Jasa ekosistem dalam secangkir kopi

 Penulis: Sidiq Harjanto

Burung Cinenen (Orthotomus sutorius) sering mengunjungi kebun kopi (Dok PPM Mendolo)

Pekalongan adalah salah satu kabupaten penghasil kopi di Provinsi Jawa Tengah. Menurut data Statistik Perkebunan Unggulan Nasional 2020 – 2022 yang dirilis Ditjen Perkebunan Kementrian Pertanian RI, produksi kopi robusta dari usaha perkebunan rakyat di Kabupaten Pekalongan mencapai 372 ton dengan 1.650 petani. Sedangkan hasil produksi kopi arabika mencapai 100 ton dari petani sebanyak 857 orang. Hasil sebanyak itu diperoleh dari lahan seluas, masing-masing 483 ha (robusta), dan 198 ha (arabika).

Dilihat dari produksi kopi robusta saja, angka tersebut memang masih jauh dari Kabupaten Temanggung (9.761 ton), Kudus (1.594 ton), dan Banjarnegara (1.570 ton). Perbedaan angka yang signifikan ini dipengaruhi oleh luasan lahan dan jumlah petani di masing-masing kabupaten. Jika kita cermati dari produktivitas per hektar (823 kg/ha), hasil kopi Kab. Pekalongan relatif baik, masih di atas rerata nasional (817 kg/ha). Sebagai informasi tambahan, produktivitas kopi kita masih kalah jauh dari Vietnam (2.300 kg/ha).

Desa Mendolo, sebagai salah satu desa penghasil kopi di Pekalongan, memiliki potensi yang cukup besar. Kopi yang diupayakan melalui sistem wanatani menjadi salah satu sumber pendapatan utama masyarakat. Brand ‘Kopi Batir’ yang dirintis oleh Paguyuban Petani Muda (PPM) Mendolo berupaya untuk meningkatkan nilai jual kopi yang dihasilkan petani dengan memperbaiki pengolahan pascapanen dan mengolahnya menjadi kopi bubuk. Kopi Batir juga membuka jasa sangrai untuk mengakomodir masyarakat yang ingin mengonsumsi kopi dari kebunnya sendiri, tetapi tidak memiliki keahlian menyangrai.

Tahun kemarin, usaha kopi ini telah memproduksi sekitar 7 kuintal kopi dengan kualitas premium yang dijual dalam bentuk kopi bubuk maupun biji mentah (green bean). Memang masih relatif kecil dibandingkan estimasi total produksi kopi desa ini yang sebagian besar masih dijual dalam bentuk cherry (buah) atau diproses asal-asalan. Namun, upaya ini patut diapresiasi karena nyatanya kapasitas produksi usaha ini terus meningkat dari tahun ke tahun.

Sepanjang tahun 2022, lebih dari satu ton biji kopi telah disangrai oleh Kopi Batir. Berbekal mesin sangrai rakitan yang sangat sederhana, jasa sangrai yang digawangi M. Ridholah ini ternyata mampu menumbuhkan kembali minat masyarakat untuk minum kopi sendiri. Artinya, usaha jasa sangrai Kopi Batir bisa menggeser pola konsumsi masyarakat dari konsumsi kopi pabrik ke kopi lokal.

budidaya lebah kelulut di kebun kopi, mengoptimalkan peran lebah sebagai pollinator

Burung Tukik tikus, pemakan serangga di kebun kopi (Dok PPM Mendolo)

Satu langkah kecil dari Mendolo

Untuk mencapai sistem budidaya kopi yang optimal, dibutuhkan pengetahuan dan pengalaman mengenai penyiapan lahan, pemupukan, pemangkasan, pengendalian hama, hingga sistem pemanenan yang baik. Selain pengetahuan dan keterampilan teknis di atas, wawasan lingkungan kiranya juga perlu dimiliki oleh para petani kopi. Wawasan yang dimaksud misalnya mengenai pengaruh jasa ekosistem terhadap produktivitas kebun.  

fotografi satwa, sebagai media meningkatkan apresiasi terhadap keanekaragaman hayati

Pada 18 Maret 2023, sebagai bagian dari acara bertajuk ‘Guyub Kopi Mendolo’, Swaraowa mengajak PPM Mendolo dan perwakilan petani kopi untuk merumuskan strategi dalam meningkatkan kesadaran ekologi dalam praktik budidaya kopi di Mendolo. Harapannya, dengan praktik pembudidayaan yang baik dan didukung dengan jasa ekosistem sehat, bisa mengoptimalkan produktivitas kopi di Mendolo sehingga pada gilirannya meningkatkan pendapatan petani.

