From the Ashes: Regrowth and Resilience in Jambi

In addition to coordinating SMART patrols, a key part of Pak Edi’s role in the LPHD is engaging communities in forest protection. He has had some success, particularly by integrating existing customary rules (adat) relating to natural springs and water sources into wider forest protection efforts. But he’s also experienced some pushback. “Social change takes time and patience, and the community isn’t uniform,” he says patiently, before revealing a hint of bullishness: “whether people realise it or not, the forest must be cared for – if we protect it, the forest will give back; if we don’t, natural disasters will demonstrate its importance for us.”

About the SATUNAMA Project

• Total area: 10,887 ha
• Rimba Collective funding start date: 1 January 2024
• Four villages: Pematang Pauh, Talang Tembago, Tambak Ratu, Batin Pengambang
• Location: Jambi Province, in the buffer zone of Kerinci Seblat National Park
• Part of the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) 
• A critical habitat for endangered species, such as the Sumatran tiger

Fire Prevention in Talang Tembago 

The potentially destructive power of nature is familiar to many who work the land here. The villages of Talang Tembago and neighbouring Pematang Pauh are both located in the Jangkat Timur sub-district of Merangin; a hotspot for fires, where farmers have long relied on slash-and-burn land clearance to expand their plantations and rejuvenate depleted soils. With plantations on the boundaries of village forests (Hutan Desa), man-made fires pose a real threat. In response, SATUNAMA is working with local communities to raise awareness, develop fire prevention strategies and create the infrastructure needed for emergency response. 

SATUNAMA’s first step was to set up a formal fire prevention division (karhutla) in each of the LPHDs (there are four in total). Each of these divisions now includes a dedicated fire safety patrol team, called Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA), made up of local villagers trained by SATUNAMA with funding from the Rimba Collective. Their responsibilities include identifying water sources, monitoring farmland for fire risks and advising farmers to avoid burning near vulnerable areas or at potentially dangerous times, such as the dry season. 

“Prevention is key,” explains Widya Mimasari; a 24-year-old farmer and housewife from Talang Tembago, who is currently the only female member of the Talang Tembago MPA unit. “We need to be ready,” she adds, “and that’s why SATUNAMA’s support and training has been so important—it helps us take preventive action.” Widya and her team have been trained in new technologies like the Sipongi mobile app, which they use to log their data, and have also been equipped with water pumps for firefighting. She hopes they won’t need to use them, saying “it’s better to bring an umbrella before it rains.”

The Root of the Problem: Land Clearance in Pematang Pauh 

Like Widya, SATUNAMA believes prevention is better than cure. They are going to the root of the land clearance issue, working with farmers to co-design alternative solutions to slash-and-burn. For 36-year-old Adison, Head of the LPHD in Pematang Pauh Village, this work is a combination of business development, institutional strengthening and careful diplomacy. He coordinates a team of 31 rangers who are listening to farmers’ concerns and offering their support. “We encourage them not to open new plantations, but to make better use of the land they already have,” explains Adison. “We’ve also put up warning signs in fire hotspots so they’re aware of the risks, and we hold community meetings every week after Friday prayers.”

Here too, support from SATUNAMA has been essential. “We’ve received motorbikes for patrols, GPS units, compasses, binoculars, phones, cameras, radios,” says Adison. “This assistance is vital to our efforts.” SATUNAMA is working with village leaders and LPHDs in each of the four villages to formalise sustainable practices, develop better land-use planning and convince communities they have a vital role to play in conservation. 

For these approaches to work, local leadership is key. Saut Sinaga is SATUNAMA’s field coordinator. He is determined to take a bottom-up approach, and insists that LPHD members must come from within the local community. “Whether they farm in the Hutan Desa area or not,” he says, “the most important thing is our teams are made up exclusively of residents from the villages.” This approach is helping avoid conflict and secure buy-in; by ensuring solutions and enforcement come from within the community itself, Saut believes SATUNAMA is “balancing the ground-level realities of local livelihoods and traditional farming practices with forest protection and long-term environmental goals.”

