How to be friendly with your surrounding environment

We will enter new year. What is your resolution for the coming 2009? Everyone of course needs a better life. More income. If you haven't find a soulmate, you hope to meet a nice prince or princess for your heart. Listen all your dreams or hopes are closely related to how you interact with other people, God and Nature. The followings are my tips to live a friendly life with nature.

1. Don't litter. A simple example, every time we go to a supermarket, we receive plastic bags where we put our goods in. When arrived at home, we throw these plastic bags into the garbage bin. More often these plastic bags fall on to the front yard and blown away. They then end up on the ditch and block the flow of water. When water cannot flow it will spill over the road. Later these plastic bags gathered at a river and run off to the sea. They cover to coral reef and block the sun light which is needed by the corals to carry out photosynthesis. When this happens the coral reef will die and the fish will leave the area. Your plastic bags have caused the death of corals and the fish. My solution, when you go shopping at a supermarket, bring your own basket so you do not have to bring plastic bags which would later become additional burden to our nature or universe.

2. Don't kill animals even though they are only insects at home. One day, your kitchen floor is covered with a lot of ants. Many of you will kill these ants. It is wrong. You are the ones who has to be blamed. Why you dropped food leftovers on the floor. The leftover attract ants. If you clean your kitchen or isolate your table by putting water in small containers at all four feet of the table, then the ants will not gather or occupy your kitchen. They will live on a tree outside your home or in little holes under ground. When a squad of termite come to eat wooden beams and pillar of your home thus bringing down the entire construction, then the ants will eat them. Ants as insects are natural predators for the termite. This is similar to lizard which is the natural predator for mosquito.

3. Buy products that are environmently friendly. Environmentally friendly products are products that can unite with nature when they are returned or thrown away to the nature. For example: wooden spatula, cotton cloths and wooden chair. When you don't use or want them anymore, you can burry them into the ground and then they will decay and unite with the nature. Don't buy too many plastic things.

4. When you have a picnic, don't litter. This point No 4 is similar to point No. 1. More often when we have an outdoor picnic, we bring food and drinks that are kept in plastic or metal packaging. After drinking softdrink we just throw away the cans, or plastic bottles. Don't do that. Bring the plastic packaging and the metal cans back home. Put them in the garbage bins where they can be recycled. By doing that you have lived in a friendly life with the environment.

5. Don't just cut the trees or bush around your home. If there is a tree in front of or next to your house, consider it as a blessing from the nature. If it blocks sunlight into your house, just prun one or two of its branches. The green leaves emits positive energy into your house. Sometimes in the mornings or in the afternoons, birds stop by at the tree branches for a short brake before flying again to their homes. It is a natural blessing for you.

There are still many ways which you can do to live a friendly life with nature. You can do it. when you have done it, believe me, all your plans, works and efforts in your daily life will totally be supported by the whole universe.


by Charles Roring in Manokwari, Indonesia

Nature Lover Blog uses Four Column Template

The blog of Nature lover is now using four column template. It is something new for me as the blogger or creator of this blog. I realized that designing a four column template is difficult to be done alone. So I type four column template for blogspot dot com or blogger dot com and I found it. It is in a blog that provides the template which everbody can download.

I don't know whether you like it or not. I only see that it is good in displaying more links and of course the ads which I need to monetize the blog from the writings or posts. Recently,

I found that I am not focused on certain topics. My postings become diverse and cannot optimize the rank in the search engine.

But I guess it's OK. As long as I can express my opinions or ideas. If you find that it is getting difficult to find the topics that you are looking for, why don't you send me a message. Actually I need response about what should I write for this blog. Comments or suggestions from readers are needed to improve this blog's performance.

I hope next year, everything will be better for us all, more jobs, peace in the middle east and better and healthier life.

Happy New Year to all of you my readers, from Charles Roring in Manokwari Indonesia

Girl on Cool Floor

This beautiful girl is sitting on a cool floor. I tried my best drawing her. This girl lowered her head closer to her knee in nude position hiding one of her breasts. Only one that could be seen. The inner thigh area cannot also be seen due to the long leg which half stretches to the right side of the girl. Drawing this skecth is not difficult. I only need to balance the proportion of the body, leg and head so that I can obtain a perfect and beautiful picture. I have many drawings of girls, nature, birds, and anything that I see beautiful to be drawn or painted. I will show some more on my next postings.

