Category: Cibening

For the young trees which planted in February 2009, they are thirty months old now, and about 10 or 12 meters tall, but for the young trees which planted at the end of March 2009 they are about 7 or 8 meters tall. The shortest trees are the trees which replanted at the end of April, because they did not survived from teak decease or hot weather. In 1 or 2 years, the shortest trees will be as tall as the tallest ones. In a growing period the trunk will be bigger and taller and the root become stronger, especially for a “Solomon” type where the tree will grow high with less leaves. Small branches will disturb the growing of the trunk, so unnecessary branches should be cut.

It is necessary to look after the soil, it should be free from gulma or weed around the tree, this will give the tree and its root receive enough nutrition and sunrise.

All trees, teak, acacia, mahogany, durian, mango and durian have received the same treatments, giving insecticide, fungicide or fertilizer if necessary. Water is also important, although teak is a strong tree but during the growing period it needs a lot of water.

Who does all of those things? Off course Guardians, do they live as well as the trees do? Pak Parid is one of two supervisors in Goldteak plantation. He and his family have been living in plantation since Goldteak opened the first 20 ha teak plantation in Cibening more than 7 years ago. He is a role model of a good, active, diligent and responsible guardian, more than that he also started to be entrepreneur. When he moved to the plantation, he did not bring anything but his wife and 5 from 8 children they have.

Goldteak provided him with a bamboo house and small yard around the house. Every day, when he has a break time of after finishing the job he takes care his goats, chicken and his yard, now he has 3 goat houses with more than 5 goats and lambs, he has more than 30 chicken and a yard full with fruit and vegetable. Two of his sons, Kusnadi and Dede P, have followed his step and become entrepreneurs too, they also have several goats. Before Lebaran, Dede P sold his goats and bought a second hand motor bike that would help him and family travel to places.

Some of the guardians have tried to follow pak Parid’s way, but will they be like pak Parid? We have to be optimist because all teachers at SD Cibeureum and Goldteak will help the guardians and all children in Cibening village to have a good future.

August 17th is Indonesian Independence Day, SD Cibeureum students and Cibening people celebrated on August 15. All people came together to SD Cibeureum school to see the games, there were several traditional games like climbing betel nut tree to get presents, running by using rice sack, taking coin on the fruit, putting the chalk into bottles, and all students got presents.

August 19-20th happens to be a Muslim Eid festival after Ramadhan. Almost all of the villagers celebrate this festival by visiting relatives and their neighbors. 

In the mid of August, the weather is very hot with strong wind. It hadn’t been raining for 4 weeks and the guardians helped the land to get water. People in Cibening collected the river water and put it in containers, the water resource has filled up with water. It is expected that the water can be used until the next rain falls.

Every year, when farmer start to open the area for farming, they usually burn the land. The farmers don’t have money to pay the workers to open their land so they burn it, after that they use the hoes to open the land, and early rainy season they can start to plant the rice. This is one of problems in plantation or farming area. Sometimes, the fire can not be controlled because there is hard wind or no water supply available. 

The other problem is because the area of farming and plantation huge and there is not enough people to handle. All trees are burnt will be replanted in December in rainy season.

In Indonesia, there are two types of hospital: Private Hospitals and Government
Hospitals. For government hospitals, there are several classes depend on the
location and the scope of the service. The Province General Hospital, The
Kabupaten (Regency) General Hospital, Puskesmas (Pusat Kesehatan
Masyarakat) at Kecamatan and Posyandu (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu) at Kelurahan
or RW (Rukun Warga) in small area about 50 to 100 families.

At Posyandu, there are female volunteers and a midwife who can help women
who are pregnant or who take the Birth Control Program/Family Planning
Program, babies or children below 6 years old. Mostly children have free
vaccination and nutrition program.
The people who are sick and the midwife can not give an assistance, will be sent to
Puskesmas. At Puskesmas, there is one doctor and one dentist and a midwife,
sometimes people can have a small surgery or give birth and children can have
circumcision. For big Puskesmas, there are some rooms for patients (mothers
who has just given births).

For the patients who need to stay longger and have serious health problems then
they have to go to the general hospital at Province.
In the villages, we can find Posyandu with very limited equipment, only baby
scale, children scale with length measurement, they do not have a blood pressure
measurement, thermometer. The posyandu does not open every day, usually it
opens once a week or once a month, depends on the midwife availability. The
midwife often brings contraception like birth control pills for the mothers and
immunization series for the babies.

Cibening Village has Posyandu “Kemuning”. It is located at Mrs. Leni’s house or
the porch, together with the midwife, Eva, she helps to write patients data,
distribute vitamins or birth control pills or makes rice porridge or green bean
porridge for the children.

