Our Mission
Why are we involved in net-making using
the fibers of the sugar palm in a rural area ofIndonesia? The answer to this question
comes from an understanding of the daily
lives and livelihood of the people who live
there.

Doing what we
can for the next
generations

We want them to realize that escaping
poverty by risking their lives with illegal gold
mining is not the way things need to be.
We want to show them that there are
new possibilities in the future of theirchildren.

Sugar palm
fiber nets inGorontalo

Experimental sugar palm fiber netting to prevent
sediment runoff collaboratively installed with thepeople of Bone Bolango Regency, Gorontalo
Province, Indonesia (2016)

Contact
Professor Masayuki Sakakibara
Leader for SRIREP Project,
Research Institute for Humanity andNature(RIHN)
457-4 Motoyama Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto,
Japan.
Email: srirep@chikyu.ac.jp
Phone: +81-75-707-2333

Project to Weave
the FutureLife in West Tulabolo Village
West Tulabolo Village is a small village nestled
between mountains in the center of Bone Bolango
Regency. There is only an elementary school in the village,
and the children must commute to a town several
kilometers away to attend middle school.
The water and land of the village is polluted withnaturally-occurring arsenic making the region unfit foragriculture. However, the alternative occupation of thevillagers is working in a mine, or more accurately,transporting people and materials there by motorbike taxis.

Meeting the Villagers and their
Sugar Palm Fibers

The Sugar Palm Fiber Net
Manufacturing Process

The people of West Tulabolo Village live in harmony
with nature. For instance, a villager makes everyday use of
the knowledge of creating a traditional net with the fibers ofthe sugar palm stalks around them.
We consulted with Japanese technicians and villagers
and began to make nets out of ropes made of sugar palm
fiber. The technique of the villagers is on par with first-classartisans, and we were amazed at the precision andstrength of their netting.

Sugar palm fibers, the tools
to create the netting, and thefinished net

Hand-making the nets
from Sugar Palm fibers

The netting is made from weaving
Sugar Palm fibers together. The
work is done by hand and takessome time, but these nets arestronger and more resilient thanconventional plant fiber netting.

The rich natural landscape of Tulabolo

Gold Mining and Pollution
The people of the village have a hard life, and manymust work as mine laborers in illegal artisanal and smallscale gold mining (ASGM) to make ends meet. The gold
mining process in ASGM requires the use of mercury,leading to mercury contamination across the area andcausing grave health risks to the people there.

Sugar palms dot the forests around the village

Making Nets with Sugar Palm Fibers
Currently in West Tulabolo Village, the villagers,
including those who work in the mine, have started theMoopiya Group, and work together with us to manufacture
goods using the Sugar Palm. The Group leader, Mr.
Hamzah Paputungan, worked in mining for a long time, but
quit his job there five years ago. He began his new work
creating Sugar Palm netting for the sake of his children andgrandchildren.

The world is now aiming to move away from the useof plastic and is shifting towards the use of natural
fibers. We are working together with Bone Bolango
Regency and Gorontalo State University to examine
potential sales routes and uses for these Sugar Palmnets. There are plans for them to be used both inside ofIndonesia and in other countries to prevent landslides
and sediment runoff.

Towards a Mercury-Free Society
The gold mining work, which uses mercury, inGorontalo is beginning to shift towards a new kind ofwork that uses natural fibers.

Leader of MOOPIYAGroup: Mr. Hamzah
Paputungan (70)
Aerial picture of the mine in the middle of the rainforest
where the people of West Tulabolo Village work

The goal of the SRIREP Project, RIHN is to identify
a way to resolve the problem of mercury pollution fromthe ASGM activity which is the larger context of thepoverty of the people in that region. Our project
members will continue to work together with the locals
to putting this solution in practice.