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Honey improves livelihood of former turtle egg hunters
Stick to this: Children visit the Belacan River campground in Paloh Beach, West Kalimantan, to taste honey
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span class="inline inline-center">Stick to this: Children visit the Belacan River campground in Paloh Beach, West Kalimantan, to taste honey. Stingless bee cultivation was introduced to turtle egg poachers as an alternative source of income in a bid to prevent poaching in the area.(JP/Severianus Endi)
Angelina Malva, 14, pierced a honey pocket using a plastic straw and sipped directly from the hive of a kelulut (stingless bee).
“It’s fantastic, drinking honey directly from a beehive, sweet and a bit sour,” said the ninth grader from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, who spent 12 hours on the road to reach the Belacan River campground.
The campground is located on Paloh Beach in Sambas regency, where rare sea turtles lay eggs in the longest nesting area in the country stretching 63 meters along the coast.
Cultivating kelulut honey is among activities of volunteers in the area. Wahana Bahari group secretary Yanto Albiano Anong said that apart from volunteering to help preserve turtles, they also cultivated kelulut for honey as an additional source of income.
“It’s relatively cheap and easy to do,” Yanto told The Jakarta Post recently.
The group was initially set up to help a group of former turtle egg hunters, called Kambau Borneo, make sure that the eggs turtles laid on the beach were secure.
Wahana Bahari, which was established in 2016 with 27 members, also planted trees at the mouth of the beach to prevent abrasion.
They later found that kelulut cultivation was not yet well managed.
The members of the group cut branches of a tree with kelulut hives to be placed on the beach cultivation site.
“We now have some 40 logs as the hives,” said Yanto.
He said one log could yield 50 honey pockets. They can be harvested by using modified breast milk pumps every month, producing 3 liters of honey per harvest.
“We harvest only 70 percent of the pockets so their colony won’t leave the location,” said Yanto, adding that the price of kelulut honey on the market was a bit higher compared to other types of honey.
A 250-milliliter bottle of kelulut honey is priced at Rp 100,000 (US$7.38), while 325-ml of ordinary honey produced in Kapuas Hulu is priced at Rp 85,000.
Sambas Deputy Regent Hairiah said more turtle egg hunters may turn to kelutut cultivation.
Although the level of productivity is not high as ordinary honey, kelulut cultivation can serve as additional source of income, Hairiah said.
Honey bee farmers in Paloh are being supervised by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia in capacity building, packaging, branding and marketing.
The bottled honey is marketed through NGO networks and exhibitions.
Manager of WWF Indonesia’s West Kalimantan branch, Albertus Tjiu, said kelulut honey had high amounts of propolis, which is believed to have many health benefits.
