Changing Micro and Small Enterprise in Urban and Rural Areas through Tanggung Renteng Ethos (Cultural Wisdom) in Indonesia

Changing Micro and Small Enterprise in Urban and Rural Areas through Tanggung Renteng Ethos (Cultural Wisdom) in Indonesia by Daru Indriyo

The most fundamental fact of life in our world today is change. As a rule, people are reluctant to change. We resist it. It has to do with staying in our comfort zone, which is part of human nature. Throughout human history, as changes have come to light, people have run around blowing out candles and throwing the switches, demanding continued darkness. In almost every field of endeavor --- the arts, sciences, medicine, business --- most new ideas have always met with resistance and rejection at first. And the more unique and revolutionay idea, the more sweeping and vast the change, the louder and stronger people’s opposition to it. If we look our natural resources especially the speed of destruction of forest, degradation of land, deterioration of ocean, even natural disaster, we’re frustated. We’re more than frustated, we’re angry! We feel powerless to change the way things are. Don’t you dare let anybody take your dreams away! We’re not cowards. We’re victims of a crime. The crime of the appetite for natural destruction, so they stole our Dream. We truly believe that each and every one of us has an inner fire, a basic survival instinct to fight back when the chips are down. We are ready and willing to work, no doubt about it. What we need is a vehicle to help us get back our Dreams.

Protected areas perform many functions. They deliver essential ecosystem services, such as protecting watersheds and soils, reducing CO2 levels and shileding human communities from natural disasters. Many protected areas are important to local communities, especially indigenous peoples who depend for their survival on a sustainable supply of resources from them. Protected areas everywhere are exposed to threats such as pollution and climate change, irresponsible tourism, infrastructure development and ever-increasing demand for land and water resources. Managers these places face a host of challenges. Resource economic analysis, which can describe direct and indirect benefits of conservation area, is one of the strong instruments that can be used to deal with the “other” group. The conservation- supporting group should be able to sell the economic and social argument to the decision-maker. In this case, it should be emphasised that public interest groups can play an important role in the process and bring about a more effective use of economic argument.

So we have primary tasks to ensure sustainable development in remote protected areas and to support the traditional economies of the regions indigenous peoples through the promotion of Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) activities. We further advises and supports village organisations in establishing primary procesing units, adequate storage and packaging facilities and other infrastructural needs. NTFPs represent a direct and potentially positive connection between forest conservation and forest use. If farming communities living on the fringes of the forest also derive value from the sustainable of NTFPs, this offers them an incentive to protect the forest. NTFPs can help create or restore a positive interface betweeen agriculture and forest conservation. More particular assistance is required in the following fields: - removing legal obstacles which hinder local people who seek to manage and benefit from NTFPs - Technical and institutional strengthening (administration and marketing) - Sustainable extraction of NTFPs - Strengthening the position of women, notably who belongs to marginal groups - Information sharing and capacity building through exchange of experiences among local communities Technology is simply “a new and better way of doing something.” Technology is the engine of change that creates a new paradigm. And I believe that the best possible option available to conservation areas today is Tanggung Renteng Group System (TRGS). Tanggung Renteng Group System introduced by Center of Woman Cooperative East Java (Puskowanjati) a secondary cooperative that was born on March 1959 which consist of 20 woman primary cooperative, and then increase 46 woman primary cooperative (48.000 member). The developing system is step by step, firstly from tanggung menanggung term of resposibility between each member in the group of arisan (regular social gathering whose members contribute to and take turns at winning an aggregate sum of money), and then secondly tanggung renteng term of responsibility each member in the group of woman cooperative (regular social gathering whose members contribute to learn about cooperative, saving and loan the money, and making solidarity and also new culture/civilization).

In the manual book of TRGS, it is already admitted that "the method to stimulate borrowers to show an active interest in their groups and also their institution by financial participation and interest income has to be regarded as having failed and that any feeling of co-responsibility for the operations is missing among the members, that every member will remain dependent upon the group managers and a controlling and leading cooperative institution". The TRGS mainly supplied short-term and small loans to households and micro-entrepreneurs, either for productive or consumption purposes, with daily, twice a week, weekly or twice a month repayments depend on their business. They were typical micro-finance institutions. It was believed that this would contribute towards structural changes in the financial system, thus forming a more solid basis for substantial and sustained micro and small enterprise development.

forestPRENEUR inc tried to adopt the local wisdom mechanism to enhancing livelihood and surviving in the extreme climate change. forestPRENEUR assist cooperative groups and their member are sponsored by Ministry of Cooperative and Small Medium Enterprise and Puskowanjati, and tend to focus on skills training and financial support. One example of a financial support program is the concept of the revolving loan. The Group of Tanggung Renteng notes that more than 30 revolving-loan funds, created by Ministry, Puskowanjati, and forestPRENEUR, operate in urban and rural areas in Indonesia. The year 2005, these loans tend to be $30,000 divided by 33 groups and are payable in 6 months. If the group success, it will be increase two times for the next period time of revolving-loan fund. The loans are administered under the auspices of tanggung renteng group system, many of them rural citizens themselves, who are committed to the goal of generating more jobs in rural areas. Fund managers from local cooperative institution "carefully (screen) prospective group borrowers and closely (advise) them about their business" to help ensure their success.