Center for Volcanology and Mitigation of Geological Disasters.

Lava dome: New phenomenon?

Surono said the volcano was now in the phase of developing a lava dome, which was formed by magmatic pressure pushing up from beneath the lava cap left behind by the 1990 eruption.

"The lava dome will likely keep growing and change the layers of the mountain's crater lake into a sharp arc. We're monitoring the growth daily," he added. The dome has continued to expand at 8 square meters per second, and now measures 130 meters in diameter, with an area of 700,000 sq m.

According to Surono, the lava dome is a new phenomenon for Mt. Kelud. In the 1990 eruption, the volcano indeed developed a lava cap, but this cap did not turn into a swelling lava dome.

On the other hand, Amien Widodo, a geologist and head of the Center for Disaster Studies at the 10 November Institute of Technology-Surabaya, said the lava dome emerging from the Kelud crater was not new. Based on documents from the Netherlands, such a dome had emerged prior to the eruption in 1919.

"We don't have records of Mt. Kelud's developments in the period before 1966. Most of the data on this volcano are kept in the Netherlands. In point of fact, natural phenomena have to be studied by examining complete records," said Amien.

"The (Dutch) documents reveal that the lava dome, composed of andesite, was blown apart and discharged as rock and gravel in a past eruption, followed by showers of sand," he continued. The dome, crushed by magmatic forces, deepened the crater lake, but further specifics are not found in the data.

At present, the lake is 38 m deep with a water volume of 2.5 million cubic meters. Once, the lake was reportedly more than 600 m deep with a capacity of 40 million cu m.

"The 1919 eruption claimed the largest number of human lives, reaching 5,160," added Amien.

He noted that the Kelud's new dome and recent emissions with accompanying tremors and smoke pillar -- up to 120 m high -- should be taken with extreme caution, as they could be signs of a devastating explosion like that in 1919.

"In theory, this volcano is on the verge of erupting. The higher and more massive the dome, the greater its blast impact," Amien warned.

According to him, it is presently difficult to estimate the Volcano Explosive Index (VEI) of Mt. Kelud, which has ranged historically from 3 to 5. It recorded VEI 5 in 1856, which is equivalent to the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines that killed 932, and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the United States.

In comparison, the infamous eruption of Mt. Krakatau on Aug. 27, 1883, recorded VEI 6 with a death toll of 36,000.

"But it's still hard to predict when Mt. Kelud will blow up, even with the available scientific documents," Amien said.

Formaldehyde found in chicken, fish

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post) : The Jakarta administration detected formaldehyde in chickens and fish being sold Friday at the Rumput traditional market in South Jakarta.

The head of the business, marketing and quality control division at the City Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Maritime Agency, Enny Pudjiwati, said four out of 14 samples tested contained formaldehyde.

Samples were taken from six stalls at the market, with the suspect meat coming from four separate stalls.

Enny said people should inspect meat closely to determine whether or not it contains formaldehyde.

"Fish containing formaldehyde usually looks pale. It also feels rubber-like when poked," she said.

"Chickens that contain formaldehyde have a similar appearance, but they also have shiny flesh."

She said meat containing formaldehyde generally did not attract flies.

Enny said the agency was only able to inspect markets every month to make sure products being sold were safe for consumption.

"One of the obstacles we face is ... our limited budget," she said.

Rapid deforestation still poses serious threat across Sumatra

Khairul Saleh, The Jakarta Post, Palembang

The Palembang Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has said that tropical forests in Sumatra are under extreme threat from illegal logging.

Coordinator of WCS Muhammad Taupiq said that at least 500,000 of Sumatra's 2.5 million hectares of tropical forest had been lost during the 1990-2000 period, or about 50,000 hectares per year.

Sumatra's tropical forests include the 862,975-hectare Gunung Leuser National Park located in North Sumatra and Aceh, the 1.37-million hectare Kerinci Seblat National Park located in West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra, as well the 356,800-hectare Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park located in Bengkulu and Lampung.

"We predict that the deforestation will increase year by year if there is no serious action taken to overcome it. From our calculations, it is possible that deforestation will reach up to 70 percent in 2010. If so, we will face lots of natural disasters -- not only in Sumatra, but also around the world," Taupiq told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said illegal activities such as logging, burning and conversion were to blame and urged all institutions, especially the local and central governments, as well as businesses to seriously work to solve the problem.

