Indonesia food giant invests in Heliae

Heliae raises $15M from Salim Group – R&D center in 2012, aiming for commercial production in 2014; food, feed, fertilizer now, fuels later.

In Arizona, Heliae announced a capital raise of  $15 million in funding from international conglomerate Salim Group’s agribusiness company, PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agri Investments.

This marks a total of close to $50 million in funding that Heliae has received since launching in 2008.  As a start-up venture spun out of Arizona State University with the support of Science Foundation of Arizona, Heliae’s mission is to develop and validate technology solutions for the commercial production of algae for a variety of potential uses including food & feed, fertilizer, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and fuel.

This new round of investment will support tangible steps toward creating an international presence for Heliae’s technology by funding continued research and development at Heliae’s demonstration facility in Arizona, and taking steps toward operating an R&D center in Indonesia. The aim is for commercial production in 2014.

The Heliae story

You can forgive yourself if the Heliae story feels a little fuzzy. They have enough stealth in their approach to the mission to make a SEAL team proud.

Here are the key notes in the narrative. Spun out of Arizona State University in 2008 as a technology for the commercial production of kerosene from algae using technologies developed at ASU’s Laboratory for Algae Research & Biotechnology.

At the time, ASU entered into a $3 million R&D collaboration with Heliae Development  and Science Foundation Arizona to develop, produce and sell kerosene-based aviation fuel derived from algae. Heliae itself was a closely-held investment of members of the Mars family – they of chocolate, Doane Petcare, Wrigleys gum and Life Savers fame. Less known over in Planet Mars is the division known as Mars Fishcare, which supplies home aquarium and pond products, including Aquarium Pharmaceuticals.

Ah, hence the stealth – the Mars family is famous for it. It took decades before they allowed the first reporter into one of their factories to see a machine stamp the “M” on an M&M.

With the Mars family investment, the company tapped former BioFuel Energy COO Dan Simon as CEO and, unsurprisingly but critically, expanded the focus beyond fuels and into foods, feed and fertilizers. But it had not, by any means, abandoned fuels. Last year SkyNRG signed an MOU with Heliae to produce algae-based jet fuel, and at last year’s Paris Air Show, Heliae Development and Azmark Aero Systems announced a collaboration to develop and promote algal fuels in jet engines.

The technology’s raison d’être? Bringing the low-cost of open ponds systems to the high yields of the closed PBRs. The Heliae system, ultimately, is going to look something like a greenhouse, and is expected to be built out to a 160 acre-demonstration, with groundbreaking on its pilot plant scheduled for later this month in Arizona – and includes a patent-pending extraction process in its IP portfolio.

How do they get the capex and opex down?  For sure, it is stubbornly high costs that have plagued the crowded field of closed photobioreactor systems and prevented them from getting into the food and feed markets, much less the fuel pool.

Over at Heliae, a lot of answers lie behind the Great Wall of We’ll Let You Know Later that commonly guards most early-stage algal technologies. We do know that the Heliae solution is designed as a bolt-on solution for industrial CO2 emitters or nitrogenous waste sources – and their algal strains are reported to be producing at rates that are well above industry norms.

Heliae’s take

“The recognition and support of the Salim Group delivers a sense of validation to our work,” said Dan Simon, President and CEO of Heliae. “These additional funds will help us broaden our reach and allow us to build a presence in Southeast Asia. Of equal importance to Heliae is the strategic relationship we have developed with Salim’s team and alignment of both groups – we look forward to the large impact we’ll be able to make collectively.”

Frank Mars, co-Founder and Chairman of the Board for Heliae, stated, “I am personally pleased to welcome the Salim group into the Heliae family.  As one of the most prominent equatorial-based food businesses in Southeast Asia, their Chairman, Anthoni Salim, recognizes the need to develop new and sustainable sources of nutrition and agricultural inputs to support the region’s growing demands.”

Salim Group’s take

“Frank and I are of one mind on developing the solutions to address today’s issues with soil fertility, fresh water, growing demand for fish and animal feeds and ultimately sustainable fuel,” said Anthoni Salim. “Our two families are committed to impacting the world’s future in a positive way.  Both the large impact we see with algae and Heliae’s comprehensive approach to developing algae technology solutions formed our rationale for this strategic investment.”

The Digest’s Take

It’s been a while since there’s been a strategic investment in algal-based technologies of this size, so welcome it is on simply that level – good news for algal fans, everywhere.

But let’s focus on on three aspects that are especially interesting.

