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Jakarta Post

Rubber cultivated to protect family lands

Budding prospects: Teenage girls and boys, trained by a program for young farmers, inspect the stems of rubber seedlings grown on peatland in Teluk Bakung in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan

Severianus Endi (The Jakarta Post)
Pontianak
Fri, March 9, 2012

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Rubber cultivated to protect family lands

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span class="inline inline-left">Budding prospects: Teenage girls and boys, trained by a program for young farmers, inspect the stems of rubber seedlings grown on peatland in Teluk Bakung in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan. JP/Severianus EndiA group of teenage girls seems oblivious to the intense mid-afternoon sunlight in Loncek hamlet. They happily inspect the stems of rubber seedlings grown in a 1-hectare farm located in peat land.

They are replacing rotten seedlings. The previous week, the farm was flooded and a number of seedlings had withered. Some teenage boys clear tree stumps with chainsaws and later gather and burn them.

Loncek hamlet is located 60 kilometers from the West Kalimantan capital, Pontianak. It is accessible by the smoothly paved Trans-Kalimantan Highway, which connects with a 10-kilometer dirt road through an oil palm plantation to Loncek.

Loncek is one of the seven hamlets in Teluk Bakung village, Kubu Raya regency. It has 876 inhabitants, or 124 families. The surrounding forest has been encroached to make way for oil palm plantations.

The teenagers are members of the Palambon Pucuk Baguas Young Farming Group (KTM). In the local Dayak Kanayan dialect, palambon is the name of a local rubber variant. Pucuk baguas means waving branches.

“Each weekend, we plant and take care of the rubber saplings. We have planted 3,000 rubber seedlings,” said Nani, 23, secretary of Palambon Pucuk Baguas KTM, at the rubber farm.

The farm is only around 3 kilometers from the their hamlet. A 16 square-meter thatched bamboo shelter serves as their base camp. Nearby is a small plot of rubber saplings, planted in sawdust.

An NGO in Pontianak provides counseling especially to teenage school-dropouts in the hamlet. It has chosen rubber farming to protect residents’ land from expanding oil palm plantations.

Nani is the only group member who finished her education at a polytechnic, while the others only have an elementary or junior-high school education or dropped out of senior-high school.

They learn bud grafting at the Pontianak Diocese Dharma Bhakti Rubber Seedling Center located in Nyarumkop, Singkawang, some 160 kilometers from Pontianak.

Every guest must plant a seedling which will be recorded in the database. So far, 400 seedlings have been grafted. The process is quite tricky and sensitive. If the seedlings are contaminated by just a small amount of water, they will be damaged.

“On regular days, our members work as rubber tappers and harvest cerucuk timber,” said Nani. The cerucuk timber, taken from the forest, is sold as building material. The peaty soil in the area requires cerucuk timber to reinforce building foundations.

A cerucuk tree usually measures 8 centimeters in diameter and is 4 meters long. “We carefully select the cerucuk trees before felling them,” said Leonardus, 27, leader of the Palambon Pucuk Baguas KTM.

Leonardus graduated from a vocational school in Pontianak. He said he was motivated to return to his village after learning of the threat from the expanding palm oil plantations.

“We are striving to protect our 20-hectare family plot like a fortress,” said Leonardus, adding that the total palm oil concession area had increased to around 12,000 hectares.

“We have often been coaxed by palm oil companies to surrender the land, but we don’t want to,” he said.

Cutting down cerucuk timber remains a temporary option for now. Loggers usually set a target of felling 100 trees per day. If a tree is sold for Rp 1,800 (20 US cents), each of them can earn Rp 180,000 daily.

“The cerucuk trees will run out so we must think about the future. Rubber tapping is our preference because it can last a long time provided the rubber trees are well maintained,” said Paulinus, 24, another group member.

A hectare of rubber trees can produce 30 kilograms of latex daily. “Let’s say the price of latex is Rp 11,000 per kilogram, a rubber tapper can earn Rp 333,000 daily, which is quite promising,” said Paulinus.

The youths also learn management and marketing. The rubber seedlings are attached with codes denoting the members who cultivated them and the members are provided with manuals and video CDs containing planting and maintenance tutorials.

Loncek hamlet chief Donatus Dino said the active participation of the teenagers was something to be encouraged. “Through the youth participation, we have seen changes in our hamlet, which is already 105 years old,” said Donatus.

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