The WCS and the South Sumatra Nature Lovers Forum, together with the Palembang municipal administration and South Sumatra provincial administration, recently arranged a campaign to protect forests in Palembang.

Taupiq said he hoped the campaign would be followed up with concrete action from all stakeholders in order to preserve Sumatra's forests and its ecosystems. The campaign is also meant to prepare residents to face and overcome natural disasters.

Taupiq added that in South Sumatra alone, at least 600 hectares of the 12,700 that make up the Pantai Air Telang protected forest in Banyuasin regency would be converted for the construction of Tanjung Api-Api harbor.

He said he was concerned development would cause natural disasters in the region.

Head of the South Sumatra Forestry Agency Dody Supriadi said that the conversion of 600 hectares in Pantai Air Telang protected forest could not be considered destruction because it was aimed at meeting the public's needs.

"Moreover, we are not constructing a harbor along the entire 600 hectares of the forest. We are just using part of the area, " Dody added.

Based on South Sumatra provincial administration data, the extent of the protected area is 1.7 million hectares, with 500,000 hectares of protected forest, 700,000 hectares of conservation forest, 350,000 hectares of riverbanks and 150,000 hectares of reservoir sites.

Sanur residents fighting dengue fever the natural way

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

A village in the Sanur beach area in Bali has succeeded in promoting natural ways to prevent the spread of Dengue fever, through the cultivation of the Liligundi plant.

Liligundi (Vitex Trifolia) is a low creeping plant, less than 5 m in tall, with stems covered in soft hairs. It has small spikes of lavender-colored flowers and gray-green silvery leaves. Its distinct odor which emanates from its branches and leaves can be used to deter mosquitoes -- carriers of the Dengue fever virus.

After three years cultivating the plant in the area, Sanur Kauh village in South Denpasar, has seen positive results with very few reports of the disease recorded since the program started.

Sanur Kauh village leader I Made Dana said he was confident that only a small number of people would contract Dengue fever in his area this year.

"The number of Dengue cases has dropped significantly after we promoted planting Liligundi in our neighborhood," he said.

In 2005 the number of dengue fever cases in Sanur Kauh reached 25 per month, he said.

"Now, the number has dropped to less than five per month," he said.

The village had come a long way in preventing dengue fever in the area, Dana said. During the rainy season in 2005, Sanur Kauh area was classified as in state of extraordinary occurrence (KLB), due to the high number of dengue fever cases reported at that time.

Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in clear water, consequently the rainy season facilitates the spread of the disease due to the increased area of suitable breeding habitat.

"Denpasar Mayor AA Puspayoga at that time called for action to fight dengue fever," Dana said.

"I responded by cultivating Liligundi in my area."

He ordered Liligundi to be planted in unused land and green areas in the village.

Now one can easily spot Liligundi shrubs next to the roadside when passing through Sanur Kauh.

Dana called on all households to plant Liligundi in their gardens and set up the Darma Sedana Group to develop incense from the leaves of the plant to be used as mosquito repellent.

Products from the group have also been sold in Surabaya and Jakarta. The home industry started up with a small investment of Rp 6 million, but has now developed into a prospective business.

He said the local residents had been happy to grow Liligundi in their gardens because it was useful and economical.

"They don't need to buy spray-repellents or lotions," he said.

"You can pick three or four branches from the tree and slap the bed or table to bring out its odor, and mosquitoes will stay away from that area," he said.

"You can also burn incense made of Liligundi branches," he said.

Dana said that the good thing about the plant was that it does not kill mosquitoes but just made them go away.

"So, we're not killing any creatures," he said.

Sacrificial chickens: A growing business for poultry farmers

Wasti Atmodjo, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The increasing demand for sacrificial chickens has provided Denpasar poultry farmers with a new, profitable economic opportunity.

Head of Denpasar Husbandry Agency, Dewa Ngurah, said the demand increases significantly during months which have many auspicious days for conducting religious rituals.

"But there is, in fact, a stable market for sacrificial chickens and other sacrificial animals, because there are always at least two rituals each month in Bali," he said.

For instance, at the end of this month the Balinese Hindus will celebrate the Galungan and Kuningan festival, the six-monthly celebration of the victory of good over evil.

Animal sacrifice is an essential part of the mecaru (sacrificial offering) rite, which is usually held at the commencement of any festival.

The size and importance of the festival dictate the number and variety of animals to be sacrificed.