Biodiversitas yang mengisi kebun wanatani memberi pengaruh positif bagi pembudidayaan tanaman komoditi. Chain-Guadarrama dkk. dalam artikel berjudul ‘Ecosystem services by birds and bees to coffee in a changing climate: A review of coffee berry borer control and pollination’ (terbit tahun 2019) menyebutkan bahwa burung dan lebah menjadi dua kelompok fauna yang memiliki peran penting dalam budidaya kopi. Banyak jenis burung memangsa serangga, sehingga memiliki peran ekologi dalam mengontrol populasi serangga. Ledakan populasi serangga karena kekurangan burung pemangsa bisa menimbulkan kerugian bagi petani.

Untuk mengoptimalkan peran burung dalam ekosistem, syarat pertama adalah upaya perlindungan. Burung-burung mesti dibiarkan hidup bebas di alam sehingga perannya berfungsi. Selain itu, burung membutuhkan relung habitat yang ideal. Model tanam wanatani atau tumpang sari bisa menjadi pilihan. Sistem ini masih mempertahankan variasi jenis penyusun dan strata vegetasi sehingga meningkatkan peluang bagi burung untuk mencari pakan, atau bahkan bersarang.

Di sisi lain, komunitas lebah diyakini menjadi agen penyerbuk yang handal bagi tanaman kopi. Kopi robusta membutuhkan penyerbukan silang dengan agen penyerbuk berupa angin dan serangga. Sedangkan kopi arabika, meskipun dapat melakukan self pollination, tetapi aplikasi serangga penyerbuk terbukti meningkatkan kualitas dan kuantitas hasil panen. Pada kopi arabika, keberadaan lebah dapat menjadi booster penyerbukan.

Pada skala global, lebah sendiri merupakan kelompok besar; terdiri dari belasan jenis lebah madu, ratusan lebah nirsengat (klanceng), dan ribuan jenis lebah soliter. Setiap jenis memiliki sebaran habitat atau distribusi masing-masing. Jenis-jenis lebah yang mana saja yang bermanfaat untuk kopi, dan pada tipe habitat apa lebah-lebah itu hidup, masih membutuhkan banyak penelitian.

Mengoptimalkan jenis-jenis lebah sebagai agen penyerbuk bisa dilakukan dengan menjaga habitat, menghindari penggunaan pestisida, dan mengintegrasikan budidaya lebah dalam lahan pertanian kita. Di Mendolo, budidaya lebah klanceng telah dimulai sejak 2017. Tidak semata-mata mengharapkan madu yang bernilai ekonomi, budidaya klanceng di Mendolo merupakan sebentuk upaya untuk mengoptimalkan jasa ekosistem dari lebah untuk peningkatan produktivitas pertanian maupun keberlanjutan hutan.

Besarnya jasa ekosistem bagi pertanian tak dapat dimungkiri. Meskipun demikian, dalam FGD terungkap bahwa masih butuh kerja keras untuk membumikan jasa ekosistem burung dan lebah bagi pertanian kopi di kalangan para petani. Riset spesifik dalam memahami dan mengoptimalkan jasa ekologi burung bagi pengontrolan populasi hama pertanian masih perlu ditingkatkan. Demikian juga dengan jasa penyerbukan lebah, praktik ideal integrasi budidaya lebah dengan wanatani masih perlu dicari.

PPM Mendolo menggunakan fografi alam untuk konservasi 

PPM Mendolo akan memelopori riset partisipatif dalam menggali peran-peran kehati dan jasa ekosistem dalam sistem wanatani Mendolo. Disepakati pula untuk terus memasyarakatkan pengetahuan mengenai peran ekologis dari kelompok-kelompok fauna tersebut. Mengingat ketergantungan masyarakat pada sektor pertanian, Mendolo perlu didorong menjadi desa peduli kehati. Desa perlu memiliki data yang komprehensif mengenai potensi keanekaragaman hayati yang dimiliki.

Langkah PPM Mendolo yang telah memelopori inovasi usaha wanatani dan penyadaran nilai penting kehati mesti didukung penuh. Dalam kesempatan Guyub Kopi Mendolo ini, Swaraowa menghibahkan satu unit mesin roasting berkapasitas 1 kg kepada Kopi Batir sebagai bentuk apresiasi atas kerja kerasnya dalam mengembangkan khazanah perkopian di Mendolo, dan atas upaya PPM Mendolo untuk mendorong konservasi keanekaragaman hayati di desanya, termasuk owa jawa dan kukang jawa.

