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Success Story 4
TERRACE Inc./SUWA architects + engineers

Connecting community forests with international market: “forest stools” connect Japanese consumers and a forest community in Indonesia

Peaceful rural landscape in Gunung Kidul

In Java of Indonesia, many government-led afforestation programs have so far been conducted, through a certain level of community participation, in order to reforest farmland that used to be part of the government-owned forests. However, in not a small number of (perhaps in most) these afforestation sites, community’s awareness of forest conservation is not adequate and the lack of appropriate forest management often incurs various problems including illegal logging.

On another front, “Community Forestry” has been implemented and received attentions in recent years. The Community Forestry is a forest management approach in which the residents of a community themselves take a principal responsibility to both protect and utilize their forests. Since the local communities establish, manage and operate the wood utilization plan of their own, it is generally said that this approach has an effect of raising awareness of forest conservation among the community members.

Teak trees planted on rocky soil which is not suitable for farming

In Gunung Kidul Regency of Yogyakarta Special Territory, there are several areas where tree crops such as teak and mahogany are grown based on the community forestry. Although some of them have already obtained forest certification from the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI: Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia) , they could not find any certified woods market in Indonesia nor could develop overseas markets.　This has led their certified woods to be sold at unreasonably cheap prices with nor premium, and thus has made it difficult for such communities to continue their efforts toward sustainable forest management.

Developing furniture that makes a sale in Japan

Traceability is firmly secured in Gunung Kidul

In 2008, Fairwood Partners launched a collaborative project with Terrace Inc., a garden furniture company in Japan, and ARuPA, an NGO based in Yogyakarta. The objective of this project is to establish a framework that enables the residents of Gunung Kidul to continue their sustainable forestry. The residents participate in processing furniture, which is made from certified woods grown in Gunung Kidul, to sell in the Japanese market.

Checking quality/length of timbers at timber yard

Fairwood Partners, with principal responsibility for the planning and operation of the entire project, plays a coordination role between ARUPA and Terrace. Terrace is in charge of product development and marketing, while ARuPA, which also works as a coordinator between local community and related parties in Japan, takes responsibilities in supporting management for maintaining forest certifications, raising awareness of forestry management among the local community, strengthening the system of local forestry association, and providing training on wood processing techniques.

Fairwood Partners supports community’s economic independence which leads to sustainable forest management

One of the distinctive features of the project is that it is designed to help the local community to achieve economic independence at the same time to encourage them to continue sustainable forest management and forest conservation. Another feature is that sustainably sourced timbers are further added value by the community-involved production on site. As a business entity with a sense of mission, Terrace then introduces the community-made furniture into Japan.

People involved in this project

Terrace sell this furniture in Japanese market as ‘a piece of furniture that brings a sense of affinity with people in Gunung Kidul, a producing community in Indonesia, as well as a feeling of connection with the forest as origin of wood production.’

The company constantly focuses on delivering, together with the product itself, the background story in which a local community is trying to continue utilizing woods while protecting their forest.

While Japan has so far imported a vast amount of woods from overseas, the end users had received very little information on where and who produced them. Even though many people know of deforestation, especially the fact that tropical rain forests are rapidly decreasing, there are only limited information available for consumers to choose the right furniture or timbers sourced from sustainably managed forests.

The furniture created under this project, which is named as ‘forest stool,’ holds a diverse value including appropriately managed forest and sense of connection with people of the producing community. Fairwood Partners strongly believes that a piece of furniture can lead to build a new relationship which enables a sustainable utilization of forests.

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