The Art of Conservation: Building Resilient Landscapes in East Kalimantan

Monitoring the health of the forest

In the depths of the hutan desa, birdsong is accompanied by the percussion of raindrops on tarpaulin – the roof of the LPHD’s forest camp has taken a battering overnight, confining the team to barracks. But with the arrival of sunrise, affirmative action is needed; Pak Mujiono crouches down and picks up a leaf from the forest floor, then carefully folds it and tucks it behind his right ear. “It will keep us dry,” he explains, before offering an explanation: “a local custom.” Sure enough, the tiny umbrella works its magic; the downpour stops, and the team sets off on morning patrol.

“Whenever we venture into the forest, we leave our worries behind,” says Mujiono. Like many people who spend their time among trees, he speaks softly and sporadically. With forest giants towering above, it’s hard not to be humbled. At 42 years of age, Mujiono is the field coordinator of the LPHD in Karangan Hilir. Today, he is searching for more than just peace of mind; together with a team of rangers, geologists and biodiversity experts, he is monitoring the health of the forest through one of the LPHD’s regular surveys.

Mujiono’s eyes brighten as he describes the species that have been observed here, many of which feature on the IUCN  Red  List: Bornean orangutan,  Sunda  pangolin, Bornean river turtle, brown giant tortoise, false gharial, Asiatic softshell turtle, rhinoceros hornbill and, most revered of all, the ⁠⁠Sunda clouded leopard and flat-headed cat. To support the survival of all these creatures, regular monitoring and patrols are critical. In a typical month, Mujiono and his team will usually fold the leaves around 11 times.

Expanding forest management, investing in livelihoods

Daily actions by the LPHD form part of an ambitious, long-term plan for Karangan Hilir and the three other locations covered by KBCF. Over the next 25 years, the project aims to restore more than 18,ooo hectares of forest in East Kalimantan, with progress documented through continuous satellite analyses, field observations and forest patrols, and then verified by a third party. Rimba Collective financing is being earmarked for capacity building, stipends and the equipment needed to establish and expand forest management, monitoring and restoration, while investment in nascent livelihood activities can also expedite the shift from forest-destructive activities to a more sustainable paradigm.

Central to this approach is community awareness of village forests and the biodiversity they contain. And it is here where the LPHD is already making headway, laying the foundation for future development. Pak Mezron insists long-term partnerships are the key to unlocking positive impacts. “Changing attitudes takes time,” he explains. “We have to educate the community about the hutan desa, the importance of keeping it safe and the rules they need to follow regarding forest boundaries, access and extraction. All of this requires time, patience and resources.” 

Read More | Stories of Hope and Restoration in West Kalimantan

Adding value to local cacao production

As part of this collaborative process, Mezron and the LPHD are working closely with farmers in Karangan Hilir. One of them is Rahmawati. Together with her father, Pak Awi, she manages the family’s cacao plantation, located near the border of the hutan desa. Rahma is determined to produce the cacao crop sustainably, while also ensuring it can support her family. Looking around their farm, crimson cacao fruits bloom like baubles on every tree. She insists this abundance does not have to cost the earth.

“Cacao can be grown in harmony with the environment,” she explains. “It requires less water and less space than monocropping, while waste from the harvest – like the skins – can be turned into organic fertilizer and returned to the soil.” For families like Rahma’s, living in the midst of a  production landscape, cacao provides a viable, alternative source of income – a way to do more with less. “In my personal experience, cacao is also physically easier to produce,” she explains, “which means women and girls like us can do it too – not just the men.”

Awi and Rahma are currently looking to upscale their operations and add value to their produce. One way to achieve this is through fermentation of the cacao beans, which improves their quality and puts them in a higher price bracket. However, upgrading traditional farms with the necessary equipment can be a challenge. “At the moment, our facilities are insufficient for large-scale fermentation,” she says. “We need a fermentation box and a fermentation house, otherwise we have to do everything by hand. Our hope is we can get the support we need soon, so we can overcome these limitations in the cultivation process.”

Building farmers’ capacity through training and collaboration

This support is beginning to arrive. KBCF has been working together with the local Production Forest Management Unit (KPHP) to connect Karangan Hilir with other villages in East Kutai. This has resulted in a new cacao processing factory, operated by members of three different villages. The project also includes an agreement with the LPHD to prevent the opening of new land on the borders of the hutan desa, opting instead to maximise the productivity of existing plantations.