The Role Coffee Plays In Javan Gibbon Conservation

 Written by: Benehad Gabriel Yosep Ruritan | Email : ben.ruritan@gmail.com 

Who is SwaraOwa?

Back in August 2020, I enrolled myself in an internship program with SwaraOwa. A non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on the conservation work for Indonesian primates, especially Gibbon, the small apes. Swaraowa means a gibbon voice in Javanese.

The history of SwaraOwa led by Arif Setiawan originally started  in 2008, when he runs the project in Mt. Slamet Central Java, for Endangered Primate Conservation Project, this project supported by Rufford Foundation. Then -a supported project named "Coffee and Primate Conservation" in 2012 with the objective of Javanese gibbon's habitat preservation in Petungkriyono District located in the western part of Dieng Mountain.

The coffee part of the name came from the approach that was taken by the team in creating a compromise between the residents' needs and the conservation objective of the project.  Coffee naturally grows beneath the cover of the rainforest in which the Javanese gibbon resides. And thus. Coffee cultivation and production work to redirect the local's of Sokokembang from forest damaging economic activities and into the preservation of the forest via sustainable economic development. And as of now, some amount of coffee from Petungkriyono is managed and distributed by OwaCoffee, a subsidiary of SwaraOwa.

OwaCoffee For SwaraOwa

I was assigned to the OwaCoffee activity during the internship program. This coffee program of SwaraOwa has become quite a success story. Over the years, it has fostered relationships with several zoos worldwide, such as the Singapore Zoo, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and  Zoo Ostrava.  Through this coffee program, SwaraOwa enables itself to be self-sustainable and empowers the residents of the Sokokembang Village, seen from the growth of farming groups and infrastructure improvement the area has received over the years.

I met Dr. Muhammad Ali Imron from the Gadjah Mada University Forestry Faculty, which explained that most Indonesian NGOs inherits the problem of self-sustainability due to how they were founded.  Specifically, most NGOs grew from a time and funding limited project into an ongoing program. This condition hampers the transition process and induces financial problems in the future. SwaraOwa’s ability to be self-sustainable through its OwaCoffee program has been quite the inspiration to many other NGOs in Indonesia.

Predicaments Faced By OwaCoffee

However, the operation of OwaCoffee is not as smooth as it may seem. As lined out by Saladin Akbar from the BlackJava roastery located in Yogyakarta, the problem faced by this organization can be divided into three major categories, which are: farming, production, and distribution. 

 In farming, they face the need to educate local farmers of Petungkriyono in increasing their quality of coffee cherries, which in itself is no easy task knowing the deep level of intricacies revolving around coffee plantation such as managing the ground condition, understanding the need of the plants, knowing what and when to harvest. 

"the jungle beans" gibbon friendly coffee -  OwaCoffee

 While production includes everything post-harvest, this includes grading, hulling, storage, roasting, and many others, which greatly plays into the quality of the finished product. Lastly is the distribution, which talks about public intake of the product. Currently, single-origin coffee only makes a small percentage of Indonesian coffee consumption. 

 Akrom, the owner of Mari-ngopi a  coffee shop in Yogyakarta, informed me that the lack of specialty coffee absorption is due to the condition that Indonesians do not need specialty coffee. The masses are satisfied with the commercialized and easy to drink coffee mixers, which does not require high-grade coffee to be enjoyed.  This condition caused SwaraOwa to look for new ways for their coffee, the ex-situ distribution efforts, such as creating a bond with the Singaporean Zoo to market their products.

During my internship, I found SwaraOwa to be particularly ingenious.  Their ability to utilize Petungkriyono’s coffee as a medium to converse the Javanese primates, utilizing local empowerment through coffee plantations, was a breakthrough by itself. Through this kind of collaboration, sustainability was provided for the conservation activity that many have never recognized. SwaraOwa has ensured the continuity of the program via a separate entity, namely OwaCoffee that has a high interest in the market.

From this experience, I found out that conservation activities can be strengthened through public participation by various means, including market-based methods. The Indonesian gibbons at Petungkriyono District in Central Java are one of the benefactors of this mechanism.

 

SwaraOwa (Voice of the Gibbon): A Coffee Adventure

by Adeline Chang

The Coffee and Primate Conservation Project was started in 2012, by the SwaraOwa team, building upon an earlier project by Arif Setiawan in 2008. The main object is to conserve the endangered Javanese Gibbon and its natural habitat. The spends its time swinging through the rainforests on the Indonesian island of Java. Villages are scattered throughout the rainforest, and community investment is essential! To increase interest in conserving the rainforest, SwaraOwa supports the villagers to (sustainably) scale up production of the coffee that already grows naturally in the forest, learn about proper cultivation and sorting techniques, and obtain better access to the coffee markets.

