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.

 

Owa Jawa : Sinden Gunung Negeri Atas Awan (bagian 2)

di tulis oleh : Salmah Widyastuti

e-mail: salmah.w@mail.ugm.ac.id

 Ds.Tlogohendro

Pagi itu, 4 Juni 2016, pagi-pagi sekali kami ditemani salah satu warga habitat Owa,  berangkat menuju Desa Tlogohendro, Petungkriyono, untuk kembali melakukan survei populasi owa jawa di hutan Tlogohendro.  Survei lanjutan kali ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui jumlah rata-rata individu  owa jawa dalam satu kelompok atau group size, yang menghuni hutan negri di atas awan ini. Sebelum langsung terjun ke hutan, terlebih dahulu kami konfirmasi lokasi keberadaan kelompok-kelompok owa jawa lewat arah terdengarnya suara nyanyiannya. Namun hingga pukul 09.00 tak satu pun suara nyanyian sang sinden terdengar. Hal ini memang sering terjadi, karena nilai probabilitas owa bersuara yaitu di bawah satu, yaitu berkisar 0,85-1 (Brockleman and Ali, 1987). Artinya tidak setiap hari owa bersuara. Akhirnya kami langsung bergerak menuju hutan di sebelah utara Desa Tlogohendro berdasarkan data yang diperoleh pada survei beberapa bulan lalu. Melewati medan yang sulit, menaiki bukit, kemudian turun menyebrang sungai, dan kembali naik, berjalan perlahan menyusuri hutan dengan pepohonan menjulang kami berharap menjumpai kelompok owa jawa. Namun yang muncul hanya sepasang burung rangkong dari sarangnya di ketinggian pohon yang menjulang. Tak satu pun kelompok owa jawa yang menunjukan atraksinya pada kami di hari yang cerah itu.

Mencari kelompok Owa

Medan di hutan yang terletak di dataran tinggi ini memang berbeda dengan hutan lain yang berada di bawah 1000 mdpl yang terdapat di Petungkriyono. Kemungkinan butuh berhari-hari di dalam hutan Tlogohendro bila ingin menemukan kelompok owa jawa. Peluang untuk dapat berjumpa dengan kelompok owa jawa di hutan Tlogohendro ini kecil, karena besar populasi owa jawa di hutan dataran tinggi ini memang relatif rendah. Estimasi besar populasi owa jawa di hutan ini menggunakan metode vocal count yaitu 0,51 kelompok/km² (radius efektif pendengaran= 0,7 km). Rendahnya populasi owa jawa di hutan ini dapat disebabkan karena letak hutan yang memasuki ketinggian diatas 1000 mdpl, dimana vegetasinya sudah tidak sebagus vegetasi di dataran rendah, keanekaragaman jenis penyusun vegetasinya mulai berkurang dan potensi sumber pakan bagi owa jawa juga berkurang.

Tetaplah terus bernyanyi menemani aktivitas warga Tlogohendro di pagi hari, dan mewarnai hutan negeri di atas awan .

Owa Jawa (Hylobates moloch)

Kopi Owa

dibalik layar "Kopi Owa"

Pesan pelestarian alam yang dibuat oleh tim Coffee Story, kompas TV telah memberikan kontribusi nyata bagi upaya konservasi primata dan hutan Petungkriono pada umumnya. Tahun lalu bulan agustus 2014 tim liputan ini berkunjung ke site penelitian owajawa di Sokokembang, Petungkriyono Pekalongan, atas dasar informasi sampel kopi yang di bawa seorang kawan pecinta kopi yang waktu itu kita ajak ke sokokembang untuk lihat kopi dan owa di habitat alamnya.Ceritanya bagaimana sampel kopi itu bisa sampai ke tim coffee story, hingga akhir nya mereka jauh-jauh dari belantara Jakarta mau berkunjung ke belantara owa, kami juga tidak tahu. 

Owa tentu tidak setenar Orangutan atau Harimau, Owa bukanlah selebriti yang tiap hari tampil di layar kaca infotainment, bukan juga publik figur yang tiap hari mengisi acara-acara talkshow di TV. Namun keberadaannya di hutan sangatlah penting, tidak hanya menjadi fauna identitas suatu wilayah, namun hutan sebagai tempat hidupnya memberikan manfaat yang tidak ternilai bagi kita. Owa dan kopi disini  adalah sebagai duta bagi pelestarian alam disekitar kita. Mudah-mudahan sedikit ruang di layar kaca  kita ,akan lebih sering  diisi oleh satwa-satwa liar kebanggaan indonesia dengan pesan pelestarian habitatnya.

Tidak hanya owa saja yang hampir punah, karena rumah hutannya yang hilang, banyak satwa dan hutan di sekitar kita yang juga musnah tapa ada cerita, dan begitu  saja juga hilang  nilai penting hutan dan segala isinya. Hutan tidak hanya hunian bagi satwaliar tapi juga sumber kehidupan, geliat ekonomi masyarakat sekitar hutan adalah sangat penting untuk kelestarian hutan itu sendiri. 

Cerita kopi dan owa ini telah tayang di Kompas TV tanggal 17 Januari 2015, bagi anda yang belum sempat menonton acara ini bisa di lihat di sini :