The Edelweiss Park of Eternity

KOMPAS/TEGUH WERDIONO

Teguh Wibowo

For three years ago, Teguh Wibowo, 37, along with the Hulun Hyang Farmers Group in Wonokitri village, Pasuruan regency, East Java, has cultivated edelweiss. Three objectives have been achieved at the same time: nature conservation, cultural preservation and community empowerment.

A phone call from Kompas on Sunday morning (13/6/2021) was only briefly answered by Teguh because he was preparing to welcome visitors to the Edelweiss Park, whose number usually increases on the weekend.

The man of slim build promised to have a chat after his busy time was over.

He was right, some 150 tourists visited Edelweiss Tourist Village in Wonokitri. Most of them were young people coming from the regions around Pasuruan.

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With tickets costing only Rp 10,000 to Rp 25,000 for an educational package, visitors can take delight in the tourist village, a 1,196-square-meter edelweiss garden on the northwestern side of Mount Bromo. Relaxing in the fresh mountain air, tourists can learn to grow the plant, collect its flowers and craft souvenirs with the unique blooms.

Since the opening of Edelweiss Park, the atmosphere of Wonokitri village has become livelier. Food stalls owned by residents have been emerging, Residents also earn income from vehicle parking fees. Despite its young age, it seems the park – claimed to be the first of its type in Indonesia – has begun to offer its benefits.

Edelweiss has special significance for local people. The Tengger community living in the buffer zone of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) considers edelweiss a sacred plant. They include edelweiss blooms in their ritual offerings as a symbol of ancestral eternity.

Tengger community members are scattered over the highlands of the regencies of Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Malang and Lumajang. They are known to fully adhere to their traditions.

KOMPAS/DEFRI WERDIONO

Teguh Wibowo (left)

“Tengger people, including those in Wonokitri, are inseparable from edelweiss. Its flowers are irreplaceable by others. Edelweiss is always part of every ritual, as offerings in cultural activities like the Karo holiday [which marks the middle of the second month of the Tengger calendar], kasada [giving sacrificial offerings to God] and thanksgiving ceremonies for land and water,” said Teguh.

Edelweiss is referred to as an eternal plant because of its long-lasting nature. Tengger people call it tana layu. In Sanskrit, tan means never and layu wither.

Harder to find

The high demand for edelweiss has made it harder to find naturally. Teguh said edelweiss could previously be found within a radius of about 1 kilometer of the settlement, but today, villagers must go much further to find it, not to mention such contingencies as wildfires during the dry season, which have the potential to destroy edelweiss and the typical flora of the national park.

It is at the altitude of 1,900 meters with an air temperature ranging from 16 to 23 degrees Celsius that the Hulun Hyang Farmers Group under Teguh has cultivated edelweiss. The National Park Center (BBTNBTS) initiated the project.

The conservation activity started in 2017, when an experiment on growing edelweiss in Wonokitri as part of the Edelweiss Village program was undertaken by the BBTNBTS. Seven residents took part, one of whom was Teguh. At the time, the Hulun Hyang Farmers Group had not been formed.

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Earlier, the BBTNBTS had succeeded in cultivating edelweiss by the seeding method. “At first there were only a few plants. With the seeds from the BBTNBTS, they were grown in the yard of Mushala [prayer house] Syariah Mandiri and were later dedicated by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya. At present, they total about 1,200 stalks,” he said.

In November 2018, Edelweis Park was opened for tourism. Three edelweiss species grow there: Anaphalis javanica, Anaphalis longifolia and Anaphalis viscida. Those cultivated in Wonokitri are of the same species as the edelweiss in the national park. The banking system also participates in the development of the edelweiss park.

Edelweiss cultivation, according to Teguh, is not so difficult because the altitude and natural condition of the location are conducive to its growth. The constraint has to do with human resources, that is, how to change the attitude of people who in the beginning were only gathering the plant from nature and now are being taught to grow the plant themselves.

ARSIP PRIBADI TEGUH WIBOWO

Activities at Edelweiss Park in Wonokitri Village, Tosari District, Pasuruan Regency, East Java, some time ago.

Quite often, in the initial period of Edelweiss Park’s development, some residents had dissenting views. “The pros and cons of the park are certainly there. We have enough every day, and our intention is good. I’ve stressed it to my group members, there’s no need to fear as long as we mean well. People have their likes and dislikes. It’s important for us to show them, starting from ourselves,” he said.

The national park, Teguh and his 26-member group strive to teach others about the process. “The problem is not tourists taking from nature; it’s the law of the market.

When demand rises [from tourists], there are suppliers. They include our own relatives, who still take wild edelweiss to be sold,” noted Teguh.

Therefore, added Teguh, who received an award for biodiversity conservation and utilization from the Environment and Forestry Ministry in 2020, people who continued to gather wild edelweiss for sale would be his group’s target.

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They will be encouraged to participate in the cultivation of edelweiss. Besides the Hulun Hyang Farmers Group, some residents have been following in the group’s footsteps by growing the plant in their yards and between plantation trees.

Apart from the human resources issue, the other constraint on edelweiss development on a large scale, in Teguh’s view, concerns land. The greater part of land in the region is productive land where residents grow crops to produce agricultural commodities. It is widely known that the majority of Wonokitri people are farmers.

It’s important to find out how they can gain added value from edelweiss besides farming, because it’s hard to change people’s farming routines to other business activities.

“In the future, edelweiss cultivation will be directed at agrotourism, with the edelweiss park as its center. So, we’re not changing residents’ occupations. But it’s important to find out how they can gain added value from edelweiss besides farming, because it’s hard to change people’s farming routines to other business activities,” added Teguh.

The concept of Edelweiss Village is a derivative of the TNBTS vegetation conservation program in the form of community empowerment in the buffer zone. Besides Wonokitri, Ngadisari village in Sukapura district, Probolinggo regency, is also cultivating edelweiss.

The development of edelweiss outside its conservation zone has demonstrated benefits in providing the materials for cultural needs, creating economic opportunities for local people and conserving the plant, which is protected by law.

Teguh Wibowo

Born: Pasuruan, May 4, 1984

Education:

- State Primary School 1 Wonokitri

- State Junior High School 1 Tosari

- Baithani Christian Senior High School Tosari

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.