By: Davit Purwodesrantau

PALANGKA RAYA - WWF-Indonesia supported by the Central Kalimantan Provincial Forestry Service launched a popular book in Palangka Raya, Wednesday (3/15/2017). The book, titled Tumbang Taberau Mengiruk Harapan, written by Martin Siregar, tells the story of a village around a concession.

It is inspired by WWF-Indonesia's cooperation with PT Sari Bumi Kusuma (SBK) in the context of protecting Kalimantan forest areas through social development. One of them is a story about the socio-economic development of forest village communities in Tumbang Taberau, Seruyan District, Central Kalimantan. The management of the program is cross-sectoral with West Kalimantan.

WWF-Indonesia and PT SBK have conducted various cooperation programs. Especially in strengthening the concession area through the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) or Sustainable Forest Management (PHL) approach.

This approach targets three aspects, namely the development of alternative sources of livelihood for communities in the PT SBK concession area, reducing the level of wildlife hunting in the PT SBK concession area, and reducing forest encroachment through rehabilitation of non-productive areas. The focus of the program covers three villages.
The implementation of this one-day seminar and book launch was intended as a form of dissemination about the cooperation initiatives of various parties. They are WWF-Indonesia, PT SBK, and the community, as well as social development programs that have been or are being implemented in Central Kalimantan.

Kalimantan Regional Leader WWF-Indonesia M Hermayani Putera said this book was presented to strengthen the approach to programs that have been running. "One of them is through documentation and knowledge sharing mechanisms to the parties," he said, Wednesday (3/15/17).

According to Hermayani, there are several activities related to community capacity building in three villages in the PT SBK area. The activities were carried out through the Forest Village Community Empowerment (PMDH) program. Starting from the assessment stage, the distribution of production facilities, a series of community capacity building, facilitation of marketing agricultural products, to rehabilitation of non-productive land.

In the process, Hermayani explained, each village that has been assessed has diverse socio-economic potential. Starting from the potential capacity of vegetable gardening in Tumbang Taberau Village, fisheries in Kiham Batang Village, and rattan in Tumbang Kajamei Village.

However, this has not been tied into a sustainable and structured program. To strengthen this need, it is necessary to transform the program at the community level into a village program. Tumbang Taberau was then chosen as the object of writing. The consideration is that in addition to being a new village and its remote location, the dependence of the village community on PT SBK is very high.

Through an intensive mentoring program, this dependence is expected to turn into independence. Especially for the village government and the community. "The values in knowledge management and experience in Tumbang Taberau are what we want to share with the parties," said Hermayani.

The book about Tumbang Taberau Village is expected to strengthen social analysis in village assistance programs. It can also be developed in community assistance programs in other villages, throughout Indonesia.

"We hope that strategic partners and parties can capture the substance of the story of Tumbang Taberau Village. Hopefully we can all increase literacy and capture the learning from the work of WWF-Indonesia Central Kalimantan Program. Indeed, this program can be an inspiration in replicating community-based and conservation programs," said the Head of the Central Kalimantan Provincial Forestry Service, Sipet Hermanto.
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For more information, please contact:

Jelfi | Communication Coordinator WWF-Indonesia Central Kalimantan Program
JL. Krakatau, No. 12, Palangka, Jekan Raya, Palangka Raya City, Central Kalimantan 74874
PHONE: +6282274756620 | Email: [email protected]

Dedi Wahyudy | Community Enterprise Development Coordinator
WWF-Indonesia West Kalimantan Program
Jl. Y.C. Oevang Oeray, Baning Kota - Sintang
PHONE: +62 812-5728-740 | Email: [email protected]