Indonesian Ecological Restoration & Education

In August of 2009, team members Greg Hill and Eric Jones visited the University of Indonesia in Jakarta to meet Dr. Iwan Tjitradjaja, professor of anthropology and expert in social forestry. Through contacts, we had learned of Iwan's long history of working with local communities to promote healthy forests, sustainable livelihoods and cultural resilience. Since our meeting last year, we have kept in touch with Iwan by email, discussing the JFC vision and find a way to engage his expertise. The good news is that Iwan, and his graduate student Tika, are now working to deepen our understanding of the ecological and cultural context and facilitate communication with state and national government representatives.

Iwan and Tika first visited the JFC site and Kunir village from April 8th to 11th, meeting with village head Pak Sumani, touring the village and the JFC site. They discussed the JFC project vision and its implementation, village leadership and politics, economic, social and cultural life and shared their observations with JFC board members Agus, Adi, Yani and Heni in Jepara. Project team member Tim O’Brien met with Iwan and Tika at University of Indonesia soon afterwards and helped to formulate next steps. A second site visit, from April 29th to May 2nd, included meetings with Perum Perhutani (the state-owned forestry company of Indonesia) administrators in Pati and Jepara to discuss and clarify the JFC project vision and mission, as well as continued discussions with the JFC board and Kunir village leadership. Based on these visits and the positive feedback we've received we are moving forward to have Iwan and Tika get involved on deeper levels. Tika will be staying in the village from mid-June to mid August with Iwan making visits to Kunir-Jepara twice a month. Some of the understandings we expect to get from this work are:

• Information on land tenure history and contemporary patterns, kinship, governance, household and village economy. • Local ecological knowledge that could assist with project activities like planting culturally important heritage species. * How the potential influx of funding from the coffee restoration work might impact women.  • How the influx of financial resources from the project can be distributed equitably.

This information, and the valuable liaison work that Iwan has already started, will be of tremendous help in making the Jepara Forest Conservancy a truly sustainable project, able to help build thriving communities in a resilient ecosystem for generations to come.