Junaidi, Kalpataru Award for Forestry Worker

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Junaidi.

Junaidi spend two-thirds of his life as a forestry extension worker in Riau. The state recognized his 38 years of service in caring for the environment by bestowing him the Kalpataru Award in 2018. Even after he retired in January 2019 at the age of 58, Junaidi did not stop. He continued to provide instruction from one forest to the next, an activity that is inseparable from his life.

“It seems I cannot retire as a forestry extension worker. The local people want me to continue accompanying them,” Junaidi said in a discussion in Pekanbaru on Monday (March 11, 2019).

Junaidi began his career as a forestry extension worker in 1981 in Kampar Kiri district, Kampar regency, Riau, after graduating from the Bukittinggi Agricultural Technical Junior High School (SMTP) in West Sumatra. Back then, people from Pekanbaru had to cross two large rivers that had no bridges to get to the district capital of Lipat Kain.

He was posted to a single district, but this covered almost 400,000 hectares. Today, Kampar Kiri district has been divided into five districts. In 1986, the government designated one are of the forestry jurisdiction as the Bukit Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve. The 136,000-hectare reserve is one of the best wildlife sanctuaries in Riau province.

The Rimbang Baling forest has been inhabited by thousands of people for centuries. Fourteen customary villages stand along the Subayang River and the Bio River that cross the hills of Rimbang Baling. Each village is led by a ninik mamak (village head).

Junaidi, who has three daughters, was assigned in the early 1990s to Koto Kampar district, in the borderlands between Kampar regency and West Sumatra province along the West Trans-Sumatra highway. At that time, thousands of people there grew the gambier (Uncaria gambir), a plant that has medicinal and industrial applications that sold for Rp 40,000 per kilogram.

The people cleared thousands of hectares of forest for gambier plantations, cutting down trees and burning the land. The plantation area was so vast that an entrepreneur built a gambier post-harvest production factory in Batu Besurat village.

Although the plantations damaged the forest, Junaidi did not ban them. Instead, he first approached the ninik mamak and local community leaders, which welcomed his gesture.

Kompas

Junaidi.

The ninik mamak even allotted a 3-hectare plot of land for Junaidi to manage, and asked him to cultivate gambier. He obeyed. However, he also planted rubber seedlings between the gambier plants. Gradually, he encouraged other people to do the same.

When they asked him why, Junaidi explained that they needed to cultivate rubber trees because the price of gambier would not always be high. He assured them that if gambier prices plummeted one day, the farmers already had rubber as backup source of livelihood. The rubber trees could also replace the trees lost to logging.

Moreover, Koto Kampar was the primary water catchment area that fed the reservoir of the Koto Panjang hydropower plant (PLTA) that commenced operation in 1997.

Junaidi asked for the assistance of the Riau Forestry Office and several agencies to provide rubber seedlings. (In 1993, forestry extension workers were moved from under the direct management of the Forestry Ministry to provincial forestry offices.) He also grew seedlings himself, and provided the people with free seedlings that were ready for planting.

Five years later, the gambier price plummeted, and the factory closed down. The people who had planted rubber trees were very grateful to Junaidi. Rubber could now replace gambier. Rubber is still cultivated today in most areas of Koto Kampar, which now comprises two districts.

Relocation

After his success in Koto Kampar, Junaidi was posted to other forestry areas in Rokan Hulu, Kuantan Singingi and Siak regencies. However, he always takes the time to inquire about developments in the areas where he was posted before, maintaining his ties with the local community leaders.

Outside his work as a forestry extension worker, Junaidi also set up a Forest Farmers Group that urges people to protect forests while using forests and forest products as their a source of livelihood. Today, the group comprises more than 300 communities.

Junaidi also searched for independent forestry extension workers to help out as volunteers in several regions. He also visited villages located on forest boundaries to establish Forest Care Village Groups. These groups help village officials in managing forests and forest resources.

The remoteness of the areas and the difficult local terrain have been the main challenges for Junaidi. The operational costs are high, while he had no access to state funding, but he never hesitated in spending his own money. Not infrequently, he had to leave his old car in the middle of the forest because it had broken down, its axle had failed, or it had run out of fuel.

He often travels dozens of kilometers by motorcycle across palm oil plantations and forest groves to reach his work sites. Sometimes, he had to push his motorcycle through the forest because of a flat tire. Junaidi often sold old personal items so he could buy gasoline to visit the forest farmer groups and forestry extension volunteers.

His hard work did not go unnoticed. In 2015, he received a national award for the best forestry extension worker. In addition, more than 10 forest farmer groups that he had assisted received provincial and national awards. The forestry extension volunteers he recruited also received provincial and national awards.

In 2018, the final year of his service as a forestry extension worker, Junaidi was awarded the Kalpataru.

Despite the Kalpataru Award, Junaidi sometimes felt that the forestry office did not support his hard work. There was even a colleague who sneered at him, calling him crazy and that his work was useless. What saddened him was that, when he had to travel to Manado, North Sulawesi, to receive the Kalpataru Award in August 2018, the Riau Forestry Office did not cover his travel costs. Fortunately, several acquaintances put money together to buy him a ticket.

The challenges he faced did not dent his dedication. Instead, Junaidi continued his activities even after retirement. Currently, he is assisting the people of Kampar Kiri Hulu in Bukit Rimbang Baling in obtaining the right to manage the local forest area as part of their customary lands. He intends to follow the course of his life until his body is no longer able to support his physically demanding work in protecting forests and forest communities.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Junaidi.

Junaidi

Born: Bonjol, Jan. 10, 1961

Education:

- SMTP Bukittinggi junior high school, 1981

- ST Bonjol technical school, 1977

- SD Bonjol elementary school, 1974

Children:

- Dian Julianda Sari, Putri Melinia Sahara, Salsabila