Print Page | Close Window | Text Only
by Shirene Chen
Escaping from the hustle and bustle of city life, SHIRENE CHEN retreats to the Sarinbuana Eco-Lodge, winners of Wild Asia's 2007 Responsible Tourism Award, where she unwinds in the tranquility of nature, enjoys the fruits of a food forest, and comes home with vanilla pods.
It struck me as odd that we had to walk through someone's backyard to reach the reception of the Sarinbuana Eco-Lodge. But when I got there, I saw the beauty of this design.
The reception, set about 100 metres from the main road, is actually an airy living-cum-dining room, occupying a strategic perch that affords lofty views of the verdant valleys of Mount Batukaru (2200 metres) in Central Bali and the sea beyond. Located two hours by road from Kuta and at an elevation of 750 metres, Sarinbuana Eco-Lodge is a quiet and homely mountain sanctuary named after a small farming village a few miles away.
I soon learned that the "backyard" that we had just come through was part of a half hectare "food forest" that husband and wife, Norm and Linda vant Hoff, have carefully cultivated for 15 years. "When we first got here", Norm reminisced, "only grass and coconut trees grew on these grounds."
Today, the land, which is leased from a Balinese couple from Sarinbuana village, is thriving with over 90 types of edible and useful plants. The landowners, Ketut and Wayan, who also help to manage the lodge, took us on a walk and proudly showed off their bountiful gardens; trees of cacao, vanilla, coffee, teak, mahogany, salak (snakeskin fruit) and many other tropical fruits, organic vegetables and herbs.
There are also tree plantings to attract birds and butterflies. "Ever since we planted bird-friendly trees and lobbied with the local community to establish a 'no catch' policy", Norm explained, "the number of birds in the area have increased and new species appear every year." Norm and Linda have also adopted three captive monkeys which cannot be rehabilitated into the wild.
I began to see why the gardens were called a food forest. The vant Hoffs have designed the gardens to mimic the structure of a natural forest and allow natural relationships between plants and animals. The food forest was made up of trees and plants of varying heights, forming seven layers - the canopy (large fruit and nut trees), low trees (dwarf fruit trees), shrubs (currants and berries), herbaceous plants (comfreys, beets and herbs), rhizosphere (root vegetables), ground cover (such as beans and clover) and the vertical layer (climbers and vines).
Unlike typical orchards with large stands of a single crop, a food forest consists of a mixture of crops growing together in the same area, increasing the diversity and allowing for a more natural ecosystem. The multi-layer and multi-crop patterns encourage the proliferation of diverse insect and animal populations, which are important for pollination and seed dispersal. Hence, a food forest is a designed and managed ecosystem that is rich in biodiversity and has high crop productivity.
Meals at Sarinbuana were undoubtedly a highlight for me as we were treated to the fresh harvest of the food forest. Colourful platters of salak, passionfruit, mangosteen, ciku (sapodillas), banana, starfruit, jackfruit and melons for breakfasts; piquant young papaya salad for starters; mouth-watering Balinese curries flavoured and garnished with herbs and spices from the gardens; and heavenly dessert - salak crumble topped with home-grown and home-made vanilla ice cream.
Over meals, Norm explained that the principles for the design of the food forest come from a design system for sustainable land use called permaculture. Permaculture teaches us how to build self-sufficient human habitats; how to grow our own food, build natural homes, restore infertile landscapes and ecosystems, collect rainwater and build communities.
Permaculture stands for permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture as the community is an integral part of a truly sustainable system. It often replicates patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. The multi-layer, multi-crop pattern of the food forest is an exemplary permaculture design that yields highly productive crops with minimal work in terms of human labour, energy and fertilizer.
Elements in a permaculture system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another. Norm showed me an example of this at their vegetated leach fields where wastewater from the septic tank leaches out into soil that nourishes banana and papaya trees.
Norm and Linda also designed into the landscape four beautifully hand-crafted Balinese guest bungalows, an inviting tea house and cascading waterholes. They live in one of the bungalows with their two teenage boys, who moved here with them in 2000. The couple speak fluent Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, as do their boys who grew up playing with the village kids. Linda runs weekly English classes and regular environmental education camps for the local school children. Perhaps this hints just how much they make themselves part of the local community.
In the last two years, they brokered a deal with Seacology, a non-profit environmental NGO, to provide a grant of US$25,000 for community projects in exchange for the village's stewardship of 800 hectares of neighbouring rainforest. The funds were used to build a community hall and a temple, and to purchase computers (the first in the village), books and gamelan (traditional Indonesian orchestra) instruments for the children. The Mt. Batukaru rainforest is one of two remaining rainforests in Bali. Under the Seacology agreement, the protected area is now a "No Take" zone, which means that no person can harvest, gather, hunt or cut any trees in it.
The operations of the lodge also mean alternative employment for the villagers, who live mainly on subsistence farming. The 7 full-time and 8 part-time workers at the lodge are all from either Sarinbuana or other nearby villages. Linda has taught her staff to run the lodge and gardens according to the sustainability principles and is coaching Wayan to take over the day-to-day management of the lodge.
She is also training them to speak English, use the computer, take guests on guided treks to the rainforests and summit of Mt. Batukaru, and to provide traditional and therapeutic massages. She has started to hold workshops in Balinese culture and arts such as calligraphy, dance, cooking, rice planting and gamelan, to help generate new revenue for the local community.
Norm spends most of his time in Aceh where he consults and gives training on permaculture sanitation strategies as part of the post-tsunami rebuilding efforts there. He also co-founded Yayasan GUS, a non-profit environmental organisation that works with school children to clean up rubbish around Bali.
After 3 short days, I already had a sense of the extraordinary amount of thought and energy that Norm and Linda have invested to run their lodge according to responsible and sustainable principles. Together, they have protected, harnessed, nurtured and enhanced the natural and cultural treasures in and around the lodge.
At the same time, through the Seacology grant and revenue from eco-tourism activities, the local community is reaping the economic rewards of conserving their environment and cultural heritage. Spurred by these developments, some villagers are eager to learn new skills and venture into new economic activities.
Before I left, Ketut, who is also the village chief, mentioned that he is hoping to find overseas markets for his village's surplus of vanilla. He then gave me a souvenir - dried vanilla pods; the rich, sweet aroma still lingers in my room.
Print Page | Close Window | Text Only
Original URL: http://www.wildasia.org/main.cfm/RTI/Sarinbuana_Eco-Lodge
Published: 04 February 2008
© 2012 WILD ASIA
All Rights Reserved