By Deder

Sintang (8/7) - In order to increase the capacity of the community of Rantau Malam village, Sintang Regency, West Kalimantan, WWF Indonesia organized a series of activities. As the culmination, 25 representatives of farmer groups received rubber grafting training for three days (July 3-5, 2012).

The training prioritized grafting practice (25% theory and 75% practice). ""We should do more grafting practice, because we need to create skilled and professional personnel,"" said Nandang, SP, the training instructor.

The grafting training was a series of activities that began with Participatory Conservation Planning (PCP) with the community of Rantau Malam village. At the forum, consensus was reached on a strategic plan for participatory conservation. The priority step was to establish community rubber plantations, starting with training on how to make superior rubber nurseries.

In the following month, as a form of commitment from the agreement, WWF began to provide assistance to five farmer groups in Remukoi hamlet. The activities included the opening of each farmer group's nursery area of 15x 25 M, the construction of entres, rootstock and nursery beds, entres planting, fertilization, and the construction of work huts within a span of 1.5 years. WWWF has been providing assistance to five farmer groups in Remukoi hamlet for the past 1.5 years.

""No one has been this loyal to us, the people at the end of the Serawai River, let alone to provide knowledge about superior rubber grafting like this,"" said Pak Nenen as the Head of Remukoi Hamlet and member of the Korong Balaban Farmer Group.

Remukoi itself is the remotest hamlet of the Serawai river which acts as a buffer zone for the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR). The difficulty of access to the hamlet causes Remukoi has not been ""touched"" by development programs, both from the government and non-governmental organizations. Hopefully, with the presence of WWF through conservation and community empowerment efforts, Remukoi and its people will be more empowered.