Eka Sato, the simplest and most common mecaru, uses one chicken, while the Eka Dasa Rudra, occurring once a century, requires hundreds of animals, including exotics such as white bulls, bears, porcupines and eagles.

In all festivals, chickens play a vital role in mecaru rites. Generally, three-month-old chicks are used.

"The growing market is the reason we have urged the poultry farmers in Denpasar's rural areas to pay serious attention to the business," Dewa said.

"A poultry farmer could earn a significant amount of money from this trade."

Poultry farmer Made Kanik, who has been raising sacrificial chickens since 1991 in Banjar Cenkilung on the northern outskirts of Denpasar, agreed, saying sacrificial chickens commanded higher prices than ordinary chickens.

"Sacrificial chickens with single color feathers -- white, red, or black -- could be sold for up to Rp 20,000 each, while the ones with all three colors can go for Rp. 25,000," he said, adding that prices in the market were often higher.

The tri-colored chickens, known as brumbun, are the most prized and difficult to find. Their colors of red, black and white are also the symbolic colors of Balinese Hinduism's most important deities, Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa, respectively.

"Previously, we never bought sacrificial chickens. If my family needed a certain sacrificial chicken which we didn't have in our backyard farm, usually one of our neighbors would give it to us for free," Made said.

"If a neighbor needed a sacrificial chicken we happened to have, then we would give it him, also for free," he said.

"But, we couldn't sustain that practice for long, because the need for the sacrificial chickens just kept growing. Because of this my family decided to start a sacrificial chickens farm."

Made is head of Kelompok Ternak Ayam Buras Sumber Rejeki, a cooperative of 30 poultry farmers raising sacrificial chickens in the area.

Each farmer keeps around 25 mature hens, each of which can lay two eggs a month.

In order to increase the possibility of hatching tri-colored chicks, the farmers usually pair a single-color hen with a rooster of a differing color.

The association is currently in the process of enlarging its operations. In early 2007, it purchased an incubator to deal with the increasing demand.

"Sometimes, the demand is so high that we simply can't keep up with it," Kanik said.

Strong quake sparks fires in Indonesian town : residents

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A strong 6.2-magnitude quake struck Indonesia's Papua province on Monday, damaging about 25 houses and sparking fires but causing no casualties, the meteorological agency, officials and residents said.

The earthquake was centred eight kilometres (five miles) northwest of the town of Manokwari, prompting residents to flee their homes and other buildings, many clutching belongings, ElShinta radio said.

Local policeman Ari said that some 20 floating houses belonging to fishermen had caught fire following the quake.

"The houses were made of wood, that's why they were easily burned. The shakes may have caused stoves to fall which caused fires," he told AFP.

He said that about five kilometres away, a number of houses, hotels and taller buildings suffered cracks in their walls, adding that a church under construction had partly collapsed.

No casualties were reported, he added.

Ari told AFP that about five houses had been burned in another area of town.

Anton Wesnusa, Manokwari's district secretary, said on Elshinta radio that the damage was "very limited" and daily activities had resumed as normal.

The state-run Antara news agency cited resident Nurul Damarini as saying that thousands of people living along the coast had grabbed their belongings and fled to higher ground, fearing a tsunami.

The United States Geological Survey measured the quake at 5.8 and said it occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) at 12:12 (0312 GMT).

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Study: Male monkeys 'pay' females for sex by grooming them

The Jakarta Post

SINGAPORE (AP): Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity.

"In primate societies, grooming is the underlying fabric of it all," Dr. Michael Gumert, a primatologist at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

"It's a sign of friendship and family, and it's also something that can be exchanged for sexual services," Gumert said.

Gumert's findings, reported in New Scientist last week, resulted from a 20-month observation of about 50 long-tailed macaques in a reserve in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Gumert found after a male grooms a female, the likelihood that she will engage in sexual activity with the male was about three times more than if the grooming had not occurred.

And as with other commodities, the value of sex is affected by supply and demand factors: A male would spend more time grooming a female if there were fewer females in the vicinity.

"And when the female supply is higher, the male spends less time on grooming ... The mating actually becomes cheaper depending on the market," Gumert said.

Other experts welcomed Gumert's research, saying it was a major effort in systematically studying the interaction of organisms in ways in which an exchange of commodities or services can be observed - a theory known as biological markets.