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Meeting

It was sweltering the day I met Arif Setiawan (he prefers Wawan) at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We were cocooned in an air-conditioned room, where three different speakers shared their primate conservation projects in Indonesia. When it was Wawan’s turn, he stood up with a big smile and a relaxed nature that bespoke a deep inner peace. Speaking animatedly, he told us about his team’s work with village communities to conserve gibbons and their rainforest habitats. Out in the lush isolation, they had formed connections that were improving the financial security of villagers, and slowly transforming the way villagers saw the rainforest. A truly beautiful long-term project.

What most piqued my interest that day, however, was their leveraging of shade-grown coffee. With the project’s support, the coffee plant already growing naturally under the steady shade and protection of the rainforest canopy became a source of income for the villagers – a clever, economic and biodynamic way of encouraging them to value and live in harmony with the rainforest and its other animal inhabitants.

Coffee! The ex-barista in me was wide awake and at attention.  

After the talk, I made a beeline for Wawan, where I asked him curiously about how much income the coffee planting brought villagers (a supplementary amount, as it turns out), and about the sales avenues for the coffee. I was flying to Indonesia the following month for a meditation stay and short holiday, and when I said I’d be in Yogyakarta and would love to visit the forest, this beast of a gentleman immediately invited me to visit their office and roasting facility.

Fast forward a month, and after my first visit to the office, Wawan messaged me to say they were visiting the field site, 7 hours from Yogyakarta. There was a seat for me in the jeep – did I want to come along?

Of course, I said yes!

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The Journey

I arrive late at the building, heart racing. My usually unkempt short hair lies flat, plastered to my head with sweat, as I nudge the helmet off my head and hand it to the ojek driver. “Makasih, pak.” It’s 40 minutes past when I was meant to arrive.

But I’ve forgotten about Indonesia’s jam karet – what they call rubber time, a pointer to that incredible flexibility with which people treat the hours of the day.

As I walk into the office-warehouse-discussion centre rolled in one, apologising profusely, everyone tells me to relax. Wawan is hard at work on his computer, Yoshi immediately starts brewing me a coffee, and our bee expert Sidiq has yet to arrive. The aroma of roasting coffee wafts over from the next room as I sit contentedly.

It’s nearly 12 when we begin our drive in the muggy heat. The windows of the Jeep are rolled down, but only when it begins pouring does the cooling air bring blessed respite. We pass out of the jam-packed city and through smaller towns and streaks of empty surrounded by hulking trees, stopping every couple of hours so Yoshi can take a break. By the time we enter the Sokokembang forest, night has fallen – it’s eerie winding along the road in the dark, car lights at full beam, our eyes peeled for snakes, civets, even Javan leopards. But no luck tonight.

In the village, we are hosted by the Sokokembang village chief and his wife, Pak E and Mak E. Beside the chief’s front porch sits a little Swara Owa office – about 5 by 3 metres, lit up by hydro-powered lights, just like everything else in the village, which doesn’t have access to the electric grid. My room, in contrast, is constantly lit by a light with no off-switch, and permanently damp and cool. 

Exhausted by the journey, I quickly fall asleep.

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The Field

The next day, the jungle swallows us into its wild arms. We walk for an hour, eyes fixed on the green canopies. Wawan is an expert at spotting the groups of primates, scanning the tree canopies and pointing them out to me.

The first time I catch sight of a leaf monkey is magical. In the gentle morning light, the heart-shaped silver of its face gleams, while its body shines black and glossy. Through my binoculars its eyes seem to gaze straight into mine.

(Photo by Arif) A lutung and her young, pausing on a branch.

The silvery gibbon (owa, in Indonesian) – the namesake of this conservation project – is, in contrast, far less delicate in appearance. Warm grey, it fills out its curves and swings with easy agility from branch to branch.

(Photo by Arif) A Javan gibbon, its strong, endlessly long arm stretched high for support.

Visiting Gondang Village

It takes us half an hour to curve northwards, hugging the cliff, as the paddy fields fall away into sparse forest. The last stretch of our journey can barely be called a road, and I feel myself slip-sliding as our black four-wheeler bumps its way, snail-like, along the rocky track.

As we move inwards from the cliff edges, the view is stunning – grey puffs caressing the lush, verdant fields. 

On this last stretch of road, the drive becomes extremely slow going.

I feel a sense of relief when we arrive; my bum is beginning to hurt.