SATUNAMA Activities and Objectives: 

• Strengthen forest management institutions through capacity building for village governance
• Support policy development, improved reporting and coordination
• Create fire prevention strategies to protect Hutan Desa areas from fires and degradation
• Address land use changes and illegal activities 
• Increase biodiversity management through training, data collection and collaboration
• Support community livelihoods through training, equipment and capacity building 
• Improve education in biodiversity, conservation and agroforestry

Ecosystem Service Outcomes:

• 9,603 hectares of forest conserved
• 1,284 hectares of forest restored
• 10.6% of village households benefitting from increased net income (including women’s empowerment activities)
• 11.7% of target of species benefiting from habitat conservation and restoration

“Commitment is Key”: A Farmer’s Guide to Sustainable Agroforestry

The bridge between SATUNAMA and local communities is the LPHDs, whose members embody the duality of conservation and livelihood at ground level. One of their longest-serving members is 26-year-old Andi Sudirja; an enthusiastic and resourceful local farmer, who also patrols the forest with the LPHD. He reveals that much of the agricultural land clearance here is not due to expansion, but rather the replacement of existing crops; a knee-jerk response to fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities.

“The issue is one of short-sightedness,” explains Andi. “When cinnamon prices go up, people plant cinnamon; when coffee goes up, they switch to coffee; as a result, nothing gets looked after properly and they don’t get good yields because there’s no long-term focus.” Andi is passionate about farming the right way. His plantation has coffee on a three-year harvesting cycle, interspersed with patchouli, which he processes into oil every 7 months to buy fertilizer, which in turn nurtures the growth of durian and trees such as ironwood (tembusu) that can provide long-term income from timber. Through his work in the LPHD, Andi is beginning to share this multi-cropping knowledge with his neighbours.

Andi has been a member of the LPHD since before SATUNAMA arrived. “Before SATUNAMA came in, we didn’t really know what to do,” he admits, “but since then, everything has changed; we got training, step-by-step; we learned the exact size of our forest area and its boundaries – before, I didn’t even know where it was. Now I understand my role in the patrol team.” He believes forest health is integral to community wellbeing. “Forests prevent pollution and protect water sources,” he explains. “They are the lungs of the Earth – if they’re destroyed, we’ll all suffer.”

Sustainable Livelihoods: Balancing Protection with Production 

In each of the villages where SATUNAMA works, there’s a local custom: never discuss important matters until the coffee is ready. Each household makes their own brew, from beans they’ve grown themselves – in the fields, or in modest gardens beside their homes. SATUNAMA has been taking an equally patient and personal approach to project activities in each of the four villages. Over 2 years, and countless cups of coffee, they’re beginning to find the right blend.

Forty-year-old Muhammad Sa’dani (also known as Dani) is Secretary of the Talang Tembago LPHD, and one of many farmers living and working in the village. He explains that the biggest challenge in the beginning was winning the community’s trust and demonstrating clear benefits in the production of local commodities like cinnamon, rice, patchouli and, most of all, coffee. 

“Previously, people harvested coffee using the rainbow approach,” explains Dani, referring to the process of picking green, unripe cherries indiscriminately and then mixing them together with ripe, red varieties. “The results weren’t good,” he says. In response, SATUNAMA set up an enterprise division and introduced new ideas gradually, covering techniques like selecting beans, milling, roasting, packaging and marketing. “Every community has its own culture,” says Dani, “and it takes time to build trust and introduce new ideas. But through that long process, the community has come to understand: ‘oh, this is what the product should look like, and this is how we can produce it.’”

Artisan Coffee (and Coffee is an Art)

One of many local coffee farmers SATUNAMA is working with – and learning from – is 55-year-old Pak Hasan; a village elder with a wealth of experience and a seemingly limitless passion for nature. Despite his advancing years, he regularly camps out in the forest, just so he can hear the sounds of animals in the wild. Pak Hasan’s 1-hectare plantation beside the Bukit Putih mountain supports around 3,000 coffee trees and is interspersed with plots of wildflowers, fishponds and irrigation channels. 

“It’s a great location,” he explains, “there’s the hill over there, wide open views, fresh air. The land here is really fertile too – mist from the hilltop gets carried down and collects here.” Hasan tends to his coffee crop with a combination of knowledge, skill and something more soulful. “For me, everything is about art,” he says, gently pruning the branches on one of his trees like he’s tuning a violin. “I approach farming with a sense of artistry – whatever I do, I do with feeling.”

Despite his artistic sensibilities, Pak Hasan is wise enough to see the wood for the trees. When asked why he chose coffee, he reveals his sharp business acumen: “I’ve looked at the yields from year to year and compared crops. For me, coffee makes more sense – it supports household income better than the alternatives, like cinnamon or patchouli.” Pak Hasan has used this information to his advantage, and honed his skills over time. “My goal is to use a small area and get big results,” he explains. “So I’ve developed a kind of multi-layered planting system.” 

