Toto Dartoyo, The Jakarta Post 8 Aug 09;
Back in the 1980s, thousands of monkeys were living in the mangrove forests in Pabean Ilir village in the West Java town of Indramayu, where Cukup Rudiyanto lives.
Now the monkeys have disappeared, and no one knows where they’ve gone. There’s not even one left. The thousands of hectares of mangrove forest where they lived were turned into fishponds.
But for Cukup, as his neighbors call him, it wasn’t just his longing to see the monkeys that inspired him to replant hundreds of hectares of mangrove trees at the edge of the beach in the Pasekan and Cantigi subdistricts in the north of Java.
Rather, it was a message from his father that inspired him: His father once said that Indonesia would never be independent if the nation didn’t have forests. All the guerrilla fighters in the past who opposed the colonizers used the forests to move about unseen.
“So guard the forests”: That was the father’s advice to the young Cukup.
Now a couple of weeks shy of his 33rd birthday and a father himself, Cukup still remembers that message — a message that led to him winning a Kalpataru award as an Environment Pioneer. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presented him with the award on National Environment Day in 2008.
The care required, and the awareness needed, to repair the damaged mangrove forests and the eroded beach that stretches for 60 kilometers along the two subdistricts grew more demanding as he grew older.
“After I became an adult I found the courage to remind the community not to cut down the mangrove forests along the edge of the beach,” Cukup told The Jakarta
Post recently. “Because erosion can’t be prevented when there are no mangroves.”
But Cukup’s attitude only had the effect of angering the community in the village, who did not care about Cukup’s warning.
They argued that, by felling the mangrove forests and turning the area into fishponds to grow shrimp, their actions would reduce unemployment and poverty.
The community went ahead with felling the mangroves; Cukup could do nothing to stop them. He even received death threats, which he admitted was frightening.
Consequently, before long, the community owned fishponds, which did indeed, as they had expected, have financial benefits.
But that didn’t last long.
Cukup’s fears became reality. Slowly but surely, erosion swept away their fishponds. As far as the eye could see, all that remained were the beach and pools of seawater.
Cukup got to work. With the help of his relatives, he raised seedlings and replanted the area. Slowly, the area that had once held fishponds turned green. The twitter of the beach birds began to be heard again.
“Only the monkeys haven’t been seen,” said Cukup.
As members of the community came to realize what had happened, they finally began to respect his views. Once the mangrove forests had regrown, Cukup allowed the community to reopen the remaining fishponds.
“Once they became aware of the situation it was easy for me to approach the community,” he said.
“Now we’re busy replanting new mangrove forests, apart from the 600 hectares which was already there.”
The efforts to reclaim the beach area and repair the damage finally attracted the concern of a Japanese NGO called OISCA (Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement). This is non-profit organization aims to build industry, encourage the work ethic and reflect the culture of the community in the nation.
“I felt that we were being helped by this NGO,” he said. “OISCA appointed me as the mangrove coordinator for the West Java region.”
The success of Cukup, who studied law at Wiralodra University, in being awarded a Kalpataru award, and his involvement with an international organization, drew positive interest from neighboring countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
“They used to come here to do comparison studies,” said Cukup with pride.
But any pride he might feel has been eclipsed by worry, because of an industrial incident where raw oil leaked in the area of Balongan Indramayu, killing 200 hectares of year-old mangrove trees. This event has largely passed unnoticed by the local government and the management of state oil company Pertamina.
“If no serious attention is paid to this leak, I fear that the aid we have been getting from OISCA will be stopped,” Cukup said.
Despite these concerns, Cukup plans to keep working to green his area.
“I am so determined to do it and I hope that I can help a little to reduce global warming,” he said.
Now, apart from planting mangroves to preserve the environment, Cukup is trying to increase the local economy by inviting his supporters to plant trees that have the potential to be productive.