Dr. Peter Hammerstein, a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt University in Berlin and Dr. Ronald Noe, a primatologist at the University of Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, first proposed the concept of biological marketsin 1994.

"It is not a rare phenomenon in nature that males have to make some 'mating effort' in order to get a female's 'permission' to mate," Hammerstein said in an interview, likening the effort to a "fee" that the male pays.

"The interesting result of Dr. Gumert's research on macaque mating is that the mating market seems to have an influence on the amount of this fee," Hammerstein said.

Hammserstein said Gumert's findings indicate the monkeys are capable of adjusting their behavior to "different market conditions."

Gumert completed his fieldwork in February 2005 and first published his findings in the November issue of "Animal Behaviour," a scientific monthly journal.

Mud barriers collapse, hundreds flee in panic

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo

An embankment built to contain the hot mud that has been flowing from an oil drilling well in Porong, Sidoarjo regency, East Java, has collapsed, forcing hundreds of residents to flee in panic.

The collapsed embankment has caused mud to flow into the area, paralyzing the nearby railway track and road transportation.

Mudflow Mitigation Agency's coordinating team head Soenarso said Friday the embankment collapsed at 10 p.m. on Thursday at Ketapang Keres village in Tanggulangin district, Sidoarjo.

"We've been able to repair the damage of the nine-meter embankment, but we will work hard to exhaust water and mud, which has submerged railway tracks and the main road with 20 to 80 centimeters of mud," Sonarso said.

On Thursday night, mud levels had reportedly reached one meter.

Vehicles were trapped when a truck transporting instant food packages overturned in the flow of the water.

Soenarso said the collapse was caused by the sinking level of land surface around the main embankment near the well.

He said the collapse had forced water and mud to be unable to flow into the Porong river and that it was instead flowing toward nearby residential sites outside affected areas.

"The embankment was strong enough to contain the water so that it collapsed," Soenarso said.

"The condition was worsened by the heavy rain and opposition from local people to a plan for the construction of an addition embankment.

"I've reminded the residents about the danger of the hot mud flow, but they insist not to move on grounds they have not received compensation from Lapindo Brantas Inc."

Lapindo Brantas is the company responsible for the flow of mud from its oil drilling activities.

The Thursday's embankment collapse disrupted Jalan Raya Porong and the Surabaya-Malang and Surabaya-Banyuwangi railway traffic.

Police were forced to detour land transportation to the Krian-Mojosari route, while seven railway schedules were delayed.

The deputy head of Gubeng railway station in Surabaya, Budi Setiono, said delays across seven routes had caused the state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia to suffer losses amounting to Rp 150 million (US$16,600).

All sold tickets were refunded, Budi said.

Soenarso said at least 135 people were forced to evacuate.

"The affected residents will get assistance in the form of health services and food," he said.

But East Java Governor Imam Utomo said Friday residents affected by the Thursday's collapse would not get compensation or be relocated as the incident did not belong to any extraordinary occurrence.

"The residents can still return to their houses after the mud and water subside," he said.

Agnes Tuti Rumiati, head of the community research agency of the Surabaya November 10 Technology Institute, said if the mud flow could not be fully handled, East Java province would suffer losses amounting to an estimated Rp 34 trillion.

"The losses are calculated based on the multiplier effect, ranging from the losses of jobs, closures of factories and disruption of traffic and trade," she said.

Diding Khaerudin: Making life beautiful for farmers

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Farmers in Tajurhalang, Bogor, West Java, never seemed to be able to get ahead until they switched to growing decorative plants at the advice of Diding Khaerudin.

"I was concerned by how hard farmers worked just to produce a few hundred thousand rupiah. Therefore, I encouraged them to grow decorative plants instead of taro, pineapples and bananas," Diding said.

Born in Bogor on Dec. 22, 1964, Diding has transformed the valley of Mount Salak into a decorative plant center.

Diding, who graduated from Muslim junior high school Tsanawiyah, used to work at the PTP XI state plantation at Mount Salak, but resigned in 1996. He found work as a gardener at a golf course in Tangerang, but was more interested in farming and eventually returned to his home village.

Like other farmers in the village, in 1997 and 1998 he planted bananas, pineapples and taro. But he quickly learned that the farmers were suffering losses as the result of the low prices of their produce.

A farmer might spend Rp 1.2 million on seedlings, fertilizer and transportation, for example, but only make Rp 200,000-300,000. As a result, the farmers were becoming poorer and poorer.