One of Goldteak CSR programs, is to support people for their health and
education. Every month Goldteak gives vitamin for the children and the
guardians, birth control pills for the women or other medicine like cough syrup,
headache tablets or helminthic. In regular time, Goldteak also gives a health
counseling to the guardians family to have a clean house (some of the villagers do
not have toilets) so they have a communal one, and give information about the
nutrition for the family especially the children.

“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything”.
(Arabian Proverb)

The West Java Province with 10 regency has a very large forest strip (764.387,59 ha), it is 20,62 % from the whole province area. Based on 2006 data, this particular province still has Productive forest 362.980,40 ha, Protected forest (including National Park) 228.727,11 ha, Conserved forest 172.680 ha and Mangrove forest 40.129,89 ha.

From the Productive forest, West Java produced 200,675 m3 wood. Actually West Java needs about 4.000.000 m3 per year. Hutan Rakyat or forest managed by local people is about 214.892 ha and produced 893.980,75 m3 of wood.

From 580.000 ha critical forest, local government has planted trees on 357.000 ha, the rest 223.000 ha is still waiting to be recovered. Perhutani (Indonesian Forestry Company) with local people are working together to complete the Rehabilitation Program in the next few years.

Today, Indonesian Government supports any business institution or private company even individual to plant trees to make West Java green. Almost eleven years, Goldteak has been taking part of this program in Cibening and Bumisari areas. Opening the land for planting trees has several benefits, to help the area more green, more water and to help the people get jobs and develop the economy and education.

Based on scientific reports it is stated that in the near future West Java, especially
Sukabumi area, will have a water crisis because the water bottling industry has
seriously compromised the water table.

Cibening village and GoldTeak  have experienced this first hand, as the area is one
of the driest in Sukabumi.  People rely on rain water for their rice paddy and
other crops and experience problems during the dry season. They have to get the
water in the next village and share the water for bathing, washing and cooking.
The guardians and villagers have been worried and frustrated.  They believe that
their village has no water, they have even blamed the trees for using their
water.  GoldTeak trees are all tall, the roots grow down deep and they are green
and healthy providing support for the villager’s misguided beliefs.
Last Year, before the rainy season arrived, we asked the guardians to dig a new
well near the eight year old teak trees. They did not want to waste their time or
energy, because there had NEVER been water in that area.  We required them to
try.  After digging only six meters they found water and were able to stop digging
at eight meters.  The well is continually full of clean water.
Goldteak has proved to the people that when trees can live so can the rest of the
environment around them.

The FAO states that:

“Forests and trees make an essential contribution to food security by helping to
maintain the environmental conditions needed for agricultural production. They
stabilize the soil, prevent erosion, enhance the land’s capacity to store water, and
moderate air and soil temperatures.”
Traditionally the villager’s secure the water’s cleanliness through the existence of
insects, frogs and tadpoles. They will begin to use the water when the hot season
comes and Goldteak will help teach them to filter the water so they can use it for
drinking and cooking.
In the near future, Goldteak will have several wells, so people in Goldteak
plantation and the people who live around will have enough water during hot or
drought season.

“ Did the well before you are thirsty” (Chinese Proverb)

Indonesia has a program, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), to
vaccinate children from 1-5 years old.   Hepatitis B Vaccines are the primary focus
because it is the most prevalent contributor to child morbidity and mortality in
Indonesia.  The program also includes vaccines against Tuberculosis, Polio,
Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis and Measles.
Indonesia is fortunate to be the home of  PT Bio Farma, which is the largest ‘halal’
pharmacy producer, hence the government has access to favorably priced
vaccines that are included in the program.
Although WHO has been supporting Indonesian Government for this program, it
does not mean that we do not have problem distributing the program in all
provinces. Every province has their policy related to the health program,
especially for the child vaccination, and its success depends on the commitment
from local government, operational cost and human resources.

However the biggest problem is in the perception of local people and their lack of
knowledge about vaccination, they have had (or heard of) bad experiences with
their children getting sick after receiving a vaccine.  This is where GoldTeak
provides support, by providing support and giving knowledge to the people
(parents, teachers and the children) to understand why they need to be
vaccinated.

Cibening is a small village with less than 100 children who are 1-5 years old and
about 80 children who are 6-12 years old.  Almost all the children who are 1-5
years old and 6-12 years old have received vaccines.
Mrs Neni is the health officer in Posyandu “Kemuning” (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu
or Intergrated Service Center) at Cibening explains that her duties are: to weigh
the babies (0-11 months and young children 1-5 years old).  She keeps a record of
the childrens weight until they are 5 years old.  Children who are 6-8 years old,
receive their follow up vaccines and Tetanus shots at school.

