This caselet[1] documents how a farmers’ organization, with strong policy advocacy experience, has successfully professionalized their group into becoming an economically viable business enterprise. The business boasts of contributing to “improving the well-being of forest village communities based on sustainable ecology”. This farmer-led enterprise is a case model of enabling the provision of economic services based on the protection of the environmental resources – that is, honey gathering as a non-timber forest product from a protected forest park in Indonesia. The farmers cooperative’s journey — as they overcame extensive constraints, how they forged partnerships and developed capacities to address risks, and eventually transform into a lucrative business for increased income and better livelihoods – is chronicled in this caselet.
The humble beginnings. Before the Hanjuang Cooperative was established, some 1,500 farmers and coastal people living in and around Ujung Kulon National Park (Panaitan Island) formed a farmer organization named, “Serikat Tani Ujung Kulon or Ujung Kulon Farmers Union”, called STUK. The Indonesia Peasant Alliance (Aliansi Petani Indonesia or API) played a major role in facilitating the formation of this umbrella national farmer organization. API is the National Implementing Agency (NIA) of the IFAD-EU funded Asia Pacific Farmers’ Programme (APFP) and Support to Farmers’ Organizations for Asia (FO4A) programme implemented in Indonesia and other countries, under the regional coordination of Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA). Back then, the economic conditions of the smallholder farmers were based on farming in drylands, growing cassava, rice and root crops, and fishery- related livelihoods. The mission of STUK is to improve the local economy and livelihood resources of smallholder farmers and fisherfolks living in and around the National Park in Ujung Kulon Area; to lobby for the right to access and gather non-timber resources; to advocate for smallholder farmers and fisherfolks’ interest in agrarian reform, and to build capacities and empower members to rally behind issues in economic, social, and political agenda impacting on their lives.
Advocating for agrarian cases and sustainable forest products gathering. As early as 2006, STUK and API started to organize the community living in the National Park, in support of their advocacy on the agrarian cases involving boundary conflicts between the community occupied land and the National Park, where there is a unique community activity of collecting wild honey in the forest. In 2008, API partnered with PT Dian Niaga (Jhony W Utama) and Indonesian Forest Honey Network, to train STUK in sustainable harvesting techniques and hygienic post-harvest processing of forest honey. Subsequently, the API ensured that the community was applying the proper harvesting and post-harvest techniques, for better quality (pure, wild, and unadulterated) of forest honey. In 2009, the forest community started to promote and market forest honey, in cooperation with PT Dian Niaga Jakarta, a bulk honey supplier.
Community empowerment as a driving force in protecting forest products. With their respectable reputation and strong advocacy on various issues confronting smallholders’ living conditions, Ujung Kulon community and STUK were given, by the local government, access to use Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Ujung Kulon National Park, paving the way for the harvesting of a single product – the forest honey. Forest honey gathering is illegal within the National Park, as it was considered upsetting the rhinoceros population. This is an existing agrarian case of boundary conflict between the community land and the national park. At this stage, and with the significant support and advice from API National secretariat, and concerned facilitators, on January 01, 2012, the Ujung Kulon Forest village community and STUK gave birth to the Hanjuang Cooperative, as their economic movement. This trailblazing act stemmed from a common desire to develop community businesses out of the existing opportunities and potentials. Only the community with STUK members were allowed to gather honey inside the National Park, but with certain limitation of the designated areas. The total cooperative membership is 309, coming from 3 villages, and consisting of 8 honey gatherers groups. The product identified is forest honey, a Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) with the potential to supply for a large capacity business. Forest honey from Apis Dorsata bees, known as Odeng, is an alternative source of income for Ujung Kulon farmers during the dry season, around August to November, with a production capacity reaching 15 to 25 tons.