The Rock Star factor. Anthoni Salim is not all that well known in the US and Europe, but he’s Indonesia’s 5th wealthiest individual (net worth, reported by Forbes at $3.6 billion), and has multiple food, cement, real estate, banking, and mining public companies in his control. Over in Asia, his name is an established brand.

The Food Factor. Over the next few years, expect a fairly healthy number of algal companies to pivot to the feed and food sectors, en route to entering fuels. Solazyme, as it usually does, pointed the way in its collaboration with France’s Roquette. PetroAlgae recently rebranded itself Parabel and is headed in that direction.

Why? Feed and food, while smaller markets than fuels, offer vast gulfs of opportunity, and higher per-ton prices. More importantly, Asia is long capital and short feed. Especially fish feed – a hugely important sector for Asian countries on every level, facing declining yields from ocean harvesting, growing populations, and costs rising in fishmeal so fast enough to make an oil baron blush.

The Connection Factor. Connecting the Salim Group (owner of one of the largest integrated food companies in the world – IndoFoods, Agri Investments Pte Ltd., Lonsum and so on) and members of the Mars family, another one of the largest integrated food companies in the world – well, that’s worth tracking through just about any macro financial lens you’d like to look at it through, and the connection runs through Heliae.

Next steps for Heliae

Well, they obviously have to get the pilot plant up and running, move towards a demonstration at scale within something approaching the 2014-15 timelines, and prove that they can shake out the costs and keep the systems running. Tasks that have felled many a promising technology coming out of the lab – the vital conversion from science project to corporation.

Next, prove out the “Mikey likes it” test – that the algae works for the food and feed applications they have targeted. Sign the downstream distribution agreements — for a company that has Mars and Salim DNA, that should be a snap. Then go big, and as costs shake out further, tap into the fuel markets — especially should oil pass $150 a barrel as expected this decade.

Knocking tomorrow and the pay-back problem

Easier to write than do. One of the reasons that former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich derided President Obama as “President Algae” – critiquing the President’s focus on a long-term fix through transforming the feedstock mix, rather than relaxing environmental goals to relieve pressures in the here and now with more oil and gas drilling.

It’s easy to knock tomorrow – after all, by definition tomorrow’s not here yet, and fails the “if we don’t have it, there must be a good reason” test. Lots of things fail the straw man, “where are the gallons?” test.

Take five year old children, for example. Why invest public dollars in their moral or scholastic education, when you absolutely know, in five years, all you are going to have is a ten-year old that is going to require even more investment?

To raise kids, we have to take perplexing 25-year journeys through dark waters, with financial requirements and returns that would not, ahem, exactly thrill corporate executives seeking 20 percent IRRs and three-year payback.

But there are those in every generation who undertake the journey – understanding that part of the magic is in the journey itself – in the unexpected discoveries along the way. Parents are confident that, given the right applications of innovation, imagination and discipline, that the modern adult will appear. If only corporate parents could learn therefrom.

So too it is with advanced technology. And with Heliae, there go Mars and Salim, off on their journey. Two families with a track record of getting it done.

biofuelsdigest.com

Java Rhino population improves by 50%

The Java Rhino population at the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java has increased 50% in the last 5 years due to Government-Private partnership, said Mohammad Haryono, Head of the Ujung Kulon National Park and Coordinator of the Working Group for the Conservation of the Java Rhino (rhinoceros sondaicus).

The Working Group consists of government officials of the Park, Non-governmental agencies, companies and academics.
Video cameras placed at several locations in this extensive park have recorded 35 rhinos, among which are a number of young ones. This means that our efforts to save the endangered rhino are creating results. There is this small community here that sincerely cares for the conservation of the animals, continued Haryono. Rhinos are very shy and elusive animals, very rarely seen live. In the dense jungle, their images can be captured only on strategically placed videos.

In the past 12 months, the Working Group has concentrated not only on the growth of the rhino population but also ensured improved welfare of the local population in surrounding villages through training and education for alternative livelihood, so as to stop poaching into the Park. Among the projects is the contstruction of a 3.4 km. bamboo pipeline to supply clean water to remote villages.

Aida Greenbury, Managing Director Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), whose company is involved in the conservation of the Java rhino, added that conservation efforts need a strategic approach which includes economic development of the local population besides improved habitat for the animals. One action for the latter is to control the growth of the plant species called “langkap” which destroys the plant food for the rhinos.
The Ujung Kulon National Park, located in the extreme south west of the island of Java opposite the Krakatau volcano, covers an area of 122,451 hectares, and is surrounded by 15 villages. The Park today counts a total of 35 rhinos.
(Source: indonesia.travel Bisnis Indonesia).

