INDONESIA
Kati, a woman from Pengerak village wearing traditional Iban clothes, making patterned woven mats with “bemban” (Donax canniformis), in 2012. (All photos on this page: Yayasan Riak Bumi)
Yayasan Riak Bumi is an Indonesian grassroots, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) organization working in the forests of West Kalimantan. The NGO was founded in 2000 by indigenous individuals of the Danau Sentarum wetlands of Kapuas Hulu regency to counter the on-going marginalization of indigenous communities, and support the conservation of threatened ecosystems in the area.
Riak Bumi works primarily with communities in and around Danau Sentarum National Park, an internationally-recognized, Ramsar wetland conservation site, as well as with communities in the adjacent Betung Kerihun National Park, and increasingly in other areas in West Kalimantan.
From the early days, the thematic focus of work has been both ecosystem conservation and the development of sustainable livelihoods for Malay and Dayak communities. In the last decade, attention has also focused on cultural revival activities, including the celebration of rich and healthy food traditions.
Our work
Woman from the Embaloh Dayak Tribe lighting firewood by blowing through bamboo, to roast local fruits (bananas, tamarind eggplant, and yams) during the traditional cooking competition of the Traditional Food Festival, held in Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, in 2019.
Cultural Revival
Riak Bumi works to celebrate, educate, document, and conserve traditional knowledge and cultural practices. It does this through a range of activities including manuals, books, and films; education programs in local schools; and flagship biennial traditional foodways festivals.
TRADITIONAL FOOD FESTIVALS
Biennial traditional food festivals are where all of the work of Riak Bumi comes together. Held in Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, they inspire cross-generational transfer of knowledge, values and skills, and celebrate local traditions and age-old cuisines, and the plethora of ‘beyond organic’ wild ingredients from forests, rivers and lakes. Festivals also focus on traditional art, dance and music, which are interwoven with food traditions, supporting harmony, cohesion and solidarity among communities, and awareness of the links between culture and local ecosystem and wetland conservation.
The events also have a cross-border aspect through the participation of representatives of Dayak and Penan communities from Sarawak, Malaysia.
The fourth edition of the Festival was held in August 2022
Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, Kalimantan Barat
In an effort to share knowledge across generations, the four-day event included an extended two-day children’s program, a cooking competition, storytelling, traditional games, music and dance. With over 350 participants the Festival provided a platform to celebrate traditional cuisines and the cultural heritage of the Malay and Dayak communities from the Batang Lupar, Badau and Embaloh districts of the Kapuas Hulu regency. Click here to learn more, and here to watch the highlights of the event.
Iban Dayak woman demonstrating how to make traditional woven cloth with manual weaving tools used for generations.
Participants from the Malay tribe during the traditional cooking competition.
The third edition of the Festival was held in September 2019
Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, Kalimantan Barat
The two-day program, attended by hundreds, celebrated the rich food traditions of the Malay and Dayak communities in this corner of Indonesia, near the border with Sarawak. Read more about the Festival here and find out about the Tengkawang Oil used to cook the dishes of the Food Competition.
Waiting for the judge’s evaluation at the cooking competition of the Traditional Food Festival, held in Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, in 2019.
Food ingredients and medicinal plants from the forest, presented for the cooking competition of the Traditional Food Festival, held in Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, in 2019.
Bananas, duku fruit, cassava and yams. Traditional Food Festival. Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, 2019.
Greens from the forest: papaya leaves and sweet potato leaves. Traditional Food Festival. Lanjak, Kapuas Hulu, 2019.
SCHOOL PROGRAMS
Riak Bumi works to educate children on the importance of nature and the role of their local national parks. Programs include that on orangutang awareness, held in the elementary school of Lanjak and broader awareness-raising workshops with school children across the area on local biological diversity, forests, parks, and the value of local Danau Sentarum wetlands.
Schoolchildren color pictures and tell stories about orangutans as part of awareness-raising programs in Pengerak village, in 2011.
Conservation and Livelihoods
These activities focus on the links between conservation and improved livelihoods, and include projects on forest honey, illipe nut oil, crafts, eco-tourism, and sustainable fisheries.
Pak Sukarna from the Sekulat village, harvesting honey from the trees using sustainable harvesting techniques in 2017.
