Zulnasri, Pioneering Beekeeper of Riau’s ‘Kelulut’ Honey

Syahnan Rangkuti

· 7 minutes read

While his friends are making their living in cities, Zulnasri, 31, has remained in his hometown in Kampar district, Kampar regency, Riau. He believes that, with sincere and hard work in maintaining the last remaining customary forest of his village for future generations, the natural forest will provide economic opportunities for the people.

Zulnasri still remembers the vast forest that surrounded the village during his childhood. The forest was powerful. Not many people dared to enter the forest because of the many wild animals that lived in it. The roar of a tiger was often heard back then. The Kenagarian Rumbio Customary Forest belongs to the villagers of Kenagarian Rumbio, a traditional unit that comprises the four villages of Rumbio, Koto Tibun, Sarak Island and Padang Mutung in Kampar regency.

As Zulnasri grew into adolescence, the village forest gradually shrank. The tall timber trees began to be replaced by oil palm and rubber plantations. The customary forest that once covered more than 1,000 hectares had diminished to around 500 hectares.

The diminishing forest area was caused by a division among the ninik mamak (customary leaders), with some ninik mamak secretly selling areas of the forest to newcomers. Other leaders insisted on protecting the remaining forest area.

"My father was one of the ninik mamak who insisted on maintaining the forest. I remember, as a child, people came to my house carrying suitcases full of money to try and persuade my father to sell the customary forestland. Bapak [my father] refused. My father told those people that he would rather see his children sleeping under banana trees than to make money from selling the forest," Zulnasri told Kompas during the second week of April in Rumbio customary forest, 45 kilometers from Pekanbaru.

Although his father died when Zulnasri was still in the second grade of elementary school, the same love for the forest flows through his veins. The village’s forest is his playground. He was an active member of the nature lovers group at Syarif Kasim II State Islamic University in Riau, where he studied Arabic language education at the Tarbiyah school.

At the end of his studies in 2012, Zulnasri met Datuk Abu Sami, a ninik mamak in Rumbio who was concerned about the state of the forest. The larger trees still stood in the forest, but more and more people were cutting down smaller trees for firewood and other needs. Abu Sami said that the forest would be irrevocably damaged if the trees continued to be cut down, because the trees were not regenerating. Abu Sami wanted to form a group of forest rangers.

As he had the same vision, Zulnasri joined the Rumbio Rural Forestry Extension Center (SPKP) that Abu Sami initiated. The top administrators are all ninik mamak. Zulnasri and a dozen of his peers became field operators, responsible for practically all of the SPKP’s activities.

Initially, the Zulnasri and his colleagues had no idea what they should do. Finally, they decided to collect the seedlings of rare species that had economic value, such as kulim, tempui (a local fruit tree) and sugar palm, for replanting and cultivating.

The collected seedlings were distributed among the villages, but only a few people planted them. They preferred to grow rubber trees or oil palms rather than forest species. In the end, the remaining hundreds of seedlings were replanted in the forest.

After this unsuccessful first project, Zulnasri and his colleagues sought funding for their main task of protecting the forest. The Kampar Forest Office helped fund a honeybee farm, but the venture failed because the Rumbio forest was not suitable for honeybees. The failed venture caused a decline in the membership of Zulnasri’s group.

Cultivating kelulut

Amid the confusion, Zulnasri and the remaining members of his group – Septian, Rahmat, Firman and Jafri – began searching for kelulut (stingless bees) that nested in old, dead or decaying trees in their villages. Kelulut are larger than mosquitoes, but smaller than flies. They have no stingers, but are related to honeybees and produce honey.

The kelulut produce less honey than ordinary honeybees. It is sweet like other honey, but a little sour. According to Zulnasri, the acidity is believed to come from an antioxidant and anticarcinogenic property of the honey, which raises its value.

There were no references on farming kelulut at that time in Riau, so Zulnasri learned by doing. The group looked for kelulut nests in dead trees and removed the dead trunk intact to preserve the bees’ nest. After moving the nest to the desired location, they built a small, wooden house above the trunk so the worker bees would move into the artificial hive. The kelulut then made honeycombs of propolis in the artificial hive.

Farming the kelulut went smoothly, but Zulnasri found it difficult to market the honey they produced. He then found a sales channel for kelulut honey on social media and discovered that kelulut honey was far more expensive than ordinary honey, reaching Rp 500,000 per liter.

By 2017, Zulnasri and his group had collected 400 logs with kelulut nests from the forest. They made an income of tens of millions of rupiah per month from the honey they sold to Jakarta, Malaysia and Singapore.

Some of the profits from selling the honey as set aside to develop nurseries for fruit trees like guava, mango, mangosteen, longan and matoa. They distribute the fruit seedlings for free, and received a very positive response from the local community. Today, these seedlings have grown and fruited. A single guava tree can produce Rp 1 million in harvested fruit.

"We have distributed a thousand seedlings to the villagers. There are 600 new seedlings that are now ready for planting. More and more people have become interested in planting our fruit seedlings. The fruit harvests provide additional incomes for the people, while we benefit from the flowers as food for kelulut. The people\'s awareness of the forest as an economic source is growing," said Zulnasri.

Since then, Zulnasri has frequently run training workshops on how to farm kelulut in Riau. Farming the sour honey has also expanded to other regions, and Zulnasri has been invited several times to share his knowledge in regions outside Riau like West Sumatra, Jambi and South Sumatra.

The Riau provincial administration recognized his efforts as a forestry extension worker with the title of Best Self-supporting Forestry Extension Worker In 2017. That same year, he was nominated for the national award in the same category. His kelulut project has been named the fifth best in the country.

As a Riau extension worker, Zulnasri is also a civil servant, and received the 2018 Kalpataru award that recognized him as a pioneer in the cultivation of kelulut in Riau. His perseverance led him to cultivate kelulut from nothing, which then spread throughout Riau to receive national acclaim.

Zulnasri\'s honey-cultivating business was nearly destroyed in mid-2018, when sun bears ravaged hundreds of kelulut nests for their honeycomb. Nearly 300 logs containing kelulut nests were destroyed when the bears ate the honey, eggs, larvae and queens. Nothing could be saved.

"We don\'t blame the bears because the forest is their habitat. Now, we have moved the logs containing the kelulut near the houses on the village outskirts. Only a few 100 nests survived,” said Zulnasri. “We are still looking for new ways to increase the honey harvest without having to deal with bears."

Zulnasri continues his projects to this day, developing the kelulut farms and fruit tree nurseries while preserving the forest. Today, his group has even made their own fertilizer mix for sharing with the villagers at no cost. Zulnasri dreams of starting a kelulut farm and fruit tree nursery company in his village.

Zulnasri

Born: Koto Tibun, Kampar, Jan. 14, 1988

Education:

- Arabic language education, Tarbiyah school, Sultan Syarif Kasim II State Islamic University, Riau (2013)

- Alhidayah Islamic Boarding School (2007)

- SDN 022 Padang Mutung elementary school (2000)

Editor:

kompascetak