Marine Biologist is a Giant in World of Shrimp Medicine

(The Jakarta Globe) After Aceh was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, its economy had to be rebuilt to meet the demand for food and to provide jobs. Marine biologist Sidrotun Naim, 32, the “shrimp doctor” to her Acehnese colleagues, is playing a pivotal role in this rebuilding, and in the future health of Indonesian shrimp farms.

Sidrotun arrived in Aceh’s Pidie district in 2006, after she graduated in marine biology from the University of Queensland in Australia. Working as part of a tsunami rehabilitation program through the World Wildlife Fund, Sidrotun was asked to consult on a shrimp breeding project.

“They said, ‘You’re clever and still young, you must study the shrimp and help us,’?” Sidrotun said. And so she dedicated herself to shrimp, and helping the people of Pidie and Aceh get back on their feet.

Sidrotun is from a large Javanese family and excelled at school, picking up a number of prestigious scholarships as she furthered her studies. She is thought to be one of the first crustacean pathologists in a country that is one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world.

Shrimp farming is a high-risk business, with shrimp being highly prone to a handful of illnesses, the most dangerous of which is white spot syndrome, a viral infection that can wipe out an entire broodstock (a term in aquaculture that refers to a group of mature individuals used for breeding purposes) in three days.

Although Indonesia is among the biggest shrimp exporters in the world, along with China, Thailand and Vietnam, the country still does very little scientific research to support local shrimp farmers. Plenty of studies have been carried out on fish and crabs, Sidrotun said, but not shrimp.

“The shrimp industry began in the ’80s when people stopped catching shrimp and began breeding them,” she said. “But shrimp are prone to illness because of the density of the broodstock.”

In 2009, Sidrotun won a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Arizona in Tucson, a reference laboratory for studying illnesses in shrimp, where she is now completing her master’s thesis on the effects of adding tilapia (a type of fish) to shrimp broodstock.

After 16 weeks of research in Arizona, Sidrotun found that tilapia can help the health of the stock. In a regular broodstock, shrimp typically live at the bottom of the pond.

Sidrotun’s experiment involved breeding tilapia above the broodstock by putting them in a large fish net. This improved the quality of the water, as the fish seemed to consume the bacteria before it could filter down to the bottom of the pond and attack the shrimp.

“[Adding tilapia] also adds economic value for our farmers, because they can breed fish, algae and shrimp all in one broodstock,” Sidrotun said.

But the exact reasons behind the results are inconclusive, and she hopes to investigate the results further.

Last week, Sidrotun won a fellowship worth $40,000 from For Women in Science, a collaboration between Unesco and the L’Oreal Foundation in Paris. Sidrotun said she planned to use the fellowship, which was awarded by a jury led by Nobel winners, to fund her postdoctoral studies at Harvard’s medical school, where she is a visiting scholar.

The seventh of 11 children, Sidrotun said her family usually ate rice and tempeh when she was growing up, and rarely indulged in seafood. Her father, Abidullah, was a high school teacher, and is now retired with his wife, Siti Muslichah.

Despite a humble upbringing, half of Sidrotun’s siblings went to school overseas through scholarships, including her third brother, who is now pursuing his studies in management at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Sidrotun has a 6-year-old son, and is married to Dedi Priadi, who studies psychology at the University of Arizona.

Upon completion of her dissertation and graduation, Sidrotun intends to study IMNV, one of the most threatening shrimp viruses found in Brazil and Indonesia. The virus first appeared in Indonesia in 2006, and has since caused harvest failures costing millions of dollars, she said.

“Last year, our farmers suffered a loss of $150 million to $200 million because of this virus,” she said.

Upon graduating from the University of Arizona, Sidrotun intends to study how IMNV and shrimp interact. A large number of shrimp survive the virus, and she hopes to discover what allows some shrimp to survive while others die. It is a scientific long-shot, but every major breakthrough begins with a single step.

“To be able to design a system to minimize the risk, we have to understand the virus first,” she said. “I hope in 5 to 10 years, our native shrimp can be more stable, so that traditional farmers can have a more solid bargaining position.”

The fishing industry has not been kind to shrimp farmers, Sidrotun said. The industry will often help farmers start their stocks, she said, but then make them shoulder all the costs for failed harvests.

“It should be the part of the company’s risk and not just farmers, because some crucial things, like disease, are out of their control,” she said.