Figure Drawing Study: Beautiful girl sitting nude on cool floor

I use a 3B Staedtler pencil to draw this beautiful girl sitting nude on cool floor. The sketch paper is made by Xue shan. I don't know whether it is a famous brand or not but I just use it when I want to draw or make sketch. I am very fond of art, especially drawing. You can send me your pictures if you want to be drawn. After drawing it, I will post it on this blog. I will not mention your name as the model except if you allow.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Tomorrow is Christmas. Here in Indonesia we call it Natal. So, I will also need one or two days off from blogging.

Marry Christmas 25 December 2008

May God Bless You All

This is the time when we celebrate the direct intervention of God in human history by becoming human to redeem our sins. This is the faith of Christianity.

again

Selamat Natal 25 Desember 2008

New idea for Making Money from Home

by Charles Roring, Indonesia

Study Case: my personal experience in running a bookstore from living room
I began making money from home in early 2007. It has been two years now. I opened a bookstore from my living room. I did not have a lot of money at that time. So, I decided to choose my own living room as a place to make money selling books. I asked for a loan from a bank. Its name was Bank BNI. I got 65 million rupiahs or $ 6,500 dollars. Then, the money was used for making bookshelves and ordering books from famous book publishers in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, two big cities in Indonesia.

I have been running the Xavier bookstore for two years now and my total selling has reached more than Rp. 450,000,000 or 45,000 US dollars. Maybe for European or American standard, it is not a big business. But for us here in Indonesia, it is quite a lot.

I have done many things to make money from home business. I wrote articles and send them to national magazines such as Intisari and Flona. For one article, they paid me Rp. 350,000 or 35 US dollars. I still write every day for my blog. I also draw and paint. Some of them are shown in one of my personal websites.

Now I make money from home by blogging and authoring an educational website. I use two software i.e. Microsoft Frontpage 2003 and Blog software (wordpress and blogspot). The topics for my articles range from health and lifestyle to how to make money by working at home. I still believe that opening a home business is still the wisest decision in today's world financial crisis which we are facing right now. Besides we can open new jobs for our family and friends, we have helped the government in reducing unemployment. While many big companies lay off their workers, we create new jobs at home. In addition, we reduce traffic congestion which is good for our environment.

Whatever your idea for making money from home is, you have to have passion for it. Don't run a home business that you don't really like. Whether you still want to work on 9 to 5 system or make money from bed room writing articles for newspaper, or magazine; or even becoming a novelist, you must focus on it.

A great success story for home business entrepreneur is the case of Askthebuilder.com. The owner or founder of the website is Tim Carter. Paula Neal Mooney said in her blog that he got $ 500,000 from monetizing his web with Google Adsense.

Now, I have just told you my story about how I make money from home selling books from my living room. I am nothing if compared to Amazon. But if I want, my website can be monetized by adding some Amazon Astore Program.

I want to tell you this, "Don't worry about anything if you are thinking of opening a home business. Just do it with passion and all the power of nature will support it." Technorati : Writing

Recommended Book, Beating Diabetes

Charles Roring in Indonesia

There many books available in the bookstore about Diabetes. If you want to know more about this disease, I can read one that does not contain a lot of medical terminologies. If I have to recommend one, I'd mention this title, "Beating Diabetes, The First Complete Program Clinically Proven to Dramatically Improve Your Glucose Tolerance." I don't know if this diabetes book can still be found on bookshelves. It was written by David Nathan and Linda Delahanty.
The book discusses in details about how we must change our lifestyle from a sedentary one to an active one to balance our calorie intake and spending. It is divided into 14 chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 The Basics: Diabetes and Pre-diabetes and Why They are on the rise.
Chapter 2 Why we gain weight: The arithmetic of obesity. Here the authors explain how our body turn food into fuel or energy and how it is stored in our body when the energy in is more than energy out. As a result we become overweight. This chapter also explains the importance of weigh control program to prevent or treat diabetes.
Chapter 3 Proof that lifestyle matters: The Diabetes Prevention Program
Chapter 4 Applying lifestyle changes to treat Diabetes and Associated Diseases
Chapter 5 Activity and Exercise: Move, Move, Move
Chapter 6 How to get ready to Change our Lifestyle
Chapter 7 Preparing Your Environment for Change and Success
Chapter 8 Setting Weight, Activity, and Nutrition Goals and Tracking Your Progress
Chapter 9 Solving Problems
Chapter 10 Maintaining Your New Lifestyle
Chapter 11 Popular Weigh Loss Program: Do they Work?
Chapter1 2 How to Change Your Eating Behavior
Chapter 13 How Study Participants Did It: three Stories
Chapter 14 Conclusion
So, if you are interested in reading this book, just go to the nearest bookstore in your town. If it doesn't sell the book, visit ebookee website. Type the title of the book and download it for free.

