Hidden Jewel in South Tapanuli, North Sumatera: Field Trip to Lobu Tayas Forest

Nita, Forest Conservation Fund Asia Portfolio Manager, visited Lobu Tayas Forest project on 9th – 11th July 2024. Lobu Tayas village is located in Aek Bilah sub-district, South Tapanuli district in North Sumatera province. On 8th of July 2024, Nita started the trip from Soekarno-Hatta airport and flew to Kualanamu airport in Medan and continued with a connecting flight to Sibolga. From Sibolga airport, she was picked up by staff of the FCF grantee, People and Resources Conservation Foundation (PRCF) and continued the trip to Sipirok for another 2 hours by car. In Sipirok, Nita had a meeting with PRCF Sumatera staff at their office and during a briefing dinner to prepare for the field visit to Lobu Tayas village the next day.

Nita and the PRCF team departed from Sipirok at 10.00 am on 9 July 2024 and the trip took about six hours with a 4-wheeled drive car because in many areas we had to drive through undulating, winding, and muddy road access. Despite the bumpy trip, we were fascinated with beautiful sceneries of still intact forests almost along the way, but some forest areas over the hills have been converted into eucalyptus plantations to supply a big pulp company.

We arrived at Lobu Tayas village at around 3 PM and Mr. Jalaludin, the Head of Lobu Tayas village, and Mr. Zulham, Head of the Village Forest Management Body (LPHD) warmly welcomed us and gave us a brief introduction about the village and their village forest project with PRCF.

The village is relatively small with 71 households and total 344 population but surrounded by a 10,511 ha of beautiful forest (of which, 9,728 ha is currently being proposed for Social Forestry scheme in two phases) and we can still easily encounter many kinds of primates jumping around in the trees, birds, and insects and hear beautiful music of natural sounds from the nearby forest.

The planned hydroelectrical power plant development utilizing power sourced from waterfalls in Lobu Tayas forest can provide benefits to the community, with improved electricity supply and hygiene and sanitation facilities. However, this development means there is an increasing need for active protection of Lobu Tayas, as better road access can provide the threat of deforestation due to extractive practice to exploit the forest. Conserving Lobu Tayas forest will protect and conserve the water catchment area and maintain a sustainable water cycle.

On 10th July 2024, the Head of Lobu Tayas village accompanied by the Head of LPHD, customary leaders, religious leaders, women’s group, and children, welcomed Nita and PRCF team. Nita was given “Ulos” a traditional woven fabric from North Sumatera, as a symbol of acceptance, respect, and warm welcome from the community.

During the warm dialogue with all community members, we discussed the history of Lobu Tayas village, the meaning of “Lobu Tayas”, and community’s perspective about the forest. This dialogue was a good entry point to revive community’s connection to their surrounding forest. A simple question like “why we now hardly find the “Tayas” plant or seedling?” has provoked the community to reflect on their forest providing this endemic plant that is hardly found in other places and should be their pride symbol if it is grown at the village’s gate, or its mango-like fruit can be used to produce various unique food products.

After the official meeting, the local women held a cooking demonstration using ingredients and raw materials locally sourced from the forest or areas that are highly dependent on forest: smoked endemic fish, bamboo shoots for vegetable dish, leaves from local plants to wrap cassava snack, and red rice from rain-fed rice field. This “From Forest to Food on the Table” story is also a good reminder for the community that the forest provides them with various healthy food, and hence can reconnect them to the importance of protecting and conserving the forest to secure their food sources. We enjoyed the very delicious lunch together with all community members, including women and children before we headed to observe the agroforestry demonstration plot and nursery house.

Agroforestry has been chosen as a sustainable option for community’s livelihood improvement besides harvesting non-timber forest products and composting organic materials is aimed at producing natural fertilizer for the agroforestry plants. After the visit to the demonstration plot, the local women provided us with delicious cassava snack and yam and mung bean sweet soup that we again enjoyed in a warm gathering with all community members. What a wonderful day we all spent with the community.

On the last day on 11 July 2024, Nita and the PRCF team visited the local school. Lobu Tayas village currently only has 1 elementary school. The village’s young generation is also priority target of PRCF’s forest conservation education program because they will be leading the community in making important decisions related to protection and conservation of Lobu Tayas forest in the future. The students were very enthusiastic, and they already had a good basic knowledge about wildlife in Lobu Tayas forest. We also brought the students to the surrounding forest to improve their sensing of the wildlife presence around them.

On our way back to Sipirok, we had a chance to meet with the Head of the Aek Billah sub-district. The meeting with the Head of Aek Billah sub-district was aimed at introducing FCF and PRCF and the Lobu Tayas Forest project.

We left Lobu Tayas village and Aek Billah sub-district with so many sweet memories and when we have a chance for another visit in the future, we want to see the community members with better livelihood because the village forest is well protected and conserved by the community, and this can inspire the neighboring villages in the sub-district and district.

Thank you to The Hershey Company and Colgate-Palmolive for funding this project.