It might seem like a scientist dedicated to producing healthy shrimp stock would harbor a certain disdain for disease, but Sidrotun speaks about viruses with respect.

“Viruses have been on earth much longer than bacteria and humans have, so we have to understand them,” she said. “Through evolution, humans have become smaller and smaller, but what we don’t know is if viruses have become stronger.”

What we do know, she said, is that unlike plants and animals, which are all built on unchanging DNA, viruses can mutate and adapt very quickly, which is why they are so difficult to study.

The cure for HIV, for example, continues to elude scientists despite years of research and billions of dollars in funding. But IMNV is more complicated because it is a double-strand, where HIV is a single-strand.

Sidrotun is passionate about improving the understanding of — and someday finding a cure for — IMNV. She is currently working with Max Nibert at Harvard, who discovered the 3D structure of the virus.

Sidrotun also hopes her research will be useful for scientists invested in study of the rotavirus, which kills about 500,000 children every year worldwide.

She said, “A virus may seem like a minor thing because to us it’s invisible, but it can destroy months of efforts by our local farmers in days, so yes, it’s important.”

Bizarre “King of Wasps” Found in Indonesia

A new species of giant, venomous wasp has been found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi (map), scientists say.

The two-inch-long (five-centimeter-long) black insects are shrouded in mystery—all of the wasp specimens caught so far have been dead.

“I’m not certain any researcher has ever seen one alive, but they are very bizarre-looking,” said study co-author Lynn Kimsey, an entomologist at the University of California, Davis, who co-discovered the insect.

“It’s the extreme version of the [larrine wasp] subfamily they belong to.”

Larrine wasps typically dig nests for their eggs and larvae in open, sandy areas. The adults grow no longer than an inch (2.5 centimeters)—making the newly discovered Megalara garuda the “king of wasps,” according to the study authors.

Wasp Males’ Spiky Jaws

Female M. garuda wasps look like most other wasp species, but the males grow long, sickle-shaped jaws.

The males’ flattened faces and large, spiked jaws may be clever adaptations to protect a nest that contains vulnerable larvae, she suggested.

“Other wasps of the same species often rob burrows for food, and parasites try to get in there, too,” she said. “There’s a serious advantage to having the nest guarded. This may be how the male helps guarantee his paternity.”

In general, “we don’t know what this wasp does,” Kimsey said. “But it probably feeds its larvae grasshoppers or katydids, like other wasps in its subfamily.”

“Mythical” Wasp Under Threat

Kimsey and co-author Michael Ohl, of Berlin’s Humboldt University, caught their first glimpse of the new wasp in Indonesia’s Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, where the bugs had been kept in storage since 1930. Ohl also found unidentified specimens at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.

On a 2009 expedition, the team found more wasps at a cacao plantation in the southeastern mountains of Sulawesi. In naming M. garuda, the team looked to the national symbol of Indonesia: a mythical half-human, half-bird creature in the Hindu religion called Garuda.

Although as many as a hundred thousand species of insects may live on Sulawesi, Kimsey suspects “only half have names.”

But the fates of these species—including the newfound wasp—are in jeopardy. Since the 1960s forests in the region have been increasingly leveled to plant several types of crops. (Read about rain forest threats.)

“The place where we collected wasps is slated to be an open-pit nickel mine,” Kimsey said.

“Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach.”

The new giant-wasp study recently appeared in the journal ZooKeys.
taken from National Geographic

ecouture!

ECOUTURE 2012 bertujuan menyuarakan ecolifestyle, mendorong terselenggaranya aksi nyata untuk meminimalisir berbagai bentuk pengrusakan terhadap lingkungan melalui kolaborasi dari pemuda dan masyarakat.

Tujuan Khusus: – Memberikan Informasi kepada khalayak mengenai
pentingnya menjaga lingkungan.
– Memberikan informasi kepada khalayak mengenai
produk-produk olahan sampah yang bernilai
- Mengubah mindset khalayak untuk hidup dengan cara yang lebih ramah lingkungan.

