Bad Lands of Java 19th July 2013 (organization) Hi , Last week I was telling you about the new residents of Yellow Coconut Village in Ubud, Bali.

       
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Bad Lands of Java

19th July 2013
(organization)
Hi ,

Last week I was telling you about the new residents of Yellow Coconut Village in Ubud, Bali. You can read it here.
This week I have been on a road trip to East Java. It happened like this; I have been looking for something to replace the root baskets we have been buying from China. These are made from sustainable fur-tree roots, they are beautiful but fur tree roots if not properly treated and dried can crack. On the last few shipments this has been a growing issue. So I have been tasked with solving this knotty problem :).

In Udud, where I am now, there are lots of traders selling teak root products. As you know teak is very hard, and the oil in it allows a little movement which means cracking is not a big issue. The big problem is whenever I ask about sustainability of the teak supplies, I get blank looks. So Ringo (our Balinese agent) and I started to do some rooting around to find out how the teak-wood business works here. The first thing we learnt is there are no commercial teak forests on Bali, or teak artisans. The teak is trucked in from Java roughly carved but not finished, the artisans stain and varnish the pieces to suit the customers. So it seems the teak trader middlemen don't verify the source of the wood, it's all a cash business.

A lady in one of the wood carving markets gave us the name of a town where she thought the teak came from. A quick bit of googling revealed the place. It didn't seem so far away, just a ferry to East Java and and a hop over the mountains. We decided to branch out and make the trip. All I can say is don't trust google maps estimation of driving time in Indonesia! It was a long way, mostly spent going up and down steep windy hills though thick jungle stuck behind trucks crawling along at snails pace.

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The ferry to East Java drops you at the foot of a jungle clad volcano right out of National Geographic, the road after a couple of hours enters the vast teak forest. Now Ringo tells that this road is home to bandits who roll rocks out of the forest at night, when a car or truck hits one in the night they come to "assist" you and take money or goods for their help. These same forest folk probably illegally take teak wood which finds it's way to the dodgy traders. It's known as the bad lands of Java.

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In the day time it's better, but we were still stopped three times at unofficial tolls, a "broken" truck blocking the road and dodgy guys with buckets claiming to be collecting for Ramadan.
The good news is that this forest is controlled by the government, and in the last year have made big steps to enforce the control. The road has been upgraded to a good tarmac road, every twenty kilometres or so there is a ranch style police station with round the clock security.

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Eventually we made it to a small coastal sugar cane town. The industry was devolved by the Dutch who built cute narrow-gauge railways running through the plantations bringing the sugar cane to the port. Some parts of it still working. There has been a half-hearted attempt to make a tourist industry here. It's certainly beautiful, stunning mountains, mangrove swamps and white sand beaches. But no tourists, Ringo and I hired the two best (teak lined) rooms in a big run down beach road hotel for about £12, there was just one other guest. Ringo said the Muslim call to prayer from the many mosques at four am and lack of alcohol, put many tourists off coming. Sad because the people were lovely and the place stunning.

But there is a thriving handy-craft industry. We found marble carving, shell jewellery, mother of pearl boxes and the like, and teak wood of course. We were taken to workshops practically on the beach where families worked together making lovely stuff. Eventually we found a village with teak wood work-shops, we visited them all.
One guy in a small factory told us he was "just the local chief of police" (pointing to a police station along the road), his wife was the boss, could we come back later.
What we learnt was the the government have cracked down hard on the teak wood trade to ensure the sustainability of supplies. Local artisans can (or should) only buy from the official run logging company, and the police enforce the rules, hence the police presence in the forest.

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Teak wood of course is mainly used for furniture and flooring, the roots are a by-product and of less interest to the bad guys because it's more work to dig up. But the most beautiful bowls and plates are made from the random root shapes all slightly different. Yes a little expensive, but will last forever and help support families like this.

The lady on the right is the boss. Her son and his wife are part of the business, and the little guy with long hair in a Man-united shirt is their son who just wanted to be in the picture.

More news next week.

Expect to read more about the Ubud outpost in future reports..
Until then.
Take care..

David

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