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FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION
This month, the orangutans that we are
rehabilitating are in good health. The
colds and sniffling that frequently occurred last month have now ceased as the
weather turns and rain is scarce. As a
nutrition supplement, we are adding eggs into the milk that they drink twice a
week. From our observations, three of the orangutans that we are rehabilitating
really enjoy this egg/milk mix. Feeding
is still at 8 am, once daily.
We continue to give bananas, pineapple and milk
only. The amount given is kept low at
around 2.5 kg per day. We realize this
amount will not make them feel full, but our action is intended to encourage
them to find their own food in the forest should they find the amount given
insufficient or they wish to more variety.
To increase their ability to find food in the forest, they must practice
by themselves while learning from the other orangutans they encounter in the
forest.
At this time, they are beginning to be able to
find their own food; in particular Butet’s ability to find food is sufficiently
good & effective to help teach Adong & Lady to do the same. They are
now used to eating pith from various plants such as pandan, rasau, rotan,
fruits from akar junjung, akar bingkai halaban and terantang, flowers and fruit
from the guava and ubar trees and young leaves from the Medang tree. They are also seen eating termites found on
branches, and in dead and rotting trees.
Adong especially is now playing more with Butet such that Lady’s
dominance over him has greatly reduced.
While Adong & Butet play, Lady often sits quietly on the branches,
occasionally she goes allow to find food in the surrounding areas while waiting
for the other two. In the evening, they
often go to the river’s edge to look for (pich?) that is plentiful there, after
which they make their nests & sleep there. Come morning, they return to the post to await the time for
feeding.
Adong & Lady’s ability to make nests this
month continues to improve and can now be favourably compared to those made by
Butet. Even so, we ofte see the two of
them sleeping in the one next, whereas Butet has never shared a nest with
another orangutan. On 6 July 2003, Adong took over Butet’s nest and chased him
out from it such that Butet cried and was forced to shift to another tree and
make a new nest. The nest that Adong
took over by force had been made by Butet in the brances of a Mahang tree ( Macaranga sp ) which is fairly brittle
and it overhung a small stream near the post.
As it happened, when Adong & Lady used the nest to sleep in, the
branch broke and they fell into the small stream. This happened around 8 pm and we head the sound of breaking
branches but did not realize what had happened. 5 minutes later, a friend (Agus from the Parks office) went out
to relieve himself & was startled to see Adong and Lady walking in the
middle of the dark night dripping wet.
He called to us, and we all rushed out to see. We then shooed Adong and Lady up a tree and they went up a tree Eugenia sp. They went to sleep there in
an old nest. Even so, we did not realize then that what we had heard was the
sound of Adong & Lady falling down with their nest. Only when we awoke the next day did we see
clearly that the nest built by Butet and taken over by Adong and Lady had
broken and they had fallen into the stream where the water level had fallen
quite a lot as a result of the dry season.
Occurances of ‘nest takeover’ are very rare and
may never have occurred among wild orangutans.
We can clearly see that Adong and Lady are very lazy when it comes to
making their own nest, probably as a result of having been accustomed to living
in a cage (cage dependency), to the extent that it is very hard fo them to
regain their forest instincts. The
incident also shows that they are still unable to estimate the weight-bearing
capacity of branches and to match this to their body weight. Moreover, Butet made the nest not for the
two of them, but for himself alone. We
hope this incident will prove a valuable lesson for Adong and Lady and
discourage them from being so lazy again.
Our next step in the program is to make another
feeding platform further into he forest.
This is required as, firstly, they are now familiar with the forest
around their current feeding area.
Secondly, they still return to the ranger post fairly frequently as it
is not too far from the feeding platform.
Thirdly, to introduce them to a different forest area around their new
platform, such that they can face new challenges and thereby continue to
learn. As part of this process, we will
continue to observe and assess their progress and abilities. We hope that moving the feeding area will
also increase the opportunities for them to meet with the other orangutans in
the area. We are quite pleased that
they have only been at this 2nd platform only 4 months, yet we will
be ready to shift them to the next feeding platform in another 2 months. Their progress has been much faster than
estimated and should be encouraged as far as possible so that they can continue
to learn and lessen their dependance on humans as quickly as possible. We very much hope that the tourists that
come to Tanjung Puting will aid in the proses of rehabilitation by keeping a
appropriate distance and we also hope that rules for visitors will be strictly
upheld such that orangutans will be able to live as orangutans and we can see
them return to the wild. Let there be orangutan!! And if we respect the
Orangutan, we must also respect their rights.
Such is our rehabilitation report this
month. May they continue to learn and
regain their ability to survive unaided.