Inside the Gondang village chief’s house, darkness reigns. Sparse daylight filters into a space that’s both living room and kitchen. For chairs, we arrange tiny wooden blocks around the low table: I imitate Yoshi, who stacks two together to make a more comfortable seat.

Pak Untung, the chief, is dressed neatly in a blue polo, with a kind, handsome face and crow lines that crease every time he smiles or laughs. Everyone shakes hands with him before bringing them, gently, towards their chests. He grins when Wawan gives him a box of bak pia, a pastry filled with crumbly green bean, and passes it to his wife.

After we settle down, they begin a long chat. Their words are interspersed with easy silences, funny stories, and dramatic jokes which leave everyone roaring with laughter. Pak Untung tells them about the most recent harvest (“bad”, he says, but the men needle him and everyone laughs). Another man enters the house, an unplanned and unannounced visit – he joins us at the table. The men smile and tell me that in the village, you can talk to anyone you bump into. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is welcome, always. Already feeling the fatigue of so much interaction, I remain nevertheless charmed by the tightness of their social circles, and the warmth with which they treat each other. 

I am the only woman at the table. On the floortop fireplace two metres away, his wife cooks for us, spicy onion leaves, slices of omelette, fried fish, and souped up vegetables with corn rice. Soon the table is heaped with dishes, and we pile in. “No corn rice here means no rice at all,” Wawan remarks matter-of-factedly.

Pak Untung eating a banana from the huge stalk that Wawan has brought, earlier, Wawan received the banana fruits from the swaraOwa nursery plot in Sokokembang.

How Appropriate is Direct Trade?

Interpersonal ties are absolutely key in these sequestered mountain villages. Here, direct trade (which involves farmers trading directly with roasters, in small quantities and for higher  buying prices) seems like it should have potential. But as we sit on the bamboo gazebo out front (Pak E built it on his own from the bamboo trees that are abundant all around us), Wawan explains how some farmers, buoyed up by the high prices fetched by their first mini batch of beans sold via direct trade, shift their land to farm far more coffee, not realizing that the amount the direct trader can purchase from them is limited. And what about fellow villagers, drawn by monetary promise into an enterprise that then blasts away at ecological stability and biodiversity in the area?

Everything is interlinked in a web of cause and effect, and the best overall outcome from direct trade may be effected only if we recognize that its ripple effects extend beyond just the two parties who engage in the sale, and far beyond the money – with implications for both community ties as well as environmental sustainability.

Robusta coffee in the shaded canopies of Hutan Sokokembang

Coffee naturally grows under shaded tree canopies, and traditionally this has allowed coffee cultivation to be a key part of sustainable agro-foresty systems combining tree species, coffee, and other agricultural commodities[5]. Due to the forces of capital supply and demand, however, monoculture and sun-grown coffee are now de rigour.

Should this transition from shade- to sun-grown take place here, in the villages of the Sokokembang Rainforest, the future of the primates who dwell in the canopies will be hit, hard. This is part of a trajectory that SwaraOwa hopes to prevent.

The vibrant rainforest is key to preserving the endangered Javanese gibbons and leaf monkeys in the region.

Slow Change

Kula boten mangertos – I don’t understand. This is the extent of my Javanese, so in the villages, where most people speak only Javanese, what I gather from the conversations comes from my fragments of Bahasa, and Wawan, Yoshi and Sidiq translating interesting bits into English for me.

In Sokokembang village, where we spend three nights, the camaraderie between Pak E, Mak E and the Swara Owa team is palpable. We spend the afternoons on the front porch, chatting, sipping tea and coffee while sitting on lesehan (floor mats prevalent throughout Central Java). The coffee is thick and heavy with grounds, and on the second day I opt for tea. Once, the sole village midwife – an elderly lady who’s at least 70 years old, and hobbles swiftly on bare feet – stops by, sits down for a chat, and asks me if I’m a man or woman, a question I’ve become used to by then; my short hair perturbs people. And sometimes, we simply sit in silence, listening to the birds calling from the trees. 

During our trip to Gondang village, we spend two hours in the chief’s house. For most of that time, the conversation covers everything except coffee and the forest. We eat lunch, laugh uproariously, and smoke countless cigarettes, tossing the finished butts into the low wood fire. Once, Sidiq heads out and when he comes back, tells us: “There was a minor earthquake!”