"We cannot make a living from farming. We don't even have the money to buy rice. We end up eating the produce we can't sell," he said.

Diding was determined to improve the lives of the farmers but he did not know how. Things started to change in 1999 when he met Benny Tjia, the technical advisor of PT. Mandiri Jaya Flora, who owned fields of Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) in Mount Salak valley.

"As soon as I met Pak Benny I knew I had found the answer. I learned all I could about growing plants," he said.

After receiving Rp 500,000 in start-up capital from Benny, Diding asked the other farmers in his village to join him. But most of them refused. They kept on growing bananas, pineapples and taro, and eating the fruit and tubers they could not sell.

Only five farmers agreed to grow the new plants and all of them received financial support from Benny. Diding then formed a farmers' group called Violces, making himself its head and the five farmers as members.

They grew various kinds of decorative plants and once a month Benny came to supervise them. The farmers chose the plants because they were easy to grow and there was a good market for them. A plant sells for Rp 3,000-10,000.

"I earn between Rp 1.5 million and 2 million a month. Some members make even more," Diding said.

Their success prompted other farmers in Tajurhalang village to follow suit. Today the Violces Farmers' Group has 180 members who grow many kinds of flowers and decorative plants, including anthurium. Their monthly turnover has reached Rp 120 million.

Diding and the other members of the farmers' group do not have to worry anymore about feeding their families or their children's education.

Tajurhalang village, which used to be dirty and gloomy, is now clean and neat. Even though the farmers live in simple houses, they are surrounded by beautiful gardens. On Saturdays and Sundays the village attracts visitors who come to buy the plants.

Observing the fast growth of the decorative plant business in the village, the Bogor regency administration finally disbursed Rp 75 million to help the Violces Farmers' Group expand their business.

"Thanks to the success of the gardening business I have been able to give my children a good education. One of them now works as a teacher," said Diding, who is often asked to talk at seminars at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture.

Indonesia to import 110,000 tons of sugar

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has allowed the importation of 110,000 tons of sugar this year to augment stocks to anticipate the belated arrival of milling season which normally begins in May or June.

"The current stocks are enough for five months of consumption during the non-milling season. But we will have buffer stocks that will be fulfilled by Bulog and PT PPI. We will allow importation of some 110,000 tons for two weeks of consumption. The import will be made before the beginning of this year`s milling season," Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said here Friday.

The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) would import 20,000 tons of sugar, while the remaining 90,000 tons would be imported by state-owned trading company PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI), she said.

Diah Maulida, the director general of foreign trade at the Trade Ministry, said the imported sugar would be allocated to meet demand from regions outside Java.

The imported sugar is expected to be delivered between February 1 and April 30.

Lampung earns $276 M from coffee exports

Bandarlampung (ANTARA News) - Lampung province`s coffee exports in the first eleven months of 2007 dropped in volume to 168.12 million kg but increased in value to US$276.48 million from the same period in 2006.

Lampung earned US$264.87 million from exporting 230.63 million kg of coffee in the January-November 2006 period, Sunarto, executive secretary of the Indonesian Coffee Producers Association (AEKI)`s branch in Lampung, said on Friday.

He said Lampung`s coffee exports in 2007 were expected to decline.

"The drop in coffee exports was caused by the delayed arrival of harvest time and the decline in coffee production in the 2006 harvest season," he said.

Lampung is one of Indonesia`s coffee producers.

Farmers suffer from booming palm oil

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Farmers' Union criticized the government Wednesday for mismanagement in the food crop sector, highlighting the massive displacement of farmers by the expansion of oil palm plantations.

Union chairman Henry Saragih said the palm oil industry had been aggressively expanding plantations to capitalize on a continuing rise in crude palm oil prices expected to result from higher world demand, especially in India and China.

He cited 2006 records of the Agriculture Ministry showing oil palm plantations had grown by more than 200 percent during the last decade -- from 2.7 million hectares in 1998 to 6.1 million hectares in 2006.

He said large-scale private companies, including PT Astra Argo Lestari and PT SMART, controlled 57 percent of plantation areas, while the government and small-scale private growers had the other 43 percent.

"As the oil palm plantations grew larger, the number of large-scale food crop farmers decreased, with many becoming small-scale growers (and even) farm laborers," he said.