Apa itu ECOUTURE 2012?
Ecouture 2012 atau Eco Way for Future 2012 adalah kegiatan yang diselenggarakan oleh Young On Top bekerja sama dengan KOPHI (Koalisi Pemuda Hijau Indonesia). Ecouture merupakan bagian dari aksi nyata kami terhadap kecintaan pada lingkungan. Ecouture sendiri di bagi dalam dua Tahap yaitu pre event dan main event. Pre Event ECOUTURE 2012 dilaksanakan pada tanggal 25 Maret 2012 dari pukul 07.00 sampai 11.00 WIB di Car Free Day Thamrin area samping UOB Plaza, Jakarta.
Pada pre event ini ada beberapa kegiatan yang diselenggarakan yaitu pembagian tanaman kecil Sansevieria sebanyak 2000 pot kepada peserta Car Free Day, kampanye dan dilanjutkan dengan talkshow dan performance. Kampanye tentang plant tree plan life , dimana memberikan penyadar tahuan dan menyuarakan tentang pentingnya keberadaan pohon dan pentingnya melestarikan pohon, kami mengajak kepada masyarakat di perkotaan untuk dapat melakukan hal kecil guna melestarikan lingkungan dengan cara menanam pohon di rumah, tidak hanya itu melalui penanaman pohon, plant tree plan life juga berusaha memberikan edukasi dan penyadar tahuan guna menumbuhkan kesadaran untuk kita semakin menjaga kelestraian pohon yang sudah ada yaitu seperti pohon-pohon yang ada di hutan, dan hutan pun juga bukan hanya tentang hutan hujan yang ada di kalimantan dan sumatra tapi juga hutan bakau yang ada di seluruh Indonesia khususnya di Jakarta yang perlu di perhatikan, maka dari itu kami juga di dukung oleh Kemangteers Jakarta yang meruapakan suatu komunitas penyelamatan hutan bakau yang ada di jakarta.
Untuk talkshow yang bertema “Plant Tree, Plan Life” ada 2 orang pembicara yaitu Gracia Paramitha dari Kementrian Lingkungan Hidup dan Bayu Wardhana dari Green Map Jakarta, dengan moderator Anindhita Indira (HiLo Green Ambassador 2011). Untuk performances ada Delay Monday band, SATCF Punk band, Percussion, dan Smale Cheerleaders. Ada juga Theatrical Campaign dari Trisakti. Peserta yang membawa Tumbler mendapatkan minuman gratis dari Starbucks. Tidak hanya itu Ecouture juga nanti akan mengadakan road show ke sekolah-sekolah sebagai gerakan yang berkelanjutan dengan bekerja sama pada pihak-pihak sekolah untuk melakukan penghijauan.

Tidak ketinggalan di ECOUTURE juga ada tumbler photo competition dimana mengajak masyarakat untuk berphoto bersama botol minum kesayangannya untuk menularkan gerakan untuk menggunakan tumbler yaitu one man one tumbler untuk mengurangi penggunaan botol minum dan gelas plastik sekali pakai dan menggatinya dengan menggunakan tumbler, karna di jkarta sendiri botol dan gelas plastik sekali pakai merupakan sampah yang paling terbanyak dan itu sangatlah merusak lingkungan.
@YOTgreen
@KOPHI_

Dimana Kota Terbersih se Asia Tenggara?

Bila dihadapkan dengan pertanyaan Dimana kota terbersih Se Asia Tenggara, banyak orang pasti menyangka jawabannya adalah Singapura atau Kuala Lumpur. padahal, Palembanglah yang memegang predikat tersebut dengan berhasil menyabet piala ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award.

Piala yang diterima oleh walikota Palembang tanggal 5 Maret 2012 kemarin di Phnomh Penh, Kamboja, adalah bentuk penghargaan yang diadakan sebagai salah satu cara meningkatkan lingkungan hidup di kawasan ASEAN. Palembang sukses meraih penghargaan ini karena berhasil mengesankan tim penilai dari ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities (AWGESC).

Mengapa Palembang bisa menang? usut punya usut, kota mpek – mpek ini ternyata memukau tim penilai dengan konsep pembersihan kotanya. adanya sistem pembuangan limbah yang teratur, sanitasi yang semakin baik, serta pemerintah dan masyarakat yang sadar akan kebersihan membuat lingkungan kota Palembang senantiasa terjaga kebersihannya.

Kekompakan antara pemerintah dan masyarakat dalam merubah kota membuat ibu kota Sumatra Selatan yang pernah dicap sebagai salah satu kota paling kotor ini kini menjadi kota terbersih di Asean. Palembang adalah contoh keberhasilan bangkitnya kota yang terjadi karena semua lapisan masyarakat sadar akan kebersihan.

ditulis oleh Farah Fitriani (farahfitrianifaruq@gmail.com / @farafit)

Jamu: Why Isn’t Indonesia’s Ancient System of Herbal Healing Better Known?

The results astounded her. After three days of taking only one third of the prescribed dose of herbal pills, the pain had vanished, making her wonder if she’d found “the magic bullet of all time.”