Thank you to those who truly care for orangutan, for all your help and
encouragement.
The reforestation activity that we undertook this month is the same as
last months’ viz. at the two locations below :
Tajung Harapan
We are currently clearing the area and
preparing planting beds. We are at
present unable to plant seedlings as the rain has not been falling and the
swamp is dry and hot and unsuitable for the seedlings at present, therefore we
are taking the opportunity to do other preparatory work such that 10 hectares
will be ready for planting come the rainy season. The preparation of the area can only take place in the morning ad
evenings as the days are very hot. The preparatory work has now reached almost
50% of the overall target. Other
activites we are doing include monitoring and replanting those seedlings which
die off.
We have yet to plant around 600 seedling, which include
Terantang ( Comnosperma macrophilla ), Pulai
( Alstronia sp ) , medang ( Litsea sp ), Puak ( Baccaora rocemosa ), mahang ( Macaranga
thouars ), Papung dan Ubar ( Syzygium
gaertn ).
Reforestation work at Tanjung Harapan is carried on at more
spaced out intervals; we are more focused on reforestation at Pesalat at
present.
We are now into the 2nd month at Pesalat, and
our activities include :
Preparing a
post for staff
In preparation for the rainy season, such
that staff have a place to stay while working, we have received permission from
the Parks management to make a shelter / post for staff in this area. The post we are building is fairly small, 4
m x 4m, roofed with atap and with wooden walls. Having a post will allow us to use our time there more
effectively such that we do not have to spend too much time traveling, in
addition we are generally only able to work before 10 am and after 2pm because
it is the dry and hot season hence the earlier we can start the more time we
have.
Seedling
Preparation
We are continue to collect & cultivate seedlings to be
sufficient for our target of 20 hectares.
The method we are using is to collect seedlings from the surrounding
areas, where these appear in sufficient quantities. Where the occurance of seedlings is low, we do not take our stock
from that area.
Clearly this method of collectio is not suitable for all
seedlings; some seedlings from plants such as Ulin ( Eusideroxylon zwageri ) cannot be uprooted as they die off fairly
easily and should only be uprooted in the rainy season. Moreover they occur in such low numbers that
we are cultivating this stock from seed.
Currently we have 4500 seedlings prepared for Pesalat,
comprising : Nyatuh ( Palaqium sp ) ,
Sundy, Garu, Medang natai ( Litsea sp
), Sindur (Sindora galledupa ), Idur , Sintuk Lawang , Bedaru , Bintangur ( Calophyllum sp ), and
Kumpang.
Land
Preparation
While continuing to collect seedlings, we are carrying out land
preparation with making planting beds and dividing the area into 19 plots of 1
hectare or more each. Each plot
comprises 20 beds o 20 mtrs length.
Plants will be spaced out at 5 meter intervals such that we estimate
around 400 seedlings will be needed a hectare, making a total of 8000 seedlings
for 20 hectares.
As per our plans, we will draw on further advice to
determine suitable methods and ways of cultivating seedlings for those plants
where seedlings are hard to find and which cannot be easily raised from
seed. We intend to bring in graduates
from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta to undertake research in this area.
In addition we will bring in other graduates to provide
feedback about our current reforestation work.
We also intend to seek input from more established professionals (e.g.
consultants from Tropenbos) for our work.
In this month, we have prepared more than 20% of the beds;
we have yet to start digging the holes for planting as we are still in the
process of clearing the land of lalang that has reached over 1 meter in height.
Acclimatisation
transit station
We are building this
station alongside the shelter, in a hot and open place. It is intended as a transit point for
seedlings as well as a test station to ascertain that seedlings can adapt to
the conditions in te locality before we undertake further planting. Once the test station is ready we will start
with 15 seedlings for a week, watered daily.
We will observe and evaluate these and, once we are confident seedlings
can survive in the local conditions, we will start to move seedlings into the
acclimatization nursery.
Such is our
reforestation report for this month, thank you.
In early
July, 2 FNPF staff (kasri dan hatta ) went to Bali to undergo batik training
and according to the trainers, Mr. Hatta & Mr. Kasri are now both at a
point where they can in turn teach and train others in the art of batik at
Tanjung Harapan. Keeping in mind the
limited equipment and facilities we have, we have planned the following :
a. Preparing a training room :
15 – 20 Juli 2003
b. Trainers’ assessment & preparation : 21 – 24 July 2003
c. Preparing equipment and materials : 22 – 24 July 2003
d. Group Training Level I :
25July–13 Sept 2003
e. Group Training Level II :
22 Sept – 1 Nov 2003
f. Group Training Level III :
10 nov– 20 dec 2003
g. Experiments with making natural dyes : Ongoing
h. Evaluation of Batik Training : December 2003
i. Expanding area for dyeing :
January 2004
j. Achieving batik of a quality
suited for market : start Jan 2004
k. Intensive marketing & promotion : February 2004
l. Preparing a market at the
Sekonyer river : February 2004
Once training began, we encountered unplanned obstacles such as we did
not have a suitable glass table, the training room was too narrow, and nearly
all the older women being trained did not have any prior schooling. Even so, the determination and enthusiasm of
these women was so great that they were able to overcome all the obstacles they
encountered and to learn whatever we could teach.