Small-scale farmers are defined as having an average of 0.3 hectares under cultivation; farm laborers work for other farmers. Aggregate numbers have increased from 19.9 million families in 1993 to 25.4 million in 2003.

Henry also cited 2007 data indicating that poverty rates stood at 16.58 percent. "Some 63.52 percent of the poor people are villagers who mostly work as small-scale farmers or farm laborers."

He predicted that the conversion of food crop land areas would continue apace in the coming year, owing to the global campaign to replace non-renewable fossil fuel with sustainable bio-fuel.

Such bio-fuel may be derived from agricultural products, including the palm.

"Food crop farmers will continue to see a hard time in the coming years because of the lucrative palm oil industry and the fact the government has apparently sided with the industry by issuing policies that facilitate the expansion of oil palm plantations."

He cited a law on investment endorsed by the government in 2007 and a decree issued by the Agriculture Ministry in 2002; they grant concessions as large as 100,000 hectares for up to 95 years.

Those policies replaced previous regulations with 35 year and 20,000 hectare maximums.

Henry said takeover by big growers could hurt farmer's income and domestic food security as well.

"The government had earlier promised that the country would be able to meet its domestic rice demands in 2005, but the fact is we still have to import rice and the amount keeps rising."

In 2007, Indonesia imported 1.5 million tons of rice, an increase by 78 percent from 840,000 tons in 2006.

Henry said the rice imports had affected the price of domestic rice as foreign brands were cheaper. As a result, farmers suffered losses as they had to lower prices to compete.

"The government must stop the conversion of food crop land and revise its rice import policy to ensure that farmers stand a chance to improve their welfare." (lln)

Villagers commit to saving forest and water sources

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Batu, East Java

A small mosque sits atop a spring in Toyomerto hamlet, Pesanggrahan village, Batu district in Batu city, East Java. It is used for religious activities and also as a meeting place for local villagers.

The water source is one of 11 spread around the village, located between 900 to 1,000 meters above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Panderman.

According to community figure Syaifuddin, better known as Gus Udin, thanks to the small mosque, 277 household heads have united in a mission to save 11 water sources at risk of being exploited by outside parties.

Local residents are aware of the importance of reforestation and protection of the production forest area owned by the Perhutani state forestry company, spanning 21,640 hectares around the village, from illegal loggers.

According to Gus Udin, people initially opposed the conservation effort, which began in 1997. Farmers and firewood sellers depended on the trees in the production forest, which they felled and sold to make a living.

The forest is a catchment area which feeds 11 springs that people rely on for their daily needs.

The slopes of Mount Panderman at one point appeared barren due to uncontrolled logging, which triggered floods and landslides during the rainy season in 1998 and 1999. Recurrent droughts occurred during the dry season, thus affecting water quality in the 11 springs.

Residents also became prone to illnesses, such as diarrhea.

"The situation is better now. The residents have found other ways to make a living, such as raising dairy cows and cattle for meat, the results of which are starting to show," said Gus Udin.

In 1997, a rumor that a prominent businessman from Jakarta was interested in purchasing the village, including the 11 springs, prompted the local community to protect the forest and water sources in their village. They eventually formed an environmental study group called Yayasan Iqro.

"I also heard that a significant amount of gas was located in the ground below our village," said Gus Udin, who also heads the foundation.

During meetings, residents were made aware of how to preserve the surrounding environment. They were taught to change their habit of felling trees in the forest, shown how to live a more healthy lifestyle through planting trees and learned the importance of preserving their water sources. Even children were taught to cherish the environment by planting trees in the forest.

After three years, the group imposed stiff regulations in the form of customary law, which residents mutually agreed on.

The punishments are quite stern; anyone caught felling a tree is required to pay a fine of a truck-load of sand, while those found felling five trees are fined 100 sacks of cement.

"Harsh punishments have been cast on the community," added Gus Udin.

The customary law is currently effective and acts as a deterrent to those who destroy the environment in the village. So far, residents have been able to protect the 11 water sources, which each supply four liters of water per second.

Each family pays a monthly fee of Rp 7,500 (approximately 83 U.S. cents) toward operational funds to manage the springs. From each fee, Rp 1,000 is set aside to fund the building of schools, roads, houses of worship and other community facilities.

To help improve people's welfare, the foundation offers credit for dairy cows and cattle. It has so far distributed 600 heads of cattle to residents without collateral.

This scheme has somewhat been able to change the look of Pesanggrahan village, which is evident from the 3,600 dairy cows and cattle already raised by the villagers.