The biggest element in this conservation project is trust-building. It is the iffiest element, impossible to copy and paste wholesale, and the fruits that I witness are thanks to years of trial and error by Wawan and his team. “Each village is different. For example, in Gondang Pak Untung is very well-loved by all the people, so we began circulating our posters through him. When he needs help at the house, everyone shows up, even when he doesn’t ask. But Sokokembang is totally different; most of the houses here are families [blood-related in some way], and so everything we do is a little trickier, more complicated. People are more difficult to convince. But over the years we build trust with the people.”

All this requires endless patience and commitment, and in this environment one begins to appreciate that one of the ingredients for success is the passage of time.

What’s a coffee drinker to do?

1.       Ethics and Sustainability: This is a toughie. Fair Trade coffee beans are not equal – their sale doesn’t benefit all member farmers equally; this depends on the cooperative the farmers belong to. Rainforest Alliance certification is far more holistic in its concern for both financial and environmental sustainability, but only requires that 30% of the beans in certified bags satisfy these conditions. There’s also another certification that’s a radical breakaway from these – called the Small Producers’ Symbol, it’s owned and run by producers in the South (instead of the North), and is meant to ensure that administrative fees are far lower (one-fourth) and that more of these (a third) go back into the cooperatives[6]. Still, for now it remains carried by just a handful of roasters in the USA, Canada, and France[7]. Ultimately, your choices will depend on what’s available around you and on the kind of information you can get about the specific farms or beans you’re purchasing. 

2.       Taste: What about us coffee snobs? Those who look out for acidity, body and sweetness in their cuppa? Those sneaky ones who know the difference between an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere and a Panama Geisha? Despite its limitations, buying direct trade coffee can offer a good balance between coffee quality, monetary fairness for the farmer, and sustained biodiversity in the coffee-growing region. Generations will feel the impact of our choices today - it's a small world that we share with wildlife and nature!

3.       Everything: We can start by genuinely caring about our neighbours near and far, and acknowledging the implications of the coffee we buy without allowing uncomfortable knowledge to paralyze us. Instead, turn that into a positive emotion! The most impactful people I know are always fighting for change whilst staying grateful for what they have access to.

Ultimately, that hardest bit might be recognizing the issue for how complicated it is, and reigning in the temptation to simplify things and magic up silver bullets to make ourselves feel better. Using that knowledge to move in small ways closer towards fairer trade is perhaps the best that any of us as consumers can do.

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[5] https://www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com/environmental-impact-coffee-trade/

[6] http://www.bruleriesantropol.com/en/our-mission/fair-trade/the-symbol/

[7] https://spp.coop/the-spp-family/compradores/?lang=en

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About Adeline Chang

Adeline is a restless ex-barista who's fallen in love with growing food sustainably, breathing in the splendour of wilderness, and dancing through the thick and thin of life.
https://tropicalgardeninglife.wordpress.com/

Siregol Primate Watching

Kegiatan yang fun namun ada tambahan pengetahuan dan pengalaman konservasi menjadi salah satu strategi untuk melestarikan primata Indonesia. Siregol primate watching, tanggal 25-26 November 2017, sebuah event yang di gagas oleh warga sekitar habitat Owa Desa Kramat, Kecamatan.Karang moncol  dan Perhimpunan Pegiat Alam Ganesha Muda Purbalingga, telah berhasil mengundang setidanya 38 peserta dari berbagai institusi, seperti mahasiswa, kelompok pecinta alam, LSM, dan staff pemerintah.  Tujuan kegiatan ini adalah mengenal primata dan melihat langsung habitat primata di sekitar desa Kramat. Kegiatan ini juga inisiasi awal untuk mengarusutamakan pelestarian primata dan habitatnya untuk melibatkan masyarakat umum.  

Habitat Owa, Siregol

Swaraowa berpartisipasi untuk mendukung kegiatan ini, sebagai  bagian dari salah satu tujuan untuk  melestarikan primata dan habitat aslinya, khususnya Owa jawa dan juga memfasilitasi diskusi dan memandu kegiatan pengamatan primata di bukit Siregol, desa Keramat.  Menjelang malam tanggal 25 November, para peserta mulai berdatangan, sebagai pengantar kegiatan Siregol primate watching ini, Bapak kepala desa Keramat dan wakil dari Perhutani membeirkan sambutan selamat datang kepada para peserta. ( video diskusi siregol primate watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8A9eYvnvlc) 

foto bersama peserta Siregol Primate Watching. foto oleh : M.Faiz

Selanjutnya, diskusi tentang upaya pelestarian primata di wilayah Jawa Tengah di sampaikan oleh mas Apris dari Biodiversity Society Purwokerto dan mas Agus dari BKSDA Jawa Tengah. Mas apris menceritakan pengalamannya membangun upaya pelestarian satwa langka di sekitar desa Melung lereng selatan Gunung Slamet dan mas Agus dari BKSDA Jawa Tengah, turut berbagi pengalaman tentang peran pemerintah dalam melindungi satwa langka .