Government support and conflict resolution provided a major impetus. As early as 2013, API with STUK and Hanjuang Cooperative Leaders pursued a dialogue with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia to lobby for conflict resolution on Ujung Kulon National Park management and use. As an outcome of the dialogue, the Government allowed access for the community living around Ujung Kulon National Park to harvest forest honey, on the condition that sustainable forest honey harvesting concept will be followed. In 2015, API organized a meeting with the farmer leaders in Sumur-Sub District, including STUK farmers to discuss about agrarian conflict resolution on forest areas, as an apparent effect of low community participation in forest management systems. This highlighted the crucial role of community participation in forest management, in that, members can be responsible partners in decision-making in forest protection and preservation, as well as benefactors of the goods and services of the forestry resources. This year marked the renewed agreement between Ujung Kulon National Park and Hanjuang Cooperative/STUK, a move that also marks the opportunity for smallholder farmers to take active role in sustainable forestry management and ensure outcomes leading to increases in income and better livelihoods.
Partnership with public and private companies for building entrepreneurship. For the period 2017-2020, Hanjuang Cooperative entered into a business contract with Oriflame to market 5,000 bottles of honey per month. Oriflame is a Swedish-based company (with operations in Indonesia) selling cosmetics and beauty care products, but also venturing into the sale of forest honey. Oriflame was selling Tesso Nello Forest Honey from Kalimantan, a member of the forest honey network. Through this forest honey network and API, the partnership with Oriflame Indonesia came into being, with the agreement on product sale of Ujung Kulon Forest honey and the possibility of collaboration along the value chain as produced by Hanjuan Cooperative members. Part of the agreement was awareness and regulating human activities that can reduce climate impact and effect resources conservation. Hanjuang Cooperative entered into a business contract with Oriflame with an exclusive brand “Madu Odeng”. The partnership gave the cooperative the opportunity to learn the workings of business operations. The partnership was doing well, when two disasters unfortunately struck the island, one in December 2018 when a tsunami destroyed the honey storage facilities, and in 2019 with forest fires heavily destroying resources on Panaitan Island. As a result, harvesting honey was banned by National Park authorities. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Oriflame decided to stop the cooperation. Not being discouraged by the turn of events, in 2021 the cooperative approached Ujung Kulon National Park through Smart Foundation and Centras IPB for the reopening of forest honey harvesting on Panaitan Island. It was only in 2023, when the TNUK permit was again released, thus, giving the opportunity for the cooperative to sell again, wild and pure honey under the brand name, “Ti’ Kulon”. In 2023, the honey farmers also got support from the TNUK (Ujung Kulon National Park) as much as IDR 25,000,000 for the farming of Trigona bee (the smaller and stingless bees), while other extension offices of the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Cooperative conducted trainings for the farmers. The Bogor Agriculture Institute (university) or IPB supported the farmers in the application and installation of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to the honey bee farmers, with funding support from JEEF.
| Improving the well-being of forest village communities based on sustainable ecology. |
Capacity building for transforming an FO into a business enterprise. There are two organizations under one umbrella, Serikat Tani Ujung Kulon (STUK), these are the Ujung Kulon Farmer Union & Hanjuang Cooperative. These organizations have the same members but have different roles, STUK serves as the farmer organization responsible for member organizing, policy advocacy, and capacity building. Hanjuang cooperative is the business organization tasked to ensure that the business operations are well organized and managed. This arrangement has facilitated ease in monitoring activities and proper delineation of roles and activities of the organization. With strong support from API and other partners, various training programs were instituted, on the following topics: enhancing skills and knowledge of the officers and farmer-members on social analysis and policy advocacy, basic cooperative management for members and leader, on value chain improvement and marketing, on post-harvest processing, packaging, business planning, accounting and financial engineering, applying sustainable harvesting techniques and hygienic post-harvesting of forest honey, digitization of wild honey harvesting activity data. API’s vital role included support in strengthening the farmer organization, members consolidation, policy advocacy for conflict resolution between farmer and Ujung Kulon National Park, providing training on social analysis and policy advocacy, training and consultation on business planning, market networking, financial management and accounting, link to JMHI and the private sector Oriflame, PT. Dian Niaga, and other API partners in post-harvest processing, packaging, application of sustainable harvesting and hygienic post-harvesting techniques of forest honey.
