Project Meetings

Project team members meet regularly for coordination and communication.  Team members  discuss issues, plan  activities, and steps toward project objectives.  Project meetings are held several times in a year.

Annual Meetings

During the annual project meetings project members share information and research findings and evaluate the progress of project activities. In this event, team members also got inputs from relevant stakeholders including members of NGO, farmers, local government officials, academic experts and the Project Advisory Group.

1st Annual Meeting

We held the project’s first annual meeting in Yogyakarta on 15-–17 April 2007.  Soeharto, the head of Gunungkidul district, opened the meeting, which was attended by 94 participants. On the first day, team member presented preliminary research findings on silviculture, microfinance and marketing aspects, followed by discussion.  The main issues that were raised were ‘tebang butuh. or cutting timber too early in the growing cycle, water conservation, agroforestry, local microfinance institutions, state forest and private forest management, land suitability for teak, teak market mechanisms and certification were discussed.  These discussions shaped later project activities.

Nunung Nuryartono from InterCAFE-IPB showed that 66,82% of teak farmers they surveyed borrowed money from   informal institution, relatives, local rotating saving and credit association-ROSCA and  friends in the same villages, rather than from formal ones – banks or government managed credit programmes). The reliance on ROSCA indicated there would be support for building a microfinance institution. The primary reasons farmers sought loans was  for food, medicine, major life events and  schooling. They survey also showed that 80.73% of farmers had source of income other than teak, and 19.27% of farmers received income from teak and agriculture alone.  Remittances contributed significantly to farmers’ incomes.

We organized a press conference to further disseminate information about project activities and show the relevance of this work to local and national issues.  Five resource people answered questions at the conference: project leader Dede Rohadi, a representative of ACIAR, the district head of Gunungkidul, a representative from the Forestry Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Forestry and a community representative from Gunungkidul. National and local press journalists  attended.  Find more

On the last day, advisory group members and team members visited Katongan, Nglipar, community forestry sites, teak growers, the offices of the district head, and smallholder teak growers in Bejiharjo village.

Here you can find the agenda, list of participants, papers and presentations

2nd Annual Meeting

We held the second annual meeting on Wanagama, Gunungkidul in Yogyakarta on 7–8 May 2009.
It was attended by 76 participants including project team member, advisory group members, local government officials from Gunungkidul and Yogyakarta, stakeholders from IPB, WWF and FORDA, and from local communities. We presented findings and activities from the second year of activities including practical obstacles and improvements in teak management by smallholders. We presented a draft manual for silviculture guideline for smallholder teak plantations; an economic analysis of smallholder teak plantation; assessment of rural credit markets for smallholder teak plantations; and community teakwood marketing in Gunungkidul. 

3rd Annual Meeting

We held the third annual project meeting, in Ubud, Bali, on 26–28 July 2010, attended only by advisory group members and project members, 18 participants in all. This was the last project meeting prior to the project ending in May 2011.  Over two days, project members reported to the Advisory Group the progress on project activities, project achievements and planned project activities in the remaining year of the project. The Advisory Group then held a closed session to evaluate the project after which they presented recommendations to the project team members.

On the third day participants visited the microfinance institution Lembaga Perkreditan Desa (LPD) at Peliatan village near Ubud and some local businesses receiving loans from LPD, including PT Sorga Indah (Made Midra Woodcarving). This company produces carved wood products for export markets. The owner, Made Midra and his family have run the business over 35 years and was a founding creditor with LPD Peliatan. The company has produced about 4000 original woodcarving designs, mostly designed by themselves with some help from foreign designers who are also buyers.