Diskusi kelompok Setelah pengamatan. Foto Oleh : M.Faiz

Esok harinya tanggal 26 November, acara pengamatan di mulai pukul 5.30 pagi, langsung menuju lokasi pengamatan di tepi jalan antara dusun Kramat dan dusun Sirau. Bukit Siregol, sangat unik dengan landscape pegunungan karst dan vegetasi alami hutan hujan tropis jawa yang tidak dapat di jangkau namun dapat di nikmati pemandangannya dari jarak tidak terlalu jauh.  Peserta yang berjumlah 38 ditambah dengan panitia di bagi menjadi 3 kelompok, yang berjalan dengan jeda 10 menit menyusuri jalan tepi tebing bukit siregol sejauh kurang lebih 3 km.  Tercatat langsung pagi itu 1 kelompok Owa (Hylobates moloch )yang terdiri dari 3 individu, dan 2 kelompok Lutung ( Trachypithecus auratus) teramati. Binokuler, Monokuler dan kamera tele sangat di butuhkan untuk pengamatan di Siregol, karena jarak yang cukup jauh untuk mata telanjang mengidentifikasi primata yang teramati.

Salah satu kegiatan penutup di acara ini adalah pemberian sertifikat, untuk mengapresiasi peserta yang turut berpartisipasi.  Hal yang sederhana namun sangat berarti bagi mungkin sebagian peserta bahwa pengalaman pengamatan primata ini menjadi hal yang berbeda dan sangat mungkin untuk melakukan lagi kegiatan serupa di tempat lain.

salah satu peserta dengan sertifikat siregol primate watching

Siregol primate watching setidaknya telah memotivasi warga sekitar habitat primata , bahwa wilayah mereka masih mempunyai keunikan yang tidak dimiliki daerah lain, harus dilestarikan,  dan membangun jaringan pegiat konservasi khususnya di wilayah Jawa Tengah. Kelestarian hutan dan nilai penting flora fauna ini juga merupakan identitas daerah yang sangat penting dalam pergaulan global.  Potensi keanekargaman hayati, dengan ke unikannya sudah selayaknya menjadi prioritas dalam pembangunan yang berkelanjutan. 

Menjaga Owa si Penjaga Rimba

Owa jawa

Beberapa waktu yang lalu ada berita tentang penangkapan penjual Owa Jawa di sekitar habitat Owa. baca beritanya disini :http://www.radarpekalongan.com/6464/hewan-langka-diperjualbelikan-polres-pekalongan-bekuk-tiga-pelaku/; http://www.kfmpekalongan.com/2016/03/satwa-liar-yang-hampir.html

Kasus ini masih di tangani oleh yang berwenang, dan semoga saja ada tindak lanjut dari kasus ini yang juga di beritakan ke masyarakat luas. Beberapa waktu lalu waktu tim swaraOwa survey di sekitaran Lingo asri, kami sempat singgah di obyek wisata tersebut, dan juga melihat langsung beberapa satwa yang ada di kandang-kandang di sini. Beberapa waktu sebelumnya beberapa kandang nampak kosong, kali ini beberapa kandang sudah terisi, dan ketika saya tanya sana-sini ternyata beberapa hewan itu adalah sitaan dari BKSDA yang di titipkan kepada minizoo Linggo asri ini.

Yang menarik perhatian kita adalah ada 2 jenis owa disitu, Owa jawa dan Owa Kalimantan. Mau di apakan hewan-hewan sitaan ini? Di lepas liarkan lagi sudah tentu butuh persyaratan khusus yang harus di lewati untuk bisa liar kembali. Yang jelas biaya untuk melepas liarkan tentu tidak sebanding dengan harga jual dari Owa ini yang di nikmati oleh penjual atau orang yang melihara owa ini sebagai koleksi pribadi.

Membayangkan bagaimana owa ini berayun bebas kesana kemari di hutan, memanggil dan menyanyi setiap hari di hutan adalah  amanah binatang ini sebagai cipataan Tuhan. Menghuni hutan, menjaga hutan tetap ramai, dan bisa di nikmati oleh manusia di sekitarnya. Peran ekologis sebagai binatang penyebar biji juga hilang karena Owa ini telah hidup di kandang sempit. Sebagai fauna endemik Jawa sudah tentu ini juga sebagai indentitas global dalam pergaulan dunia internasional. Tapi bagaimana kalau hanya ada di kandang saja??  Yang jelas untuk melepas liarkan kembali Owa, tentu butuh hutan, dan sementara ini hutan yang masih layak untuk Owa tinggal juga tidak banyak tersedia. Yang ada juga semakin terkikis habis.