Jane-Beers spent the next decade researching the origins, myths, tightly guarded recipes and commercial applications of herbal medicine in Java, where plants have been used for medicinal purposes since prehistory. Her 2001 opus Jamu: The Ancient Art of Herbal Healing remains the only definitive English guide on the subject. It’s also the most widely read outside Indonesia since Herbarium Amboinense, a catalogue on plants completed by German botanist Georg Rumphius in 1690 — more than three centuries beforehand.

A holistic therapy based on the notion that if disease comes from nature then so must the cure, jamu covers a dazzling array of teas, tonics, pills, creams and powders to cure — and prevent — every ailment imaginable. The ingredients are by definition cheap, widely available and simple: nutmeg to treat insomnia, guava for diarrhea, lime to promote weight loss and basil to counter body odor.

Jamu has also been used to treat cancer. In her book, Jane-Beers writes of a traditional healer in the city of Jogjakarta who apparently cured what had been diagnosed as a terminal case of cervical cancer with a tea made of betel nut, Madagascar Prewinkle and mysterious ‘benala’ leaves. Combined with a strict soya bean diet, the patient was said to have made a full recovery in 18 months.

Sound farfetched? A 2011 study by Virginia Tech’s Department of Food Science and Technology on the soursop tree (the leaves of which are used to relive gout and arthritis in Indonesia) found evidence showing extracts from soursop fruit inhibit the growth of human breast cancer. Vincristine, one of 70 useful alkaloids identified in Madagascar Prewinkle, radically ups the survival rate of children with leukemia, while turmeric is being looked at as a treatment for Alzheimer’s.

“Western medicine tries to destroy cancer but at the same time it destroys elements of the body. Jamu helps the body produce its own antibodies to fight the cancer by itself,” says Bryan Hoare, manager at MesaStila, a wellness retreat in central Java that serves jamu shots with breakfast and employs a tabib — indigenous healer — for private consultations. “Coming from the earth, jamu also makes you feel good. When you take it you experience a positive feeling.”

But if jamu is the magic bullet, why isn’t better known in the West, where natural Asian medicines like India’s ayurvedic system and Chinese herbal healing have been growing in popularity for years?

The answer can be found on the streets of Indonesia, where jamu is consumed regularly by 49% of the population, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. Valued at $2.7 billion annually, the industry covers an incredibly wide gamut of products, from homemade tonics sold by street hawkers, to slimming powders, to cosmetics, to jamu for babies and postnatal care. Yet the bestselling in value terms are invariably the dodgiest: those claiming to boost sexual performance and or suppress appetite.

“Indonesians may well have been amused when Viagra was released in 1998,” Jane-Beers comments on the popularity of brands like Kuat Lekali (Strong Man), Kuku Bima (Nail of God) and Super Biul Erection Oil. “They have had their own remedies for years.”

Then there’s the association between jamu and white magic. Many indigenous healers insist on dispensing jamu on auspicious dates or in conjunction with animist spells that predate the arrival of Islam in the archipelago.

Mbah Ngatrulin, a Buddhist tabib I met in Ngadas, the highest village in Java, told me spells are the key and the jamu may as well be “mineral water.” It’s the kind of comment that prevents many GPs across Southeast Asia from endorsing jamu lest patients take them for quacks.

According to Charles Saerang, head of the Indonesian Jamu Entrepreneurs Association, the primary impediment to a worldwide jamu craze is that locally jamu products don’t meet international manufacturing standards. That hasn’t stopped entrepreneurs from buying raw herbal materials in Indonesia, processing them in India and Malaysia and selling them in the U.K. — a market Indonesian made jamu products can’t access. That’s a double whammy for Indonesia, which loses out on value added by third parties and the chance to promote the jamu brand name abroad.

It’s impossible to say when, or even if, jamu painkillers will be stocked at supermarkets and convenience stores in countries like the U.K. Yet inroads are already being laid by small businesses like the Origin Spa in Melbourne, Australia. There, highly skilled practitioners apply massage developed by 16th-century Indonesian royalty — the founders of modern jamu — with creams and oils containing turmeric, betel leaves, lives and crushed eggshells. There’s a minimum two-month waiting list for Origin’s five-day treatment that helps women regain their figures quickly, improve lactation and dispel wind, dizziness and aches and pains.

“It’s surprisingly popular with the Asian mums throughout Australia,” says partner Jessica Koh. “But it’s still unfamiliar to most of the locals.”

