Gunung Walat, Sukabumi – Fieldtrip of Graduate Student of Forest Science, Faculty of Forestry, Lambung Mangkurat University, South Kalimantan took place on October 3, 2012, in Gunung Walat.
Field trip in Gunung Walat University Forest (GWUF) was attended by 30 students of the Forestry Science Study Program, Faculty of Forestry, Lambung Mangkurat University (Unlam) South Kalimantan.
Field trip begins with a presentation on GWUF as an example of successful small-scale forest management and discussion with GWUF Executive Director, Ir. Budi Prihanto, MS. This discussion was very interesting because the participants are mostly leaders in the Forestry Service in South Kalimantan who shared about forestry problems that occurred in their area, especially those relating to forest communities. The participants wanted to take forest management science at GWUF who managed to overcome these problems.
The field trip was also accompanied by lecturers from the Faculty of Forestry, IPB, such as Dr. Leti Sundawati, Dr. Tatang Tiryana, Dr. Cahyo Wibowo, and Dr. Nandi Kosmaryandi.
After the discussion, a field trip is continued with field practice in observing the use of pine and agathis latex, the way of tapping, storage, economic and social value because tappers are communities around GWUF, research innovations to increase the production of latex, etc.
Participants also review agroforestry sites managed by surrounding communities in the GWUF area such as cardamom, coffee, bananas, pineapple and so on. The success of agroforestry cooperation with the surrounding community cannot be separated from the role of Dr. Leti Sundawati and the team that compiled this agroforestry program from 2000 to the present.
In addition, participants also observed the location of planting as a result of collaboration between GWUF and companies in the “voluntary carbon trading” scheme. It is well known that since 2009 GWUF has conducted a program of “Tree Planting to Increase Carbon Absorption” in GWUF forest areas. The program involves the participation of parties in the “voluntary carbon trading” cooperation scheme. There are at least 4 international companies namely ConocoPhillips Indonesia with a period of 5 years (2009-2014), TOSO Industry Indonesia for 30 years (2009-2038) and TOSO Company Limited Japan for 30 years (2010-2014) and NYK Group Japan (in 2009 and 2012-2013).
“We learned how to manage the Gunung Walat University Forest and study some kinds of literature at the IPB, it was nice to arrive at GWUF because friends here were very facilitating and sharing extraordinary experiences,” said Dr. Mahrus Aryadi Chair of the Forestry Science Graduate Study Program of Unlam who led this group.
[hap]
Photo gallery click here
Download news click here