The factory is managed collectively by the local forestry department and the LPHD. Stocked with 18 brand-new drying and fermentation machines, it can process cacao beans and then sort them according to quality, which will add significant value to farmers’ produce and reduce the physical work that’s required. Set to begin operations within Q4 2024, production capacity at the factory is around 50kg per day.

The LPHD have already recruited 10 local people to run the factory, some of whom were previously loggers, miners and hunters. “We focus on training young people in sustainable cacao production, so there’s a double benefit of lessening harm done to the forest and increasing economic value for local communities,” explains Pak Muslimin, head of the forestry department. “We are very concerned about preserving the local environment here,” he adds, “so we use solar power for our machines and process the discarded cacao husks into compost or briquettes which can be used in local building projects. Nothing goes to waste.”

Supporting social forestry business groups

To help farmers improve their practices and gain access to regional markets, the LPHD and KBCF are working together with local businesses and government officials. “This region has extraordinary potential,” explains Pak Jabir, head of the local village government. Around him, sacks of cacao beans are stacked up against every wall, and the delicate aroma of chocolate fills the room. “Farmers here are learning to focus on quality, not just quantity,” he explains. “Before, there was only one grade of cacao produced in Karangan Hilir, but after 7 months of training and development, we now produce three – grades A, B and C. The A-grade beans are good enough to export abroad.”

This year the district government opened a field school that taught seven farmer groups about the fermentation process. As Jabir explains, “our ultimate goal is to provide reliable, sustainable work for the local community, based around a high-quality product that’s unique to this location.” This capacity-building process has already begun to have an impact, adding an estimated IDR 10,000 (US$ 0.65) of value to every kilo produced in Karangan Hilir. Jabir estimates farmers here can produce around 2 tonnes of high-quality cacao from just 2 hectares each year, with total yields estimated at around IDR 200 million (US$12,600). To put that in perspective, the annual income for small-scale rice farmers in Kalimantan is just IDR 5.23 million (US$328).

With so much potential to be explored, and big plans already in the pipeline, Jabir has high hopes for the region’s farming communities. “Working together, we can make Karangan Hilir the cacao capital of Indonesia,” he says. Over the 25-year duration of the KBCF project in East Kalimantan, livelihood development projects focused on cacao and other social forestry business groups (KUPS) are expected to benefit a total of 1,653 households, with income improvements tracked through regular surveys among households participating in project activities.

From protection to production: taking a multi-faceted approach

The cave paintings of East Kalimantan are the world’s oldest examples of figurative artwork – carbon dating in 2018 put some of them at more than 50,000 years old. In addition to hand stencils and stick figures, they depict the many animals with whom those ancient peoples shared the forest, including banteng (a prehistoric form of cattle), deer and pigs. This prehistoric biodiversity survey, handed down from the ancients, reveals a long history of communities living in and managing this landscape. It seems fitting then, that local people and Indigenous groups are the ones tasked with restoring biodiversity to the forest.

In Karangan Hilir, Rimba Collective funding for the LPHD translates directly to impacts at ground level, through forest patrols, reforestation and monitoring. Crucially, the arrival of large-scale and long-term corporate financing mechanisms in this region can also elevate the local cacao industry; a sustainable form of agroforestry with enormous potential, which has the twin benefit of reducing damage to the forest and raising living standards in local communities.

Community members in East Kutai speak passionately of their natural heritage. From childhood memories and local customs to family farms and regional commodities; all share a common thread, which binds conservation to development and is as ever-present as the karst mountains on the horizon. With support from KBCF and the Rimba Collective, the descendants of those ancient cave artists are combining tradition with cutting-edge technologies, and pressing their fingerprint into the future of Kalimantan’s forests.

At this early stage, the future remains a blank canvas. As Pak Mezron explains, “protecting the forest requires a multi-faceted approach; in addition to monitoring and restoration, we must also engage with communities and rebuild their connection to nature. In this way, conservation is not just a science; it is also an art.”

About the Rimba Collective

The Rimba Collective is a long-term collaboration between leading consumer goods manufacturers, NGOs and local communities who are working to restore and protect forests in Southeast Asia. By financing a portfolio of high-quality projects, which produce verifiable ecosystem impacts, members of the collective are able to achieve their sustainability commitments and deliver lasting impact at scale for nature and communities. Over the next 30 years, we aim to restore and protect over 500,000 hectares of rich forest landscapes in Indonesia and beyond, while also improving livelihoods for 32,000 local people. To find out more, please get in touch.