FOREST HONEY
Local forest honey is produced by Apis dorsata. Riak Bumi supports sustainable harvesting, hygienic handling practices, certification and niche marketing for this wonderful food item. Beeswax, a valuable by-product, is sold in markets for candle- making and cosmetics. Riak Bumi also launched the Indonesian Forest Honey Network (JMHI) with collaborating partners across the country, including West Kalimantan, Sumatra, West Java, Sumbawa, Flores and West Timor.
tengkawang oil
Known as the butter from nature, or green butter, tengkawang oil is extracted from the fruit of tengkawang (Shorea) trees, and filtered as above.
Illipe/tengkawang oil is derived from the nuts of endemic Shorea species and produces an excellent oil for frying foods or as a ‘beyond organic’ ingredient in cosmetics. Currently, Riak Bumi is hosting the West Kalimantan Tengkawang Network –a newly established local community network which aims to revive the trade in this superb forest product, in partnership with the provincial government.
Craft making
Riak Bumi supports a group of women weavers in creating traditional Iban cloth using natural dyes and promotes it through national and international exhibitions and other cultural activities.
ECO-TOURISM
In addition to earning income for local communities, eco-tours increase appreciation for local culture and biodiversity, and include birdwatching, forest fruit and traditional food tastings, and demonstrations of basket and mat weaving, and the traditional Ikat cloth of the Dayak Iban tribe.
Riak Bumi runs houseboat package tours to the Danau Sentarum lakes and up the Kanyau River, in the Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum National Parks.
Kancak, a woman from Pengerak village making traditional patterned woven mats with “bemban” (Donax canniformis), in 2012.
clean Energy
Three micro-hydro pilot projects provide clean and affordable energy to the villages of Sungai Pelaik and Tekalong, located respectively in Danau Sentarum National Park’s core and buffer zones. This project is related to the protection of the forest people, serving as a reward to communities that safeguard the forest.
Development of Micro Hydro in the hamlets of Kedungkang and Sungai Pelaik, in the Batang Lupar District of Kapuas Hulu Regency in 2024
SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES
Riak Bumi works to promote the sustainable management of aquatic resources, including freshwater fish like Toman (Channa micropeltes) and Arowana super red (Scleropages formosus) in accordance with adat (customary) law, and by adding value to the fish caught by processing into sausages, floss and kerupuk (fish chips). These activities result in lower catch volumes with equal or even higher returns.
Pak Bunjung giving training on how to process fish into various products such as shredded, sausage and crackers to the community in Pengerak village, in 2015.
Agus, Menti, and Alis preparing ingredients and spices in a fish processing training event to make shredded fish in Pengerak village, 2015.
forest fire control
Riak Bumi works to control forest fires spreading throughout the region by establishing community fire-fighters and patrols, conducting fire management training, and providing fire-fighting equipment.
Haryanto from the village of Nanga Leboyan, putting out a fire during a forest fire control training activity, in 2014.
REcipe SERIES
In 2022, People and Plants International, through the Traditional Foodways Program, produced a recipe video series that documents and celebrates delicious and healthy traditional cuisines interwoven with the forests and environments from which they grow, as part of an on-going educational program highlighting the links between food, culture and place, and threats to species and forests integral to important local foods. The videos include recipes from the Malay and the Iban Dayak tribes in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan.
articles, MANUALS and BOOKS
Click on each cover to download the books.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
Makanan Dari Hutan - Festival Makanan Tradisional
Addressing Challenges through Landscape Approaches in Kapuas Hulu
Profiting from honey bees on Danau Sentarum National Park
Manual Tengkawang (illipe nuts)
The Core Team
Heri Valentinus, Veronika Heni, Fransiska Erlina, Hermanto, Deman Huri and Jenne de Beer.
Partners
Local Communities:
The Dayak Iban, Dayak Embaloh, and Malay communities in and around the Danau Sentarum National Park and Betung Kerihun National Park, Kapuas Hulu District, West Kalimantan.
Government:
Kapuas Hulu Regency, West Kalimantan
Biosphere Reserve of Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun, West Kalimantan
NGOs in the two networks:
Riak Bumi, Dian Niaga Jakarta, CIFOR, Slow Food Jakarta, MYTransform - Malaysia, Otter Fonds-Both Ends, West Kalimantan Tengkawang Network.
The Charles Engelhard Foundation