Diabetes and detoxifying

Charles Roring, Manokwari - Indonesia

People with diabetes who live in big cities are always exposed to toxins. When we ride motorcycles or drive cars on the streets the air we inhale contains toxic fumes. When we work in high-rise buildings that use chemical substances such as chlorofluorocarbons for air conditioning, we inhale it. Photocopy machines, laser printers and other office equipment emit or contain toxic materials such as lead, aluminium, cadmium and mercury. These toxic metals are harmful to our body.

People with diabetes who experienced toxic build up in their bodies must regularly do the detoxification. Detoxifying our body from toxins is important to restore our health and is needed to cure type 2 diabetes.

Removing toxic materials from our bodies can be done by exercising and eating chelating foods. These kinds of foods bind toxic metals stored in our bodies and eliminate them. Apple, orange and watermelon are some of the fruits that can "remove excessive toxic metal."

In addition to detoxifying, we need to avoid drinking too much alcohol. When we drink a lot of alcohol we put more burdens to our livers. Liver detoxifies unneeded substances from our body. It also regulates our blood glucose.

If we detoxify, we need clean water, not tea or coffee. Drinking juice is also good but we need to eat fruits too. Drinking too much juice can raise our blood sugar level higher than the normal level. Therefore, eating fruits is better. The fiber from the fruits can clean or remove toxins from our colon. In addition, the pith in the fruits contains flavanols that recycle vitamin C to be more potent.

City dwellers need to do detoxification regularly to restore the performance of the liver in regulating blood glucose, to remove toxic metals stored in the body. By detoxifying regularly we will be able to survive the city living.

High Risk Situation in People With Diabetes

Charles Roring, Manokwari, Indonesia

Fighting diabetes is not an easy thing to do especially when we are in high risk situation. It is a situation which can disrupt our healthy lifestyle. As city dwellers, we often go out with our friends and eat at restaurants. Sometimes we drink to much alcohol which is not good for our liver and pancreas. When we drink too much liquor our pancreas has to work harder producing insulin to stabilize our blood sugar.

Other situation which may be harmful to our health is when we feel bored, tired, angry or depressed. We tend to eat more when we are in this situation. There are somethings that we must do when we are in high risk situation.
Try to find other new alternatives instead of grabbing food. People with diabetes who feel bored, depressed with their work or family relation have more tendency of eating foods that contain cholesterol, fat, and salt or drinking too much sweet juice and alcohol. When we are in this situation we must try other alternatives such as do the gardening, play football or basketball, play guitar.
Solve the problem. When we are in high risk situation due to problems at work or at home. We can try to solve it. Find the root cause of the problem.
Take a break. Sometimes stress or tiredness can be releaved just by taking a nap.
Visit your friends or neighbors. When our emotional condition is not stable, visiting an old friends or next door neighbor is good. We can walk or ride a bicycle for that. By doing this, we can have new environment, and of course burn some calories.
Share our feelings. This is what I usually do when I feel bored or angry. I prefer to write and post my article in this blog. I and express my feeling easily and let other people give sugggestions or comments. This is good for controlling our unstable emotions. We can also read blogs or websites that contain information about health and diabetes to widen our knowledge.
So, controlling blood sugar level and curing diabetes does not always have to do with insulin injection and measurement of blood glocuse. Most often it is related to how we control our mind.

