KEEP THE FOREST GREEN BY HELPING ESTABLISH A HONEY PRODUCTION HOUSE
By: Muhammad Ridha Hakim (Small Island Partnership and Governance Leader WWF-Indonesia) & Natalia Trita Agnika
Forests are a source of life for living things. Apart from being home to a variety of flora and fauna, forests also provide oxygen to all inhabitants of the Earth and have an important role in the global carbon cycle because trees in the forest are credited with absorbing carbon. Forests play an important role in controlling the water cycle. Not only do they store water, forests also play a role in erosion and flood control.
When we talk about forests, these benefits are what we usually remember. Rarely do we think of the people who live around forests, even though they also have an important role in forest sustainability. Most communities around forest areas generally live below the poverty line. One of the factors causing this is the limited access of the community in managing forest resources, including in the management of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). An overview of these conditions can be easily found in the Pakuan Village community, Narmada Subdistrict, West Lombok Regency. This village is directly adjacent to the Sesaot Protected Forest area, which is the main source of water for people in Mataram City.
The people of Pakuan Village are generally farmers with very small cultivated land ownership. On average, each family has only 0.02 hectares of cultivated land. To make ends meet, they manage non-timber forest products (NTFPs), such as honey, jackfruit, coffee, bananas, candlenuts, and palm sugar. However, this has not been maximized.
This condition causes high community interaction with forest areas. The high interaction of the community with the forest, of course, must be accompanied by efforts and approaches that emphasize aspects of sustainability so that it will be able to have a positive impact on both the forest area and the economy of the community.
Therefore, WWF-Indonesia encourages an integrated approach between the production process, processing, and marketing. One of the natural potentials that has a high value to be developed and demanded by the community is honey bee farming. In order to implement the integrated process, WWF-Indonesia wants to help the people who live there to increase the added value of what they are currently managing by building a unit of HOME OF HONEY PRODUCTION.
What is a MADU PRODUCTION HOUSE?
MADU PRODUCTION HOUSE is a production house building for processing non-timber forest products developed by community groups in the assisted village located in Pakuan Village, Narmada District, West Lombok Regency. With the MADU PRODUCTION HOUSE which the construction process will begin this July, it is hoped that it can increase the added value of NTFP management, especially cultivated honey, improve the quality of processed products produced by NTFP managers, standardize processed NTFP products, and increase the capacity of NTFP management farmers. They will no longer just sell honey as usual, but will be able to produce higher quality honey after being processed and packaged better.
In addition, the presence of a honey production house equipped with production equipment is an effort to establish a NTFP center in the village and as a location for learning (field school) in processing NTFP products. There will be around 375 households positively affected by the presence of this MADU PRODUCTION HOUSE.
Keep the People, Keep the Forest!
We need to save the forest, but the lives of the people who live around it also need attention. If they have enough to live on, they will not be forced to encroach on the forest and will definitely help maintain the integrity of the forest.
You can help protect the forest by helping to build the MADU PRODUCTION HOUSE through a donation at wwf.id/homeproduksimadu.
For more information, or if you would like to be contacted by WWF-Indonesia's Telemarketing team, please call the Contact Center at (021) 5761076 or by sending an email to supporter-service@wwf.id (write ""Honey Production House"" as the title of your email).