The residents can now even fulfill their household energy needs by turning cattle dung into butane biogas to light their stoves and lamps.

"Residents can finally save on fuel and electricity," said Gus Udin.

A villager, Lasmi, 50, said she was able to make use of biogas from cattle manure after receiving a grant from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) for a pilot project in 2005.

Gas is channeled through a small pipe to her stove and lamps from the back of her home, which is directly next door to a cattle shed.

Two structures resembling septic tanks are stored inside the cow shed; one is used to store the manure, which is connected to the other that collects gas.

"We no longer buy kerosene because we can use biogas derived from cattle dung," Lasmi said.

Officials told to map disaster-prone areas

DENPASAR (Jakarta Post) : Officials from every district in Badung regency have been instructed to draw comprehensive and integrated maps of disaster-prone areas.

Badung Regent A.A. Gde Agung told Antara the maps would help the administration prepare for possible disasters.

He said district leaders were also being encouraged to develop other maps, including of areas prone to outbreaks of disease.

The regent made the statement after visiting flood-prone areas on the resort island, which has experienced regular downpours over the past few weeks.

He warned residents to be ready for the occurrence of natural disasters, adding that they should work together to protect the environment by disposing of their trash properly. -- JP

Padang Tegal expands forest for environment

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Ubud, Bali

The usually quiet Monkey Forest turned into a bustling field of activity on Sunday morning as the people of Padang Tegal celebrated the launching of the Tree Adoption Program, aimed at expanding the area into arguably the largest community-managed forest in the island.

The customary village of Padang Tegal comprises four banjar (traditional neighborhood organizations) with more than 2,600 residents and is the traditional custodian of the Monkey Forest, more than eleven hectares of woods to the south of Ubud.

Visitors consider the forest to be of Ubud's main attractions. The locals, who prefer to call the forest Wanara Wana, view it as a sacred sanctuary.

"The important Dalem Agung Padang Tegal temple and a holy springs of Beji lie inside the forest. The monkeys that dwell in the forest have always been considered by the locals to be the servants of the gods. That's the primary reason why the locals have always maintained and protected this sanctuary," the bendesa (head) of Padang Tegal customary village, I Made Dana, said.

Behind him, children from various kindergatens in Ubud were sitting in small groups under rows of young trees.

Each of them tried to capture the beauty of the surrounding nature on a piece of drawing paper. Sitting leisurely on the grassy field, still a bit wet due to the previous night's shower of rain, these children's innocence accentuated the woods' fresh natural beauty.

The drawing competition was part of Sunday's program, appropriately titled "Save the Planet and the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary".

"Those young trees are the result of the reforestation program we carried out in 2003. Now, some of them are already six meters tall," the forest's promotion head Kadek Gunartha said.

Prior to 2003, the forest covered only seven hectares. But that year, the village assigned its young people to transform more than 3 hectares of village land south of the forest into wood.

"The reforestation and conservation activities have been carried out for years, but this year we realized the need for a better and wider promotional drive to inform the public at the regional and national levels of our efforts," Gunartha said.

This year, the village took the program to a new level by allocating more than Rp 2 billion out of its own budget to purchase one hectare of privately owned land bordering the forest.

"We will turn that land into forest, an extension of the original forest. In the future we will make several similar purchases to ensure the existence of this sacred forest," Made Dana said.

The move was simply extraordinary, particularly for the island, where villages generally spend billions of rupiah on religious rituals or renovating temples and not on environmental programs.

The expansion of the Monkey Forest, Gunartha explained, would serve several important purposes, the first of which was to provide a larger habitat for the forest's growing monkey population.

A census carried on June 2007 at 25 sites in the forest found out that there are now 346 monkeys living in three different packs.

"The number is expected to increase, so they will need a larger area both for playing and feeding. Soon, the number of the packs will increase to four because we have observed a significant power struggle in a pack that occupies the eastern part of the forest," I Dewa Gede Rai Putera, a physician responsible for the scientific aspects of the park's management.

The second aim is to increase the number and variety of the trees in the forest. So far, the forest houses 163 species of plants. The management now plans to add more local and rare species to the forest.

One way to achieve that is the Tree Adoption Program, which was officially launched on Sunday morning. By contributing Rp 150,000 (US$16), a visitor can have a specific tree planted in the forest.

