Our GoldTeak Guardian Team takes a break from clearing the sea grass that grows between the trees. We try our best to remove as much as possible by hand, but in the rainy season the grasses seem to grow more quickly than we can clear them away !
Budi’s new baby girl. The family is growing on the plantation… a sure sign of wellbeing !
A happy occasion ! The arrival of the baby Goats. For those of us who live a more urban existance this is a ”çute” and fun occassion, however, for the guardians on our land this is an added revenue source for their survival… for Parid our supervisor he gets half of my baby goat just for caring for the goat.
All our guardians make minimum wage, are provided with a house on the land and medical care. This money is significant because 6 years ago these 23 families had no prospects for work that would provide for their families. The majority of our staff
We encourage the growth of Micro-businesses that help the villagers and our guardians help themselves. During festivals, or as bonuses we give them animals or seeds to inter-crop vegetables between our trees and around their homes. But the most impressive thing is that our supervisors have taught the others, through example, to save some of their money to buy more chickens, goats and rabbits to raise and sell for extra cash. This may seem like minor income by our standards, but in their little village this makes them ”well off”. Their increased wealth also trickles down to the villagers who create services and businesses for our guardians — like transport services to move supplies in and out of the plantation, and small stores that sell needed items to neighbors.
The changes do not happen overnight but on every visit I notice some kind of improvement in the lives of everyone around the plantation.
Until next time, Stacy.
The GoldTeak families celebrate Eid al-Adha: The “Festival of Sacrifice” or “Greater Bairam”. It is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims all over the world. This year, GoldTeak’ guardians received donation from Zaini of two goats, they did the sacrifice in the field and they shared equally, so they got about two kg each.
The replanting of Acacia and Mahogany trees ruined by the fire has begun, and it will take one or two weeks. The replanting should be done during rainy season so they can grow strong to survive their first dry season.
Some of guardians continue to cut the grass, especially around the tree. The fruit trees have started to produce fruit.
The rainy season is synonymous with flu and cold season and the Cibening villagers are not exempt. Many use traditional methods to prevent illness like drinking tea or coffee with ginger; they also add more garlic to their meals. GoldTeak provide medicine for the guardians and their families. This year we are introducing a new program bringing medical assistance directly to the village.
All the guardians are happy when they receive their GoldTeak salary. For them a salary means a lot, they can buy rice, buy their children’s school need and buy a little seed to be planted around their house, and for the young guardians they learn how to save their money. Some of them buy chickens or goats to help them earn more money to buy a motorbike.
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.
Bumisari is a small 2.6 HA plot located not far from Cibening. It is HHAHA our first project and the inspiration for the GoldTeak 3P: People, planet and profit concept. The trees are growing well and are at an age where they suffer very little during the dry season.
The trees on the hill look healthy. Rian, our only guardian at Bumisari, cuts the grass and cleans dried leaves from the land. The dried leaves are a fire hazard so it is better to remove them; however, the dried leaves when decomposed provide nutrients for the trees. To address this issue GoldTeak is deciding how to best implement composting in 2010 with the grass and leaves in order to return these nutrients to the trees.
Rian measures and re-numbers trees. Beginning in year 2 of the Bumisari project GoldTeak began to number certain trees in order to evaluate growth cycles as well as growing patterns. Our teak escalation tables show a basic overview of the growth cycles.
For the first year of the project we did not understand the need to have guardians to care for the trees and help them grow. In the second year of the project GoldTeak decided that while it would cost more money to have a full time employee living on the land, the long term results would justify the additional cost.
We compare Bumisari and a field of another grower adjacent to our plot. These trees have not been cared for and it is obvious that the work of clearing the weeds and nurturing the trees produce better growth.
Guardian Rian is a full time employee of GoldTeak and lives on the plantation with his family.
He also plants cassava and some vegetable just for daily needs.
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.
