In Ujung Kulon National Park, Banten province, Indonesia, farmers are increasingly feeling the impacts of climate change. Longer and harsher dry seasons make it difficult to grow staple crops such as rice. During these months, many families rely on harvesting wild forest honey as an important source of income.
“During the dry season, we cannot work in the fields. Our daily livelihood comes from collecting honey from the forest,” says a local honey hunter.
However, forest honey from Ujung Kulon has long faced challenges in reaching wider markets. To improve market access and strengthen product branding, local producers have begun introducing digital traceability systems that allow buyers to see the origin and story behind each bottle of honey.
“This product is very interesting because there is an app. We can see where the honey comes from,” says a local buyer.
This initiative is supported by the Koperasi Hanjuang, founded by Eman Sulaeman, which works with communities living around the national park to develop sustainable livelihoods from non-timber forest products.
The honey comes from Apis dorsata, locally known as odeng. Unlike domesticated bees, these wild bees cannot be farmed and depend entirely on the health of the forest ecosystem.
In the past, honey hunters would harvest the entire hive, cutting the comb completely from the trees. Since 2016, however, the cooperative has worked with local communities to introduce more sustainable harvesting techniques. Instead of destroying the whole hive, honey hunters now collect only part of the comb and leave the larvae intact.
This approach allows the bee colonies to continue reproducing, ensuring that the population of Apis dorsata remains healthy and that forest honey can continue to provide livelihoods for future generations.
The initiative of Koperasi Hanjuang has been supported since the ASEAN Farmers’ Organisations Support Programme (AFOSP) under the MTCP2 program, and continues through the APFP-FO4A program.
The Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Program (APFP) – Farmers’ Organizations for Asia (FO4A) is implemented by the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC), with funding from the European Union (EU) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The program aims to strengthen the capacities of farmers’ organizations to provide economic services, advocate for enabling policies, and promote sustainable livelihoods for small-scale family farmers across Asia.
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