"The management will maintain and take care of the tree, and will issue a certificate acknowledging the visitor's contribution to the program. The program is carried out in cooperation with the Gianyar chapter of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) and 58 visitors have agreed to join this scheme," Gunartha said.

The program, he said, was an excellent carbon emissions offset option for those who wanted wipe out the carbon debt they had generated during their trip to Bali.

The third objective was to turn the forest into a center of environmental studies for the locals.

"The forest will be a field laboratory to increase the awareness of the locals on environmental issues," Rai Putera said.

So far, the forest's management has carried out several scientific cooperation activities with researchers from Bali and abroad, including Udayana University (Bali), the University of Alabama, Central Washington University and the University of Notre Dame. The results have been published in more than eleven scientific publications.

"These cooperations help us in understanding the monkeys' behavior, thus, in minimalizing their aggressive attitudes and in providing them with the medical treatment they need. This research also confirms that the monkey populations are free from dangerous diseases, such as TB," he said.

Next year, the management will construct a compost plant inside the forest to teach locals how to make environmentally friendly fertilizer.

The fourth objective is to provide residents with rare plants that are essential to the rituals of Balinese Hinduism.

"We must be able to sustain our religious tradition without having to inflict a damaging burden on the environment," the bendesa said.

Around 200 meters to the north of the drawing competition site, hundreds of Padang Tegal youths were busy digging soil and planting trees in a large clearing. On a higher elevation, a Hindu high priest Ida Pedanda Gde Manuaba observed the activity with a smile on his face.

"This is the site of our Ritual Forest. Today, we are planting more than 20 species of ritual plants. We are still searching over the island for the other ritual plants," the forest's field manager I Wayan Selamet said.

When the activities ended on that bright Sunday morning, the people of Padang Tegal had added 700 more trees to their beloved sanctuary.

"The thing that really makes me proud is that everything has been done by our own people, including the management of this forest," I Made Dana said.

The bendesa has a good reason to be proud. Not many village in Bali have that kind of environmental enthusiasm.

Experts promote new ways to fight deforestation

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Researchers from the Development Center for Bogor Forest Products recently completed the construction of 10 houses near Cifor forest in Bogor's Sindangbarang Jero village.

The stilt houses, made from coconut and sengon trees, form part of the team's research into wood preservation methods.

The head of the development center's research evaluation unit, Suhariyanto, said public knowledge about timber varieties was extremely limited, which contributed heavily to deforestation.

"People are only familiar with teak, meranti and ramin wood, which they use to build their houses with or make furniture from, and supplies are becoming less and less.

"Indonesia has 4,000 types of timber, including trees that commonly grow near homes such as coconut, mango, durian, sengon and acacia mangium trees. These types of timber are good for building houses that would last for at least 50 years if the timber was preserved properly," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said some types of timber, including sengon, were resistant to termites.

Researcher Efrida Basri, who specializes in wood drying, said if proper preservation methods were used, common types of wood could become reliable substitutes for conventional types of wood taken from endangered forests.

"People only collect fruit from common types of trees. This type of mind-set needs to change if we want to see our forests last," she said.

Efrida said the use of better preservation methods could make the export of commonly found trees in Indonesia quite lucrative.

She said traditional methods of preserving wood, such as drying it under the sun, resulted in Indonesian wood continuing to be of a low quality.

"But wood-steaming machines are relatively expensive for small-scale plantation owners," she said.

Efrida said the center had designed wood steamers for the wider community to use.

Home-industry businesses in Bogor and other areas of West Java, Papua, Aceh and Central Java already use wood steamers in their day-to-day production.

Illegal logging suspect arrested in Singapore

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post) : Anton Gunadi, an illegal logging suspect, was captured in Singapore on Sunday after more than a year on the run, a senior police officer said Tuesday.

"Police detectives picked up Anton on Sunday and brought him back home on Monday," National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Bambang Hendarso Dhanuri told Detik.com newsportal.

"Anton is now being held under custody at the National Police headquarters and is still being interrogated."

The National Police will transfer Anton to South Kalimantan Provincial Police on Wednesday for further legal processing.

Anton is allegedly involved in two illegal logging cases.

The first case involves 36 illegal logs while the second case involves 23 illegal logs.

The police announced Anton as suspect in the cases in March 2006. Anton, however, failed to show up when police summoned him and fled to Singapore.

The police put him on the wanted list in April 2006.