The Katingan Rattan Farmers Association held its annual meeting on January 19 and 20, 2017, in Kasongan, Katingan Regency, Central Kalimantan. This activity aims to review the activities that have been carried out during 2016 as well as its achievements for one year. The annual meeting was opened by the Vice Regent of Katingan, Mr. Sakariyas, SE.

In his speech, Sakariyas said that the Katingan Regency Government really welcomes the annual meeting of the Katingan Rattan Farmers Association. He said, many officials who came from Katingan were successful because of the results of the rattan garden.

Sakariyas regretted the decline in the price of rattan at the local level due to games from irresponsible parties, even though the price of rattan in the foreign market is expensive. "As a result of the low price of rattan, many rattan farmers have converted their rattan plantations into gold mining sites. If they don't get the gold, they lose their rattan plantations," said Sakariyas.

The government hopes that the institution of the Katingan Rattan Farmers Association can maintain the condition of the Katingan rattan and keep the garden environment sustainable. Now the price of rubber and rattan is starting to increase. "Hopefully this increase is not only temporary and hopefully will continue to increase," he said.

This deliberation activity was attended by core administrators and regional coordinators in 6 sub-districts, P2RK Cooperative administrators Marikit Sejahtera, Uwei Batang Pambelum, Kamipang Sejahtera Bersama and representatives from 4 sub-districts in the upper reaches of the Katingan River, namely Katingan Hulu sub-district. The agenda of the meeting was the submission of P2RK development in 2016, evaluation of the work program and preparation of the P2RK Work Plan in 2017, and inventory of documents for P2RK FSC certification.

The results of discussions and deliberations of the participants obtained several mutual agreements, especially in fulfilling the completeness of the certification standard documents, namely: Joint agreement of all participants on standards in the management and utilization of P2RK member rattan gardens in the form of Standard Operating Procedures / SOPs (P2RK Membership Acceptance Standards; Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Management of P2RK Member Rattan Gardens; P2RK Rattan Cultivation (Silviculture) Standards; Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Procurement of Rattan Raw Materials at the P2RK Rattan Processing Unit; Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Processing of Asalan Rattan at the P2RK Rattan Processing Unit; and Joint Agreement on Conflict Resolution in Rattan Management and Utilization).

Furthermore, the deliberation decided to determine P2RK membership spread across 614 villages in 6 sub-districts in Katingan, revamping P2RK membership administration so that there is a clear membership register, P2RK will distribute forms and statement letters to all members to create a membership register that will be made in the membership data base system by the P2RK Management. In addition, the participants agreed to prepare an assessment plan by the certification body (certificatebody / CB) to P2RK as the shaft manager in the group certification scheme.

MOCK ASSESSMENT P2RK

Meanwhile, GFTN WWF Indonesia Jakarta on January 23 to 24, 2017 conducted MOCK Assessment P2RK in the Meeting Room of Permata Ibu Inn, Kasongan, Katingan Regency, Central Kalimantan. The activity resulted in several recommendations for document completeness to be reviewed and completed by the P2RK Rattan Farmers Association as the FSC Certification Group Manager.

In this activity, 8 P2RK Completeness Document Recommendations were obtained which need to be reviewed and revised, namely the P2RK FSC certification group manual; P2RK management plan revision regarding P2RK Cooperative (Business Unit); P2RK membership form; P2RK membership evaluation form; Making FSC posters (HCV, B3, and K3); Making FSC pocket books (PCI); Making Job Description for regional coordinators and monitoring and evaluation system for FSC implementation (separate SOP); Monitoring and evaluation of Flora and Fauna around the garden.

To see the readiness of P2RK members, WWF and GFTN carried out sampling of rattan gardens and discussions in Kamipang District, namely Karuing and Tumbang Runen Villages. This activity is to find out the nodes of rattan movement and forest gates implemented by farmers as well as collectors and the role of the P2RK cooperative which will become the forest gate for rattan chain of custody.

From the results of the garden sampling, WWF and GFTN concluded that there is still a need for socialization related to the understanding of FSC certification with the rattan commodity, which as a whole sample is rattan farmer gardens or P2RK member farmers. Another obstacle found is the difference between rattan gardens that have been harvested and rattan gardens that are rarely harvested, so that the criteria for the questions asked are also different.

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For more information, please contact:

Indra Bayu Pati Maleh, Sustainable Rattan Coordinator Central Kalimantan, WWF-Indonesia

Email: [email protected]