Mrs Teti is the health officer in Puskesmas (Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat or
Local Health Center) in Bantar Gadung, a neighbouring village. She comes to
Cibening once a month to check the women who are pregnant, give assistance on
the birth control programs. She brings contraception pills or injection. And she
assists people to get the Jamkesmas service (Health Insurance for poor people).

Intercropping adds very little extra work, prior to intercropping the guardians spent much of their time keeping the sea grasses that grows between the trees under control (sea grasses consume nutrients in the soil).  With intercropping instead of killing the sea grass, the guardians spend time nurturing plants that enhance the wellbeing of the soil.

Intercropping also helps the guardian learn more skills that can enhance the wellbeing of their families.  Some of the guardians who like farming, use their day off to plant some vegetables near the house and raise animals to help support their families personal consumption, however, only three of our guardians do this.  Goldteak is exploring the idea of creating a community garden where families can share the work and share the results.

Keep an eye on ‘News from the Field’ to see how that develops.

Updates on the scholarship program:  With just 850,000 rph of donated seeds the children have raised 8 million rph by selling the products.

Next News from the Field:  Vaccines for the Children.

PNPM is short for Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat or National Program Empowering Society.

The General Work Department is required to build roads in every province of Indonesia, however, the budget is limited. So the PNPM has the task of bridging the gap between government, local business and communities, so that the villiages can expedite the construction of their needed roads.

Cibening village is fortunate because the local government, together with local businesses and the people are fixing the road. Some people donated money and the money was used to buy stone, cement and iron rod. GoldTeak employees donated their time off to work on the road.

The road is four kilometer long and is nearly finished. This provides a great opportunity for the villagers of  Cibening, because it significantly reduces travel time.  The middle and high school students have always had a long commute to arrive at school, the road has reduced this time significantly. In addition, deliveries of critical supplies that where previously left by the main road and transported via small motorcycle are now delivered directly to the village.

GoldTeak is very proud of its employees and their contribution to the construction of this road.

After Indonesia celebrated the first Independence Day on August 17th, 1945, Indonesian government took over the electricity/power station which was controlled by Japanese army. Since then Indonesia built the PLN (Perusahaan Listrik Negara) or Government Power Company.

Unfortunately, the Cibening people were not as lucky as other Indonesian in other area, although Cibening is only 10 km from Sukabumi, government does not supply the electricity to Cibening, the reason is because Cibening village has small population (about 500 families) and the village is isolated.

Goldteak has been trying to discuss with local government to supply the electricity to Cibening since the first year Goldteak grow trees in 2005. Several months ago, government agreed to supply electricity to to Cibening.

Almost six years, Goldteak supplied the electricity by using a telephone wire from a neighbor village (4 km distance) for guardians, but now almost all family has electricity in their house. Some of them use it for light only but some use it for starting a business. One of the guardian bought a refrigerator and sells ice cube and fresh fish, some villagers bought TV and rent the film CD or they use DVD player only for having karaoke with their family and neighbors.

A school uses Tape Recorder/CD player for helping children doing a gymnastic exercise. A small mosque uses the sound system to call people to pray.

Electricity has changed Cibening more lively, we hope modernization will grow Cibening become a better village with growing economic, culture and educations well.

Teak Wood Prices Increasing — the future is stable for Teak, even in a suffering economy.

The global economy is still not stable, however, there is still opportunity in long term investments.

Teak wood is an ideal investment, as prices are still increasing!  A GoldTeak Village Plantation in an ideal opportunity to invest in the future.  Investment in GoldTeak trees has many advantages:

• GoldTeak trees improve local environments because of their strong deep roots, which  decrease erosion and create new water supplies.
• GoldTeak plantations balance the local ecosystem by staggering planting over years and incorporating a policy of 20% of the land planted with other trees and fruits. This policy avoids a monoculture (which is friendly to the environment) and help to offset costs beginning at year six.
• GoldTeaks harvest plan staggers the cuttings into three stages.  Doing an initial thinning, a second thinning and lastly the final harvest after 20 years. The staggered planting combined with staggered harvests reduces environmental damage during harvest and creates a stable cash flow to maintain the project while creating profits.
• GoldTeak provides new job opportunities to local citizens in remote areas that do not have many other work opportunities, hence sparking a new and stronger local economy. Which trickles down to increased welfare of the local populations.
• GoldTeak also sets in action and joint scholarship program which teaches students environmental and work ethics.  The program matches funds earned by students to help pay for tuition, uniforms and books.
• The GoldTeak business model with its social and environmental aspects actually helps to mitigate future risk.