The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: January 26, 1998

Author: Amanda Katili-Niode and Anna Fauziah, Syarifa Foundation

Tel: +62 21 7266288 / 7266289

Fax: +62 21 7395884

Email:      syarifa@rad.net.id

Wedomartani in Indonesia used to be a village with arid and infertile land. Now it has been transformed into a productive area full of herbs and plants used for medical purposes. The area has become greener, its economy is improving and people are healthier. This transformation is a result of trial and error, mutual assistance and organizational change.

The village of Wedomartani lies 30 kilometers north of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, Indonesia. With an area of 1,244 hectares it has 15,535 inhabitants spread among 25 dusun (smaller villages). With its proximity to Yogyakarta the region around Wedomartani is developing fast because Yogyakarta is a popular tourist spot and a cultural university town booming with educational organizations. The world-famous Borobudur temple is also nearby.

The natural resources involved in this case are the arid land and the diversity of medicinal plants that have transformed Wedomartani into a productive area. Political and economic interests forced the organizational change in Wedomartani, whereas the social implication of the case is public participation and cooperation between the local government and the village community.

The authors have studied the activities in Wedomartani, documented the case and tried to disseminate the information in Indonesia and abroad. By being recognized, it is hoped that Wedomartani will gain technical and financial assistance to find more appropriate techniques and species to make the area more productive.

The soil in Wedomartani is dry, dusty, and sandy. It is not suitable for agricultural purposes. Only 10% of the land is appropriate for rice fields yet 90% of Wedomartani’s population work as agriculturists. They rely on the 10% of the area to provide for day-to-day living. The rest of the ground remains as critical land. Consequently the income is insufficient for a decent living

Year after year the people in Wedomartani have tried to determine which species of plants are more suitable for cultivation, i.e. those which are fast-growing and have the potential to increase family income. Sugar cane brought poor results since pests attacked the plants.

Wedomartani’s situation attracts developers and real estate agents. They would like to transform the region into a residential area with affordable housing and public facilities for new comers. Its proximity to Yogyakarta, in their opinion, is a selling point. Many people come to Yogyakarta to study, work or try their luck at becoming famous artists. In any case the price of Wedomartani’s land is a buyer’s market. Critical land does not have a high value although Wedomartani is overlooking beautiful Merapi Mountain.

The people of Wedomartani do not support the idea of their village becoming a city, albeit a small one. There are already two residential areas with 600 houses. The villagers claim that this situation creates a social and economic gap. They stay poor among residents with better income.

Wedomartani’s land has been infertile since the beginning of time. But people started to realize that this was a problem when they need more income from the land as living expenses increase year after year. The population also increases steadily and people would like their children to have a better education. In the 80s business people began seeing Wedomartani as potential money making land for profitable housing.

If the area is further developed, sooner or later the villagers will be displaced from their roots. They will have to sell their land to developers. Staying in Wedomartani will make them very poor and malnourished. The alternative is to find menial jobs in nearby Yogyakarta for little pay.

Although the people realize that their land is not favorable for agriculture, Soewardjo, the village head, is the person who initiate activities to overcome the problem

Soewardjo is a high-school teacher with a university degree in education. His subject is natural sciences; thus, he is interested in a variety of medicinal plants. The central government through the population agency is encouraging villages in Indonesia to plant herbs and medicinal plants in people’s gardens or house yards. The plants can be used for medical purposes, as ornamental plants, or as house fences.

Soewardjo experimented and planted several species of medicinal plants in public lands including the village offices and health centers. He wanted Wedomartani to become productive, thereby discouraging developers from buying the village land.

His efforts and experiments have paid off. Medicinal plants are suitable for the dry and sandy soil at Wedomartani. Soewardjo then began encouraging local people to plant medicinal plants in their yards. Houses in the village are not close to each other and most have large yards. People began to see the results and became interested in the plants that they call TOGA (Tanaman Obat Keluarga), or family medicinal plants. These are plants and herbs such as turmeric, lemon grass, ginger, galanga, mangosteen, soursop/sugar apple and others. TOGA have many benefits. For example, by drinking boiled roots of Garcinia mangostana, dysentery can be cured. The leaves of soursop are good for curing skin soreness with maximum results being achieved by putting the crushed leaves on the affected area. Many species can be categorized as TOGA. Some are endangered species and 90% are indigenous plants.