Improving product quality and variety for value addition. The products of the cooperative include 100% pure honey packs/bottles of 200 grams; a honey hampers which includes 3 bottles of honey, each at 100 grams, soap, pomade, lip balm and wooden spoon, with the brand “Ti’ Kulon”. Pomades, soaps and lip balm, are derived products made from honey and beeswax. Marketing is done by building a network of resellers, which is also supported by an official website (nusadorsta.com), social media such as Instagram-Facebook, and online stores on Tokopedia, Shopee, others. One value added to the product is through branding with QR coding, making it easier for consumers to know the origin of the product, location (geo tagging), time of harvest, nest tree, harvest yield, type of nectar, and the harvesting group. The QR Code is printed on the packaging, marking the traceability of the products. Honey is considered as the third most counterfeited food product and that traceability is crucial for the consuming public (based on Decernis food fraud database). Marketing of end products is generated from a network of resellers in the Jabotabek area. The cooperative is also working with PT SGI for bulk honey sales, in the 2023 season, with only 1.0 ton of forest honey. Other markets are doctors, traditional physiotherapists, and resellers in Serang, Bogor, and Jakarta.
Digitalization of honey harvesting through partnership with a private institution. The cooperative, with the support of API and Centras IPB University was able to partner with the Japan Environmental Education Forum (JEEF), an international NGO that believes in the power of environmental education to create sustainable society, and leaving no one behind. In 2021, as the cooperative was able to secure access rights to harvest forest honey in the Panaitan island, the collaboration with JEEF introduced the digitalization of the collection process. Trial digitization of wild honey harvesting activity with training of the involved farmers further supported the move to professionalize the FO and to be more competitive in the market. As of 2023 latest activity, the cooperative has already mapped out more than 500 honeycomb trees on Panaitan Island, with funding from the JEEF, through the Smart Foundation. Geo-referencing the trees make it possible to schedule and properly plan the timing and the area of harvesting.
A family farming endeavor advocating for “zero/reduced waste” business enterprise. Beeswax (made from the honeycomb of honeybees) is a versatile alternative to synthetic waxes and petroleum-based products, thus making it an attractive ingredient in a variety of products in cosmetics, personal care, candles, food preservatives, among many others. With the expansion of the goods and services of the cooperative, they also ventured into the production of by-products, such as lip balm, pomade, and soap. There is a strong advocacy for the concept of “family farming” and “community farming”– involving the youth, women and the men, making it a family endeavor that provides additional income. The women are processing the products, while the men and the youth do the harvesting and marketing of products. By using beeswax as a natural resource that can be replenished, and with biodegradable characteristics, the business is reducing its impact on the environment and contributing to sustainable use of resources.
Lessons learned and actions taken. The case of the honey producers of Hanjuang Cooperative is a model of a farmer-led business enterprise exhibiting learning, strategies, and elements that are essential in achieving the goals of FO4A and APFP programmes, that is, “farmer organizations are professionally capacitated to provide sustainable demand-driven (business and technical) services to their members and engage in effective policy dialogue for the improved livelihoods and incomes of smallholder farmer/ producers in Asia and the Pacific”. The case identified opportunities for partnerships, explored collaborative arrangements at the programme and regional level with institutional partners and country level projects. More importantly, as the MTR recommends, it is evident that FO business-related capacity building plans and activities, along the objective of commercialization and innovation must be progressively pursued. For key business lessons, the cooperative advises other organizations venturing into businesses to capitalize on the gains from past programmes they were involved in. The key step is to formulate the policy resolution of interest to the smallholders, particularly on conflicts and policy issues affecting their livelihoods. Second, is to identify demand-driven business opportunities or the potentials of available commodity and resources (to include land use management). Third, is to define boundary partners and stakeholders and mobilize groups for sharing of resources. Fourth is to embark on capacity building activities based on needs assessment; fifth is to start the business on a trial or small-scale basis. Finally, for sixth, step is to engage in business partnerships.
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