From Looters to Forest Guardians: Cibulao Coffee Farmers’ Journey with P4W IPB University
In the past, the forest area in Cibulao Village, Puncak, Bogor, was often the target of illegal encroachment. Trees were carelessly cut down. Its natural products were exploited without control. However, who would have thought that the perpetrators who used to destroy it would now turn into forest guardians through coffee cultivation?
According to the Chairman of IPB University’s Research Center and Planning for Regional Development (P4W), Prof Baba Barus, the looters are tea garden workers who earn very little money with short working days. They get a wage of around Rp30-50 thousand per day due to the limited production of the garden.
With such an allocation of working time, workers have more time. “A lot of free time and low income encourage looting of protected forests in the Puncak area,” said Prof Baba Barus when interviewed.
Not only that, he continued, the looters also hunted deer and wild boars in the forest area. They also cleared forest land to grow vegetables, especially near their settlements. This kind of action ultimately causes environmental damage, such as high erosion which has the potential to cause landslides and floods.
From this incident, Prof Baba Barus said, the P4W team of IPB University took the initiative to conduct coaching so that the community would switch professions. In addition to becoming tea garden workers, the initiative encouraged them to become coffee farmers in the forest, especially in the river corridor area where many vegetables are planted.
“Farmers who are members of the program are already more intensive in maintaining their gardens, which are planted with trees and interspersed with coffee. This means that they do not have time to do activities in a wider location,” explained Prof Baba.
In the process, the coaching program is carried out by encouraging community participation. Starting from facilitating, formulating problems, identifying joint issues to conducting action planning.
“Former looters who were previously considered environmental destroyers are now transforming into successful coffee farm managers, both economically and socially,” says Prof Baba.
“This change happened because of the increasing awareness that conservation can coexist with economic activities,” he explained.
In addition, their existence is now recognized by parties, including the Ministry of Forestry, which provides legal land management concessions within a clear period of time.
“The Ministry of Forestry no longer needs data to protect the forest, and can even get funds for forest management which includes coffee plants,” said Prof Baba.
Cibulao coffee became even more famous when it was declared the National Best Robusta Coffee in the Indonesian Specialty Coffee Contest in 2016.
Prof Baba said, the mentoring activities carried out by P4W IPB University include:
- Provision of soil and water conservation techniques until farmers make beds, channels, plant trees, and others.
- Coffee cultivation, including the introduction of seeds, planting seeds, pruning branches and leaves, grafting techniques, and others.
- Post-harvest activities, such as drying, hulling beans, fermentation techniques, packaging, labeling, packing, and others.
- Technical activities include coffee roasting techniques, to brewing coffee. The farmers have also managed cafes around the tea gardens and sell coffee products directly.
- Connecting coffee farmers to the market and helping to build networks.
He admitted that P4W IPB University regularly visits Cibulao Village to provide continuous coaching. In fact, he said, residents from other villages are also interested in participating.
“A number of parties, such as Bank Indonesia, have also provided support for infrastructure development, training, and processing facilities. Several cafes in Bogor have also contributed to the development of Cibulao’s coffee business,” he said. (IAAS/NRA)