Kandang sitaan 

Kita punya peran yang sama untuk melestarikan Owa dan hutan sebagai habitatnya, yang tinggal di pinggir hutan, yang jauh dari hutan, pemerintah, organisasi masyarakat, polisi, petugas kehutanan, mahasiswa, guru,pedagang, peneliti, jurnalis, penegak hukum ,selebritis, tokoh masyarakat, lembaga peneliti atau siapapun dapat berperan sesuai fungsinya dalam masyarakat.

Pendidikan pelestarian alam dan mengarusutamakan konservasi tentu dapat di lakukan dimanapun dan kapanpun, tidak hanyak menindak tegas pelaku yang terlibat perburuan binatang liar, namun juga mencegah perburuan adalah lebih penting dilakukan dari tingkat site sampai pembuat kebijakan.  Jadi apa peran anda untuk melestarikan alam sekitar anda?

lahan pertanian di antara hutan habitat owa jawa

Pelatihan Metode Survei Primata Hutan Sokokembang, 14-16 September 2015

Latar Belakang

Kawasan hutan alam di Jawa Tengah adalah habitat primata endemik Jawa, salah satunya adalah Owa Jawa (Hylobates moloch) yang terletak di luar kawasan konservasi dan telah terfragmentasi. Tujuan dari kegiatan ini adalah untuk melestarikan populasi Owa Jawa dan habitatnya, sebagai bentuk kontribusi terhadap rencana aksi Owa Jawa tahun 2012 hingga tahun 2021 mendatang. Tujuan khususnya adalah untuk melestarikan habitat Owa Jawa yang ada di bagian barat Pegunungan Dieng, melalui penelitian, penegakan hukum dan keterlibatan komunitas lokal. Kami akan mendorong peneliti-peneliti muda dan conservasionist melalui pelatihan dan praktek lapangan, peningkatan kegiatan penegakan hukum dan pengembangan dan pemberdayaan komunitas lokal berbasis pertanian kopi di Dusun Sokokembang, Pekalongan. Salah satu pelatihan yang perlu dilakukan adalah pelatihan survei primata dengan materi diskusi metode-metode yang digunakan serta praktek langsung di lapangan, misalnya line transect dan point count, serta analisis data yang memungkinkan dilakukan dari metode yang digunakan. Pelatihan ini merupakan kegiatan tahunan yang telah dilakukan sejak tahun 2013 dan tahun ini merupakan pelatihan yang ke-3, yang dilaksanakan oleh KP3 Primata Fakultas Kehutanan UGM yang bekerjasama dengan “Coffee and Primate Conservation Project-Yogyakarta Primate Study Club. Peningkatan kerjasama antara pelaku konservasi di Jawa Tengah, baik yang terlibat langsung maupun tidak akan menjadi langkah berikutnya setelah dilaksanakannya pelatihan. Melalui proses diskusi dalam acara pelatihan, diharapkan adanya kesepakatan mengenai metode yang tepat digunakan di kawasan hutan alam Jawa Tengah, sehingga hasil penelitian yang dilakukan oleh berbagai pihak dapat diintegrasikan untuk kepentingan bersama nantinya.

Tujuan

1.    Mendorong munculnya peneliti primata dari generasi muda.

2.    Meningkatkan pengetahuan dan kemampuan teknis para peneliti terkait metodologi survei primata.

3.    Mendorong jejaring dan kerjasama antar peneliti primata terutama di tingkat lokal Jawa Tengah.

Lokasi dan Waktu Pelatihan

Pelatihan ini akan dilakukan pada tanggal 14 – 16 September 2015 di Dusun Sokokembang, Desa Kayupuring, Kecamatan Petungkriyono, Kabupaten Pekalongan dan Hutan Lindung Petungkriyono, Perhutani KPH Pekalongan Timur.

Peserta

Mahasiswa perguruan tinggi, praktisi, dan perwakilan instansi di bidang Kehutanan di wilayah Jawa Tengah dan D.I. Yogyakarta.

Pemateri

1. Arif Setiawan,  (Coffee and Primate Conservation Project)

2. Ike Naya Naya Silana  (Perhimpunan Ahli dan Pemerhati Primata Indonesia) 

3. Indah Winarti  (IAR)

Kegiatan ini di dukung oleh :