(TIME MAGAZINE)

— With reporting by Theo Manday / Ngadas  

7-Year-Old Indonesian Turns Mountains Into Molehills

Little Arya Cahaya Mulya Sugiarto could be one of the bravest 7-year-olds in the world.

He has already climbed 14 mountains and is now ready to climb more of the world’s highest peaks. To mark National Children’s Day on July 23, Arya will attempt to conquer the highest mountain in Europe, Russia’s Mount Elbrus. From there, he will go on to climb an even higher peak in the Himalayas to mark Universal Children’s Day on Nov. 20.

The young adventurer from Pemekasan, Madura, East Java has impressed mountain climbers worldwide with his feats and even sparked the interest of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. When he reaches the peak of Mount Elbrus on National Children’s Day, Arya will receive a call from the president to congratulate him on his achievements and commend him for inspiring the children of Indonesia to follow their dreams.

Reaching the peak of Elbrus is only the start of Arya’s adventures this year. In November he will attempt to climb Imja Tse, better known as Island Peak, a 6,189-meter peak in the Himalayas.

The first expedition, Ekspedisi Cahaya Indonesia (Light Expedition Indonesia), was developed by mountain-climbing instructor Budi Cayono to help Arya become the youngest person to ever conquer Mount Elbrus.

Budi said that Arya’s achievements encourage other children to get involved in sports and enjoy the outdoors. Arya’s father, Agus Sugiarto, said it is important for children to fulfill their dreams, and he hopes that “Arya’s dream comes true, to climb up this snowy mountain.”

First celebrated globally in 1953, Universal Children’s Day was established to promote children’s welfare worldwide and their contributions to society. By conquering Mount Elbus and Imja Tse, Arya hopes to set an example for children of all walks of life.

Arya’s little footprints have made their impression on many a mountain; he has been hiking since before he could walk. His father, Agus, said he used to carry him on mountain climbs when he was just 8 months old. But it was not long before Arya found his feet: “He was only 3 years old when he started to hike by himself and didn’t want to be carried anymore.”

In fact, Arya has climbed 14 tall mountains in Indonesia, the highest of them being Mount Semeru in Java in August 2010 when he was just 5, and then Mount Rinjani in Lombok last year.

He is the youngest person ever to conquer those mountains, and Agus said that these were the hardest mountains so far. But the treacherous peaks do not seem to faze Arya — last year the boy told the tabloid magazine Nyata that it was “nice to be able to reach the top of the mountain; I can see God’s creation.”

Mount Elbrus will be Arya’s hardest climb to date. Reaching heights of 5,642 meters, the icecap of Mount Elbrus feeds 22 glaciers. The inactive volcano is considered the world’s 10th most prominent mountain.

The highest mountain in Europe would certainly be a risk and a challenge to the most competent of mountain climbers. Yet Agus insists that Arya is in no danger.

“Mount Elbrus is safe enough for a kid his age to climb. The important thing is to always be careful, take notice and pay attention to weather conditions,” he says.

Budi, Arya’s instructor, will lead the expedition to Mount Elbrus and has trained Arya in preparation for the climb.

“I have full confidence that Arya can reach the top of Mount Elbrus on National Children’s Day,” he said. “I have seen him climb Rinjani and he was so happy doing it all the way to the top.”

“If you watch the way he climbs the mountains, you will be amazed, because Arya walks so excitedly,” he added. “Even if it is raining heavily and the terrain is slippery, he still carries on and enjoys the journey.”

Arya and his mountain-climbing team, which includes instructor Budi, father Agus, and a team of experienced climbers, will depart for Moscow on July 9. There they will meet a team of local guides and start their climb at the base of Mount Elbrus on July 15.

After reaching the summit and speaking to the president, Arya will begin his descent and arrive at the base camp on July 26.

To prepare for this ambitious expedition, Arya has undergone daily training. He runs every afternoon and goes mountain climbing every weekend. Budi insists that the mountain is safe to climb, as long as Arya is prepared.

“Mountain climbing is very safe, as long as climbers follow the rules and techniques — especially for young climbers — so they need a lot of preparation,” he says.

Budi says July’s expedition will take longer than it would for more experienced climbers, but believes safety comes before speed.

“Arya requires a longer adjustment [than adults], and his safety is the most important thing,” he said.

Fully aware of the risks, Arya knows how important safety is after coming into trouble while mountain climbing last year. The expedition, Ekspedisi Cahaya Merdeka (Independent Light Expedition) saw him conquer 12 mountains in only three months.

