Author: GoldTeak Admin

The new leaves and grass grow fast in the rainy season. The guardians have to cut the grass more often because if we let the grass grow, the trees will not receive enough nutrients from the soil. The tree tops open up with leaves that suck up the sun light and rain water. For the young trees, sunlight and rain water are very important to help them grow.

We also encourage the guardians to intercrop for their own needs. Certain plants grow very well in the first few years of the tree’s life that actually subsidize nutrition for the trees. Plants like peanuts, green beans, sweet potatoes and rice.

Eid al-Adha this year celebrated by the guardians at plantation. It is the “Festival of Sacrifice” or “Greater Eid” and is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, but instead was able to sacrifice a ram (by God’s command).

Eid is also about spending time with family and friends, sacrifice, and thanksgiving for being able to afford food and housing. In traditional or agrarian settings, each family would sacrifice a domestic animal, such as a sheep, goat, cow, or camel, by slaughter (though many contemporary Muslims do not sacrifice an animal as part of their observance). The meat would then be divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family eats one third, another third is given to other relatives, friends or neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor as a gift.

Zaini, site manager, gave two goats for the sacrifice and each guardian got about 2 kg of goat meat. Zaini also gave donation for the Madrasah School. The school will be ready in a couple of months.

A constant during the rainy season is that the road to Cibening turns to mud. It is difficult to walk and drive. The few cars that travel to Cibening often get stuck and the villagers are the local means of pulling them out. People often ride on the back of motorcycles to arrive, but this too can be difficult at times.

This is a common problem for all rural Indonesian villages. The Indonesian government has a program to help villagers rebuild their roads, but unfortunately the program cannot reach every village, every year throughout Indonesia.

Locals resolve their problems using the PEOPLE’S SWADANA & SWADAYA SYSTEM. Swadana means people collect the money by themselves and Swadana means they work with no pay as volunteers. They collect river stones/rock and buy asphalt to cover it. Cibening village has a plan to do this to rebuild their road; however their current efforts are to finish building the Islamic school first.

It rains almost every day on the plantation. To protect the young trees from caterpillars, the guardians spray insecticide and fungicide. GoldTeak prefers to limit the amount of insecticides and fungicides; however, manually removal of the caterpillars is time consuming so we try to balance between natural and chemical ways to remove these problems so that the trees do not suffer.

GoldTeak is also diligent in measuring the rate of growth of the trees to help us manage future plantations more effectively. Guardians measure a control group and random trees each month.

The barren environment and a carpet of leaves… this is a sure sign that the dry season is ending. The view is beautiful in its desolation, showing the trunks and branches and getting a last glimpse of the sunlight before the rain comes and brings another type of organic beauty.

The guardians work to remove the leaves to avoid fire hazards and make compost that will naturally fertilize the trees.

From the road we can a macro view of the GoldTeak plantation. In the distance behind Juliet, Jon and Mark the hillside is covered with young teaks moving into their second year of life.

The 2.6 years old teak trees look healthy and strong, they have passed the critical growth period. The girth of the trunks is expanding, as the first years of growth is concentrated on height. In addition, the trees are now less interesting to the annual catapillars who visit, as they prefer younger trees.

During the rainy season the grasses obviously grow faster, making the work for our guardians more intensive and a continual cycle of clearing. When they finish clearing the entire 40 HA of land they must return to the beginning as the grasses have already returned.

News leaves are returning as the rainy season continues.

The rain also brings sea grass that steal much needed water and nutrients from the trees.Goldteak uses every effort to clear this grass by hand and avoid using chemicals to destroy these invasive weeds.

Goldteak is not only about Teak. In order to maximize environmental impact as well as to help cover our costs we have planted different fruit trees. Durian, mango and oranges are looking healthy and we use Bio fertilizer. Next year Goldteak will start selling its produce.

The wives of the guardians are also busy, as we allow them to intercrop vegetables with the fruit trees for their daily needs. They are planting string and green beans.  The guardians have also created lovely flower and vegetable gardens around their homes. In 2010 we plan to start a program that will help them raise animals for milk and consumption.

The rainy season can present some troubling weather, however in nature there is always good and bad mixed with any event.

A heavy storm passed last week and on the plantation some of the homes were damaged by strong winds.

An interesting aspect of these strong winds is that the trees that are suffering from root disease are often blown down. This can be positive as it is impossible to tell in a timely manner if trees are suffering from this root disease because the trunks look healthy. As we will eventually be thinning the trees to allow for better growth this helps us by eliminating trees that can be polluting the earth with disease and taking nutrients from healthy trees.

Teak trees require a significant rainy and dry season. During the rainy season the trees leaves are green and full. However during the dry season these leaves all fall off allowing the tree trunks and soil to soak up sun and further nutrients. An interesting natural event happens at the end of the rainy season: Caterpillars come and attack the beautifully full green leaves, as the rainy season ends, helping the trees purge their leaves for the dry season. The cycle starts all over again at the beginning of the rainy season

Whether the rainy or dry season the guardians always have ample work to keep them busy maintaining the trees.

The road to Cibening is a rural dirt track. The only means of transportation are the occassional four wheel drive making deliveries and the brave Ojek drivers who help transport locals and visitors. An Ojek is basically a small motor bike in which the passenger or supplies sit on the back. We are in the midst of the rainy season and this can present some problems, as the road turns to mud. Goldteak employees and locals work diligently every year to maintain the road.

This year we are making a ‘gutter’ to provide run off from the road.

Suma’s wife is suffering from a tumor and was sent to the hospital. The local doctor advised her to remove the tumor, however, the locals are very reticent to modern medicine and the family has decided to follow the local traditional medicine.

Smoking is still very popular in rural Indonesia. Goldteak is trying to teach better health care practices and prevent fires on the plantation, so the Guardians (like many American and European workers) must go to a special place to smoke during their breaks. Most rural Indonesians smoke a special type of cigarette called Kretek – which is known as Clove cigarettes.

This is a time to socialize as well as relax.

To reach the Cibening plantation, we have to take motorbikes or a jeep. The road is not asphalted yet, so the guardians have to make a foot path for motorbike to reach the highest parts of the plantation.  It is very difficult to transport items as they are loaded onto motorbikes or carried by the guardians on foot.

Guardians build water gutters to drain water during  the rainy season.

The GoldTeak guardians have breakfast.  They start working very early, sometimes before the sun rises to avoid the heat.  Here they are sharing breakfast during an early morning break.

The weather has begun its annual change from the dry season to the rainy season.  Guardians do their regular activities like clearing grass, maintaining teak, acasia, mahogany and fruit trees.

This month, guardians prepare to re-plant acacia and mahogany trees that were lost in the recent fire.

The weather takes its toll on the local houses.  Every few years repairs need to be done not only on the homes but also in the front yard. Retaining walls are built to protect from erosion during the rainy season and septic tanks are changed.