Keeping in mind the restraints on space and
equipment, the first group comprised 15 trainees, all women, of which 12 fell
into older age groups. The trainees are
:
1.
Ibu Muhibah
2.
Ibu Wahidah
3.
Ibu Marlina
4.
Ibu Haliyah
5.
Ibu Noryana
6.
Ibu Jamaiyah
7.
Ibu Saliyah
8.
Ibu Miti
9.
Ibu Manti
10.
Ibu Masfah
11.
Ibu Hatimah
12.
Ibu Maryanti
13.
Ida
14.
Asih
15.
Dewi
Training began on 25th July at
FNPF’s quarters at Tanjung Harapan. We
began with the basics, including explaining materials and equipment required
for batiking, sketching techniques and waxing techniques, to ensure that there
was a common base of knowledge among the participants. We then introduced further material. This first group will be trained for 6
weeks, viz. until 6th September 2003, thrice a week. To instill more discipline, attendance will
be noted. Evaluation will be done at
the end of this training period, both on the training methods and on the
participants’ outputs, with the aim of ascertaining who will need further
training or retraining. Those
participants deemed to suitable will then be further trained to increase the
level of their craft to a marketable, ‘local export quality’ stage. Opportunity will continue to be given to
those whose work has not reached the desired quality, but they will be given
lower priority.
We expect the
following :
-
In readiness for
January 2004, when we hope the village women will be able to produce batik of
sufficient quality, we will need materials including cloth, dyes, wax &
waxing implements where FNPF will offer some little support with the initial
cost, but we seek and welcome any support anyone would wish to give to this
project.
-
Marketing of the
batik product will occur locally within the district as well as outside. Local sales will be targeted primarily at
tourists visiting the park, while a small effort has already been started to
establish potential markets outside the district, even though this will not be
truly feasible until the villager women are able to produce batik with
kalimantan motifs of a quality suited for export. Again, help with contacts and market would be most welcome, both
within and outside Indonesia.
-
From a management
and administrative perspective, the village women will be trained to handle
these matters themselves over time, such that they can be weaned from relying
on FNPF.
Our hope is that batik will prove a viable
alterative side income for villages, alongside increasing their artistic skills
and thereby helping to build self-confidence and opening their minds to avenues
other than logging. In addition, as the
batik training also teaches the use of natural dyes, we hope this will
indirectly build an appreciation of ature, since all the dye material we
currently use are taken direct from forest, as well as strengthen an
appreciation for the traditional crafts which was built on the use of natural
vs. synthetic materials.
As per last month’s report, English is being taught at the primary
school every Monday and Wednesday by our staff, Peltana Danson. We very much want to increase the hours, but
our human resources are limited and our activities many. Since we started teaching English in the
village 2 months ago, we have seen improvements in the children’s ability to
understand English. Although they are
not yet able to speak fluently in English, but the children are beginning to write
proper English.
We will continue to strive to offer whatever support we can with
education to these children as FNPF’s ambition is for local villagers to be
able to deal themselves with the tourists who visit the area and to have
sufficient language skills to do so, where at present the vast majority of
guides come from outside the area to the extent that local villagers have not
felt the benefits of tourism in their own area despite nearly 30 years of
Tanjung Putting being visited by tourists.
On 26th – 29th July 2003,
we welcomed a group from Humane Society International (HSI), who has long
sponsored several of our activities.
HSI was keen to see directly the conditions in Tanjung Puting National
Park and FNPF’s work here.
The places which our guests visited include the
National Parks Office of Tanjung Puting, the rehabilitation post and
reforestation areas around Tanjung Harapan, the batik training room, the
mengkudu planting project, Camp Leakey, Buluh Besar River and Tanjung Keluang. We were most happy to be able to show our
sponsors around the park and we hope they had a pleasant and instructive visit.
.
In closing, such is our report for the month of July, we thank all the
parties that have given so much help to our program, and we hope we can
continue build on these sustainably for the future.
Tanjung Puting, 10 Agustus 2003
Friends Of he Nasional Park Foundation
Drh Made Sugiarta