Yet some of the climbs were hindered by stormy weather. The climbers experienced heavy rainstorms and were forced to take shelter in their tents.

The rain prevented Arya from sticking to his original plans, yet Budi said Arya stayed strong.

“He was still fit and in a good condition when he completed the journey,” Budi said.

Taken from The Jakarta Globe

IPB to conduct greening drive around campus

Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) – The Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) is to conduct a greening drive in villages around its campus based on the community empowerment principle to realize its biological natural diversity campus (KEHATI) concept, a spokesman said.

A KEHATI campus was a settlement and landscape where academic life is marked by a harmonious integration of people and education, said Ahmad Yani, a member of the IPB`s Research and Development Institute (LPPM) here Saturday.

“The communities in the villages surrounding the campus, the local culture and biodiversity must have one common purpose, namely the general welfare and conservation of biodiversity,” Ahmad said.

In the greening drive, the IPB would cooperate with national gas company PT PGN to plant as many as 10,000 trees around the campus.

The activity would be attended by the Rector of IPB, the Minister of Forestry Zulkifli Hasan, the Dean of Animal Husbandry Faculty, the Board of Directors of National Gas Company as well as the community and the academics.

Ahmad said the series of PGN-IPB KEHATI activities included basic study on an inventory and identification of potential land, socialization to the local people, training on organic cultivation and planting of trees for food and medicine as many as 10,000 seedlings.

The location of planting activities are in the IPB campus area of approximately 2.5 hectares, in nearby villages around the campus area of 7.5 hectares namely Benteng, Cibanteng, Cikarawang, Cihideung Ilir and Babakan sub village.

“The type of trees to be planted are among others Soursop, Breadfruit, Petai, bol guava, jackfruit, nutmeg, avocado, rambutan, mango and guava,” Ahmad noted.

He added this activity was very beneficial for the society including economics, health and the environment benefits.

Campus KEHATI is a mindset form realized through the harmony of the IPB ecosystem as a core and ring campus village.

The villages are empowered maximum to meet the needs of daily living for the KEHATI campus community and even to other people such as food, clean water, clean air, shelter, energy, medicine, education facilities conservation, ecotourism and others.

“Campus KEHATI aims to establish an unique and real model for stakeholders, provide and facilitate the learning process and development of knowledge in the real world, build an image and a model of integrated organic farming, humane, harmony with nature, realize the Indonesia miniature of bio-cultural-diversity in concrete form in the real world,” Ahmad explained.
(T.KR-LWA/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH

Remembering the Mighty Blast from the Past

By Ahmad Cholis Hamzah

Krakatau Mountain is located in Sunda strait between Java Island and Sumatra Island of Indonesia. It is a volcanic Mountain and has attracted people around the globe. The American Nature Magazine in 1946 wrote that when people in the world awed by the mighty blast of Atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. However, there was an explosion that was incomparably greater.

Krakatau Mountain blew up, on August 27, 1883, the whole world knew about it. The noise was head around 3,000 miles away; and the great waves of the explosion caused in the area reached the shores of four continents and were recorded 8,000 miles away. In addition, an air wave generated by the explosion traveled clear around the world, not only once but several times.

The Magazine also noted that the red-hot debris covered an area larger than France, to a depth of sometimes 100 feet on land. For nearly the year afterward the dust of the blast, blown upward for 30 miles, filled the high atmosphere over almost the whole globe. Even though there were no large towns within 100 miles of the volcano, approximately 36,000 people lost their lives.

The Magazine also wrote that the mighty explosion awed the sailors of the British Ship Charles Bal, who saw the Island shoot up over the horizon, “shaped like a pine tree brilliantly illuminated by electric flashes”. The sea was covered with innumerable fish, floating belly-up on the churning water. Long afterward came the noise- the loudest ever heard by human ears. “The concussions were deafening” wrote Lloyd’s agent in Batavia – the old name of Jakarta during Dutch colonial era.

In 1928, deep down under its rocky foundation a pocket of lava was seeing outlet for its energies. It broke the surface and showed its top, a flat ugly Island. Indigenous people called this new volcano “Anak Krakatau” or “Child of Krakatau”. Now many tourists from over the world could visit this Mountain Child from Jakarta the capital city of Indonesia. From Jakarta people could take ferry to Bandar Lampung of Sumatra Island, and take a boat to the Mountain.

By Ahmad Cholis Hamzah, alumni of University of London and Airlangga University Surabaya. Now is a lecturer of PERBANAS (Banking College) in Surabaya.