In the yard of the village office one can find 400 species of TOGA. Mrs. Hadiwinoto (55) has 113 varieties of TOGA in her garden. She said: "I know that the land in this village is not fertile, so I planted hardy species such as coconut, guava, Gnetum gnemon (melinjo), rambutan (hairy fruit) and coconut. In between those hardy plants I have medicinal plants. This is very useful because whenever any family member gets sick we use a traditional cure."

Soewardjo, with the assistance of the village’s public figures, encouraged people to plant TOGA. They then devised a mechanism to incorporate planting activities into the local government’s organization structure.

Village head is a lucrative and prestigious local government position. Therefore in the authors’ opinion Soewardjo has nothing to loose and everything to gain by making Wedomartani a productive area. In ascending level, bureaucrats in Indonesia work at village level, district level, regency level, municipal level, provincial level and the central level in the nation’s capital. With his achievements he will be able to keep his position and has a possibility of a promotion to a higher rank in the district or the regency level.

The people of Wedomartani started to plant TOGA in 1990. At present 100% of the village households cultivate various species of TOGA in varying amounts. In the fiscal year of 1995/1996, of the 1,244 hectares of the village area, TOGA harvesting covered more than 200 hectares, approximately 20% of the total area. This is an impressive percentage, since of the 1244 hectares many are used for public facilities, houses and infrastructures. All public land or gardens surrounding public buildings are utilized for TOGA, including the health centers, village offices and district office.

Since many people are cultivating TOGA, an exchange of seedlings is common so that they do not have to spend money to buy the seedlings. Wedomartani residents use TOGA whenever needed for health purposes. Product marketing is not difficult because local markets around Wedomartani carry TOGA in their stocks of materials.

Rondiah (35) a mother of two is very excited about TOGA. Every day she sells vegetables in the surrounding villages. She grows turmeric, ginger and lemon grass so that she can sell them with her vegetables. She harvests TOGA almost every week. "It is nice," she said "I can get extra income." She sometimes helps her neighbors by selling their TOGA harvests.

A TOGA depot called DOT was established to make TOGA products such as food supplements, drinks, and packaged raw materials ready for market. The TOGA depot has helped Wedomartani people to understand the benefit of growing medicinal plants.

To increase health conditions in Wedomartani the people established POT, or Traditional Medicine Centers. TOGA cadres manage POT and activities such as health training and treating sickness. If there is no result after three days of using traditional medicines, the cadre urges the patient to visit the nearest health center. The traditional medicines as dried herbs or fresh materials come directly from land managed by the TOGA Group.

TOGA cultivation in Wedomartani is not without problems. There are some parts of the village land that cannot be utilized. Efforts in planting TOGA have not been totally successful, probably because the soil structure is not appropriate. Plants are infested by white grubs (Phyllophaga helleri), a type of pest that destroys TOGA. Technical assistance is needed to fight pests. Assistance is also needed for research to find more species with higher economic values.

Despite the problems Wedomartani has become greener, hundreds of species have been planted and people are healthier. Representatives from an internationally known traditional cosmetics and health food company have visited Wedomartani to inquire about the possibility of buying TOGA as raw material. This company would like to assist Wedomartani by providing seedlings for cultivation. Another positive impact of TOGA is the increase in the value of land as Wedomartani is not now considered to be hopelessly arid.

The organization structure under the village government includes PKK Group (Family Welfare Education Group). PKK has 5 working groups including education, health, religion, environment and family income. As TOGA is encouraged by the central government its activities are under the environment working groups. However not all villages have successful TOGA programs. Furthermore many PKK working groups are on paper only. Some villages that include TOGA in their activities only work on a very small scale.

TOGA activities in Wedomartani are successful because the people have established TOGA working groups in all its 25 small villages (dusun). One dusun has approximately 25 households and they appoint a person to head the TOGA working group in their dusun. A gentleman named Muhadi is appointed as a chairperson who supervises all 25 TOGA heads in the dusuns. He has to report to Soewardjo the village head.

People will not be resistant to changes as long as they can see the tangible and intangible results. In creating a program for natural resource management there is no doubt that people will ask the question "What’s in it for me?" In Wedomartani’s case the area becomes greener and productive and people are healthier and have extra income.

Champions are needed for the success of a program. TOGA is encouraged nationally, but in Wedomartani it is successful because the village people persevered in their trial and error of finding suitable plants for the infertile area. Information on environment and natural resources is abundant, but its application for sustainable development purposes is rare.

People are often skeptical about organizational change, claiming that it costs time and money. This is not the case in Wedomartani because there are many positive impacts created by the TOGA program.

In managing natural resources, decision-makers have to be able to design multifaceted programs that can integrate aspects such as politics, sociology, economy, and the environment.