“The first time I watched the film Profiting from Honey Bees (by Telapak & Riak Bumi 2004), where the long boat passes through the lake, I knew that some day I would go there,” Mr. Koen explained how the Amway Indonesia team – Mr. Koen Verheyen, Mr. Looe Chee Seng and Mr. Charles Suhada, and a delegation of PT UKMI, Mr. Poriaman Sitanggang – spent four (15-18 June) days away from the overcrowded city of Jakarta to visit Danau Sentarum National Park. The Amway Indonesia team was accompanied by Mr. Valentinus Heri (Riak Bumi) and myself.

As a member of Jaringan Madu Hutan Indonesia (JMHI), the Asosiasi Periau Danau Sentarum (APDS), which practices sustainable harvesting and hygienic production process, has become a standard of high quality honey in Indonesia. With assistance and support of Swiss Contact and PT UKMI, Dian Niaga Jakarta as marketing arm for the national market of JMHI, supplies forest honey from APDS to AMWAY Indonesia. Since February 2008, Amway Indonesia launched its Organic Forest Honey with UKMAY under the MADU HUTAN KALIMANTAN brand.

After almost 9 hours by car from Pontianak to Sintang and 4 hours by speed boat, we finally arrived in Pulau Majang. Here we had a chance to meet members of the Periau of Pulau Majang, the newest member of APDS.

We discussed the harvesting season in Danau Sentarum. Those from the periau said that this year was a difficult time for almost all periau in Danau Sentarum because the big floods eliminated their hopes for about 8 tons of honey harvest. By March to June, the water levels in Danau Sentarum were expected to decrease and the dry season to set in. However, it is now still raining and blossoming of flowers was not occurring all at the the same time. The nectar that the honey bees collected is just sufficient to feed the larva but not enough to allow honey harvesting. For example, in a recent harvest, they got only about 1 kg honey/nest, leading to the decision not to harvest honey this season.

Fortunately, they still have tikung near their place so that we could look at how they harvested the honey, a rare experience especially for town people like us. Mr. Poriaman joined the harvester team in the long boat and the rest of us followed by speedboat. Our speedboat came alongside a hive about 3 meters above the water level so we could see it clearly; the nest is not too big, less than 1 meter, and hung from the tikung. While the harvesters in the longboat prepared their equipment, we busily photographed the hive and got ready for the harvesting.

A branch used for smoker was ignited and the long boat slowly approached the hive. Our speedboat was trying to find a good spot to capture the harvesting moment and also having direct access to the lake, in case something dangerous happens. When smoke was slowly covering the area, we heard the drone of a thousand buzzing bees closing in on our boat. We did not wait for long, we escaped at high speed … run for your life!

Just a few minutes later, the harvesters showed us the pure honey they had just harvested. Mr. Poriaman showed us close-up photos of the harvesting process. He said that while he was taking a picture, a honey bee landed on his hand. Remembering the advice to avoid killing bees or the pheromone from the dead bee will invite other bees to become aggressive and attack – he just let the bee stay on his hand – hoping that it would not sting. But the bee did sting him, three times!

Once back in Pulau Majang, it was time to filter the honey. APDS uses the slicing method rather than the squeezing method – this results in more hygienic honey. After cleaning the honeycomb of contaminants, the wax cover is opened and sliced horizontally to open the honey tubes. It is then placed in a nylon filter and the honey is left to drip into a container. Not only is this a more hygenic method of extracting honey, fermentation is prevented for much longer. The slicing method is now the standard method for JMHI members.

In the evening we moved to Tekenang and rested in the motor bandung, the houseboat where we stayed while in Danau Sentarum.

The morning after, we moved to Semangit to meet with the board of Semangit Periau. Semangit is the secretariat of APDS. The president of APDS is Mr. Suryanto and discussions were attended by almost all board members of APDS. APDS now covers 8 periau and has about 157 individual members. The discussion highlighted the benefits of joining the APDS, namely: 1)Training for hygienic honey processing, 2) Marketing of honey from members, 3) Quality control, and 4) Price assurance.

Another important issue discussed was climate change, an issue strongly felt as almost all periau members in Danau Sentarum and many JMHI members, had a bad harvest this year. Mr. Suryanto asked Mr. Koen about AMWAY’s commitment to help communities. Mr. Koen promised to help communities in Danau Sentarum if their supply of forest honey sufficient and AMWAY can market the honey successfully.

Almost 3 hours later, it was time to move to our next destination, Danau Bekuan. Mr. Koen shared how glad he was to visit Danau Sentarum and how he is now more certain about the future of forest honey from Danau Sentarum. This reminded me of our responsibility: to do what we can to ensure that the next harvest is good; and to protect these forests from deforestation, illegal logging, forest fires and the expansion of oil palm plantations, and to take steps to further improve the quality of forest honey.

This trip was short yet fruitful. We started out as strangers and we became friends and it is our hope on the next visit we all will become a big family of Danau Sentarum communities.

Email: widhibek@gmail.com
URL: www.maduhutan.com