Kiryono, Jumpono and Dasimto: Three Brothers Revive Puncak

KOMPAS/MADINA NUSRAT

Kiryono

The sons of a tea picker, the many limitations they encountered throughout their lives did not stop Kiryono, Jumpono and Dasimto from restoring the Puncak area, which is on the verge of ruin. With great patience, the three brothers encouraged the local residents to stop contributing to deforestation and instead start engaging in forest conservation efforts.

The Puncak area, which spans the districts of Cisarua and Megamendung in Bogor regency, West Java, is currently in critical condition. Almost half of the area is critical land. The upstream area of the Ciliwung river basin has experienced recurring landslides and severe flooding on an annual basis for nearly five years. The poor environmental condition of Puncak has often been linked to the frequent flooding in Jakarta.

Also read: Women’s Model for Environmental Conservation

Instead of pointing their fingers at others, Kiryono, Jumpono and Dasimto have attempted to raise awareness among the local people. Living in the tea picker settlement of Cibulao in North Tugu village, Cisarua district, Bogor regency, the three brothers encouraged their neighbors to plant crop trees on barren land in the forest area. This initiative led them to form the Cibulao forest farmers group (KTH) in 2007.

We must prevent landslides and floods by preserving nature.

Most members of the Cibulao KTH were formerly employed as tea pickers at private plantations. They are now coffee farmers and forest conservation workers. With a membership now comprising around 300 farmers from several villages around Cibulao, the forest farmers group has been entrusted with managing 610.64 hectares of forest area belonging to state-owned forestry company Perum Perhutani in Cisarua. To date, the group has regreened 250 ha of the forest area, planting with no fewer than 500,000 coffee and hardwood trees.

“The Ciliwung River is the starting point. This is what makes it particularly important to protect its upstream area. Millions of people depend on the river’s water and the oxygen produced by the forest for their livelihoods. We must prevent landslides and floods by preserving nature,” Cibulao KTH head Jumpono said in Cibulao, during an interview with Kiryono and Dasimto in December 2020.

Also read: Ari Hidayat, Protector of Wildlife

The brothers’ efforts to raise awareness among the local people and to encourage them to participate in nature conservation campaigns did not yield instant results. The residents of Cibulao, including Jumpono, used to engage in illegal logging activities because of the meager incomes they made as tea pickers.

For instance, tea pickers only received daily wages of Rp 10,000 to Rp 20,000 from the 1990s to 2000s. Only recently, their wages were increased to Rp 32,500 per day.

Also read: Preserving the banks of Bengawan Solo

Even so, this is not enough to meet their daily needs. They receive a total monthly income of Rp 600,000 after their holiday pay has been deducted.

KOMPAS/DHANANG DAVID ARITONANG

Jumpono

Assistance

Kiryono, the eldest of the three brothers, said that before Cibulao KTH was formed, a number of conservationists and representatives from nongovernmental organizations

visited their village in 2002 and held public talks on the importance of forest conservation. This inspired him and Jumpono to start taking an active part in nature conservation.

Also read: Lessons from the Lakeside

Their younger brother, Dasimto, who was still a boy at the time, also became aware about the importance of conserving and protecting nature.

Initially, the brothers, along with their father (now deceased), started planting coffee trees in their backyard to fulfill the family’s personal consumption needs. They obtained the coffee seeds from their hometown of Temanggung, Central Java.

The three brothers are from a migrant family. Their parents originally moved from Temanggung to Puncak in the 1980s to work as tea pickers.

Also read: Coloring Batiks for Mangrove Forest Conservation

From their experience in cultivating coffee, they were not only able to harvest the beans but also learn that coffee trees had strong roots and would be invaluable for their village’s forest conservation activities. Their awareness increased as their concerns grew over the degenerating condition of the forest.

Little by little, they started encouraging their neighbors to cultivate coffee trees, until eventually they established Cibulao KTH. Back then, the local people were generally apathetic in response to the brothers’ calls. They preferred to cultivate vegetable crops that could be harvested in a few months unlike coffee trees, which usually take years before they start producing enough beans for harvesting.

“We understood their arguments. They needed money, and quick-growing crops was a solution for them. However, cultivating vegetable crops on our steep hills could easily cause landslides,” said Kiryono, who goes by the nickname Yono.

Since 2014, the Research Center and Planning for Regional Development (P4W) at the Research and Community Empowerment Institute of IPB University (LPPM IPB) has encouraged the people of Cibulao to conserve the forest by planting coffee trees.

Over the years, more and more residents started to cultivate coffee trees, especially after the brothers’ Cibulao coffee was awarded the best Robusta coffee at a national coffee contest held by the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters and Industries (AICE) in 2016.

In this regard, the local people can profit from their coffee harvest, all the while protecting the environment at the same time.

The brothers believe that the local residents are well aware that their livelihoods depend greatly on preserving the natural environment. At the same time, they also have financial needs that must be met, which has often left them no choice but to engage in practices and activities that lead to environmental degradation.

“Hence, the activities of Cibulao KTH focus on ‘conservation coffee’ or agroforestry. In this regard, the local people can profit from their coffee harvest, all the while protecting the environment at the same time,” said Jumpono.

KOMPAS/BENEDIKTUS KRISNA YOGATAMA

Dasimto

Forest monitoring

In addition to championing forest conservation by cultivating coffee, Cibulao KTH also monitors the forest to mitigate the landslide hazard in their settlement.

Dasimto, the youngest of the three brothers, actively monitors the critical land in the forest surrounding Cibulao. He plants strong crop trees, such as coffee and avocado trees, as well as several other fruiting trees, in critical areas, which are generally meadows.

If this condition continues, landslides may occur. We’re trying to rehabilitate this area.

For instance, the Ciliwung watershed area between the settlements of Cibulao and Cikoneng were originally full of trees. However, the area is now littered with stumps and wood debris from illegal logging activities and covered in red soil deposits as a result of river erosion .

“If this condition continues, landslides may occur. We’re trying to rehabilitate this area,” said Dasimto.

The locals no longer engage in illegal logging activities. This is because their coffee trees need shady trees to protect them from the sun.

Also read: Maintaining Forest ”Dispensary”

“If someone cuts down a tree, it may topple over on the coffee plants of others and cause conflict. Now, however, no one cuts down trees anymore because they prefer to cultivate coffees instead,” said Dasimto.

Community empowerment

Cibulao KTH aims not to only conserve the environment, but also to empower the local community. Yono, for instance, is a collector and purchases green beans from local farmers at around Rp 85,000 per kilogram. He then roasts the beans and sells them for Rp 185,000 to Rp 340,000 per kg.

To develop Cibulao KTH’s business further, the group has opened two coffee shops on Jl. Raya Puncak near Cisarua Market and in Telaga Saat, Cisarua. They have hired teens from Cibulao to work as baristas and waiters at the coffee shops.

Also read: Guardians of the Semarang Coast

The three brothers dream that the Cibulao’s children will be able to improve their welfare, despite their limited education. The meager pay of tea pickers, they say, has prevented them from sending their children to school.

“Our dream is that even if the children of farmers must drop out of school, they will have other skills that they can use so we can compete with the people living in big cities,” said Dasimto.

Kiryono “Yono”

Born: Temanggung, 4 July 1989

Education: Fifth grade, Cisarua elementary school

Jumpono

Born: Temanggung, 17 April 1983

Education: Fifth grade, Cisarua elementary school

Dasimto

Born: Bogor, 14 Oct. 1993

Education: Graduate, PGRI Tugu Cisarua junior high school

This article was translated by Astria Z. Nabila.