Looking around his plantation, it is both idyllic and impressive – Pak Hasan’s coffee crop, which is only just coming into season, already fills eight large sacks (each weighing around 14kg). More beans are drying nearby, next to fresh seedlings that spiral upwards from the topsoil.

Community Engagement in Stewardship and Forest Care

Moving forward, Hasan is open to the possibility of working with the LPHD, but cautious. “I fully support the LPHD,” he says, “but my support depends on whether the programme actually benefits the people – if this programme is truly about stewardship and forest care, then it should also benefit the people within that forest; if it does, then I’m all for it.”

As the coffee slowly drains from our cups, so too the conversation goes deeper. “Forgive me for saying this,” says Pak Hasan. “I understand that this is a national, even global programme. But its usefulness should be felt here in our village – not in some faraway place like America. We all need a healthy climate; and we all must share the benefits.” When asked how the project can build trust in the community and alleviate some of his concerns, his answer is simple: “Please don’t show favouritism in how you support the community; if one person is supported by the programme, the rest may wonder: what about us?”

Pak Hasan raised these concerns at a recent LPHD meeting in Talang Tembago. Their response was music to the ears of this old artist. “I saw that this programme is a joint effort,” he says, “and it comes from within the community.” Like many farmers here, Hasan isn’t looking for handouts or neatly packaged solutions. “We don’t want a gift,” he continues. “That’s not what it’s about – it’s about collaboration. And I hope the support is long-term, not just one visit and then done. Real change takes time.”

From Learning to Livelihoods, Changing the Landscape

SATUNAMA is thinking beyond instant impact to long-term and lasting progress. Together with LPHDs made up of local farmers, they have established forest patrols, set up fire prevention strategies and introduced environmental programmes to local village schools, which pass on local knowledge and educate young children about the  species that share their forests, such as hornbills, deer, tigers and bears. “It’s made a big impression on the primary school children here,” says Dani, back at the LPHD office in Talang Tembago, “as it helps them form a connection with nature from an early age. That’s one of the real benefits we’ve seen from SATUNAMA’s involvement.”

Looking to the future, Dani, Adison, Edi, Widya and their teams hope to expand their activities further, with particular emphasis on empowering women and young people like Andi to engage in conservation and formulate their own ideas for sustainable, profitable agroforestry, just as elders like Pak Hasan have done. “Thanks to Rimba’s support,” says Dani, “our villagers now have more knowledge. It’s helped us process agricultural and forest products more effectively and bridge the information gap, from school classrooms to the fields and coffee plantations.”

Just outside the window, a dirt road winds through Talang Tembago. It turns past the village school, where children are learning about biodiversity; it continues to the village mosque, where the LPHD team meet with farmers after Friday prayers; and continues into the valley beyond, where Pak Hasan’s coffee is growing in the shadow of Bukit Putih mountain, and rice fields are cleared under the watchful eye of of Widya’s fire patrol team. 

Walk a little further, and you’ll find a thicket of flowering vines, wrapping their tendrils around the shell of a burnt-out excavator. Look a little closer, and you’ll see a charred logo on its flank that reads Macan, meaning ‘tiger’ in Indonesian. Over the past two years, as the vines have continued their steady creep, villagers here have planted the seeds of their own solutions in this landscape and are beginning to see them grow. They have also shown that in times of crisis, when nature is under threat, conservation heroes show their teeth and earn their stripes.

ABOUT SATUNAMA 

SATUNAMA is an Indonesian NGO established in 1998, dedicated to promoting social development, community empowerment and human rights advocacy. The organisation focuses on capacity building, sustainable livelihoods, mental health and environmental conservation to foster social justice and sustainable development. Through training, advocacy and community-based programs, SATUNAMA works to create a more just, democratic and sustainable society. For more information, please visit their website.

ABOUT THE RIMBA COLLECTIVE 

The Rimba Collective is an innovative, long-term collaboration between leading consumer goods manufacturers, NGOs and forest-dependent communities in Southeast Asia. Our aim is to protect landscapes, livelihoods and biodiversity through a portfolio of high-quality conservation and restoration projects. Over the next 25 years and beyond, this approach will achieve lasting, long-term impact at scale, with over 550,000 hectares of rich forest landscapes protected and 32,000 local livelihoods improved. 

To find out more, and to join the Rimba Collective, please get in touch.