Sustainable Development in Halmahera

Inhabitants in the island are a few, about 10 people per sq. Kilometer. The island is virgin, with a rich soil in 80% of its 17,780 Sq Kms. area.

The newly formed company, Sustainable Development Corporation of the Pacific, has acquired 30,000 hectares (75,000 Acres) of land in the island, with a possibility of obtaining another 70,000 hectares (175,000 acres) for future expansion. The 30,000 hectares will be offered in sale to investors and/or agricultural producers under certain conditions, can buy one to many hectares of land to create their plantations or estates. The condition is that only sustainable development be conducted in the island and they will abide by the rules. This implies that agricultural need to planted as organic produce and no chemicals may be used for any purpose. For instance, Japanese buyers of organic crops that today go every year to different countries to acquire agricultural products will now be able to plant in Halmahera, near Japan, the organic produce they need. Ultimately, this would result in cheaper and more controlled output than going out to the open market to buy the produce that Japan needs.

The company has already seen the possibility of allocating land to all uses, including the location of Compost centers that would take-in all the agricultural waste and process it, to return compost, rich in micro organisms, nitrogen and potassium. For this, the company will accept crops which produce a great deal of waste like corn and wheat; include Jatropha plantations which produce a fruit rich in nitrogen and potassium, and allocate land for livestock production to include bovine, porcine, sheep and chicken farming to generate the manure the compost requires. The aerobic aeration used in producing compost should reduce the methane generated by the decomposition process, and the cultivation of trees and crops should help to reduce the CO2 emissions. This will make the island rich in carbon generated credits.

However, some of the activities conducted by local people are non-sustainable activities and practices, like fishing, mining, burning agricultural waste and using combustion engines and fossil fuels. The company acknowledges that this is a challenge. How do you tell people that have been doing certain things for quite some time to do them differently?. How do you incorporate newer technologies which pollute less and are better for the environment? how do you get power or energy without burning fossil fuels?

The company is going head on to tackle these problems. For the training problem, the company believes that having a full time staff, providing sustainable development talks to all communities in the island, can get people to change their ways, and acknowledge what sustainable development is all about and the benefits which can be derived. They would be able to focus on problems that may require community solutions to water, electricity, and practices, and try to get help to solve these problems collectively. The company can already provide some examples of probable direct benefits to company workers. The houses for company workers and their families already are being designed well above Indonesian living standards, in terms of space, amenities and locations. For instance, the company will allocate a few hectares around the agricultural centers. These hectares will be devoted to Community building, and houses will be built in 10x30 meter lots (3,000 sq ft of land per family is much more than other Indonesian employees get in other islands, including Java). The Community areas will also have common grounds to build a playground for children and adults, a mosque and a church, school, clinic, a few stores for food and hardware supplies. Therefore, incentives will exist for people to change their ways into sustainable development.

PLN is currently the electricity supplier for the island. The company acknowledges that PLN is using fossil fuels and thus in non-sustainable. However, for the short run and until the company can organize cleaner, and renewable energy, it will use PLN electrical supply. Nevertheless, the company has already begun to explore the creation of the Home Power Generator based on the sun, in accordance to the following article: Solar Power Generator for Homes A Stirling engine prototype is in the works. The dual piston engine can be hooked in series to build sufficient torque to turn a 3 KWh dynamo. Once this technology is developed, it will be economical enough to deploy to all other poor countries in the world allowing them to obtain the energy they need in the location that is needed at the low price of the sun power.

Additionally, in some part of the island, there is enough wind to move small wind turbines for the specific application. Other energy applications will be Outdoor lights and water pumps base on solar photovoltaic panels.

Halmahera has plenty of water. Nevertheless, pluvial recovery and deep water extraction will be located well above the agricultural centers to store water and supply it during the dry season.

The Company CEO Harianto Widjaja is happy so far with the sustainable development accomplishments. The company is going full blast to offer and implement the Teak Wood Plantation Business, making it accessible to Indonesians and foreigners. Investors or producers would be ably to acquire land for teak plantations under 3 investment scenarios. The company web sites are also in the process of being developed to better inform the public of the investment possibilities in Halmahera, an Indonesian sustainable development project.

There is a potential investor talking about planting Mulberry Trees. The Mulberry trees would provide the food the silk worms require. He believes Halmahera could be the next silk capital in the world, and only requires several hundred hectares planted with Mulberry trees.

Other land uses for investors/producers is as follows:

Long Term Business:

• Teak wood, rubbers trees

• Orchards: Avocado, Mango, Nutmeg, Jatropha, Orange, Limes, Clove, etc.

• Livestock: Bovine, Porcine, Sheep, Chicken farms

• Fish Farms: (Deep sea fish farms)

• Hospitality Sector: Marina development, Hotels, restaurants, parks, scuba diving, Deeps sea fishing, Golf,
etc.

• Compost Production

Short Term Business:

• Grain Estates: Corn, Wheat, Sorghum, Soya Beans, Sesame, Rice, etc.

• Vegetables: Cucumber, Tomatoes, Onions, Cassava or Singkong, Stevia, etc.

Company web sites will soon be launch. Please check in this article regularly for updates