Beat Type 2 Diabetes by Simply Changing your Nutrition Lifestyle

by Charles Roring, Manokwari Indonesia

People who are overweight can easily suffer from diabetes. In my previous article, I said that type 2 diabetes can be cured if we are able to change our lifestyle. Our sedentary life is a common phenomenon all around the world. Being more active every day is good for hour health but it is not enough. We need to do more than that to cure diabetes.

Another strategy or program that we must implement in order to prevent or cure diabetes is changing our nutrition lifestyle. If we are now overweight, there are several things that we must do:
Lose seven to ten percent of your initial weight if you are overweight. It is not an easy task. You need to have regular exercise and eat less but healthy food. Banish all things from your surrounding environment which can tempt you of eating more food. If you usually put snacks beside your sofa or hamburger on the kitchen table, remove them and put them in the refrigerator. Put fresh flowers instead so that your nose will inhale the nice fragrant of the flowers.
Lower your consumption of sweetened bavarages. High blood sugar level in your body is sometimes caused by frequently drinking sprite, coca cola or pepsi or fruit juice. You need to reduce them. If you drink too much sweetened bavarage, your pancreas will have to work harder for producing insulin that is needed to stabilize your blood glucose. It is not surprising that one or two hours after drinking sprite, you will feel thirsty again. So, just drink water when you are thirsty. Beta cells in the pancreas will not be forced to produce a lot of insulin when you only drink water.
Eat several small meals. Eating three small meals every day is better than eating two large portion meals that will force your pancreas to produce insulin. When you eat meals in smaller portion, you will feel much healthier. In addition your work performance will get better because you can easily concentrate while working. Most people will feel sleepy after eating a lot of food during lunch hour.
The next thing that you must do in order to prevent or cure diabetes is including more fiber in your food. More fiber means more vegetables. Raw or fresh vegetables are good for your health. Fiber can satisfy hunger. In addition it can lower your bad cholesterol and blood sugar level. If you usually drink juice, the next time when you go to the supermarket just buy fruit. Eating fruit is better than drinking juice. There are a lot of fibers in a fresh fruit. They are good for cleaning your digestive system.
The last but not the least is being more active. I have explained this in my previous article entitled Beating Type 2 Diabetes by Changing Lifestyle. Spend at least thirty minutes walking or doing physical activities. Your body metabolism will get improved if you are more active in your life.

Beating Type 2 Diabetes by Changing Lifestyle

by Charles Roring in Manokwari West Papua Indonesia
The most important thing that we must do to beat diabetes is changing our lifestyle. Our sedentary life has caused the rising of blood sugar level in our body. We eat more calories but we burn less. As its impact, we become overweight. If we are serious in controlling our blood glucose level, we must balance the input and output of our calories. We need to be more active.
Simple exercises can reduce our blood sugar level closer to normal and improve our health. When at home, instead of pressing remote controller, we can walk to the TV set and turn up its volume. We can also walk around the house in the morning and do the gardening at the backyard on weekends.
If we have a cooler box next to our sofa where we keep soft-drinks, peanuts and chocolate, we have to remove them. When we are hungry or thirsty, we just walk to the kitchen, and take apple or guava in the refrigerator. Eating fruit is better than drinking juice. If we drink sweet juice, sometimes our blood glucose level is rising above normal level.
To add more activities at home, maybe such equipment as vacuum cleaner, and dish washer should be kept in the storeroom. We can wash the dishes manually, or sweep the floor using a traditional broom. By doing these physical activities we will feel better and at the same time reduce our electrical bill.
Don't only think that the physical activities are only limited to house chores. We can add more physical activities when we go to work. Some people ride bicycles, and others walk. This depends on the distance between one's home and his or her office. If we work in the city, we can avoid using the elevator. We can use the stairs. During lunch time, we can walk for five to ten minutes around our office building, instead of just sitting and talking with our coworkers. We can ask them to walk with us too. If they ask why, just explain that it is useful for our health and mind.
For elderly people, jogging can be fun but dangerous. Consult with your doctor, if you intend to jog in the morning or afternoon. Maybe he will need to perform some medical assessment especially on your heart condition. He might give some advice on the use of shoes, seamless socks and better cushioned sport-shoes if you jog or walk longer distance. Don't force yourself into strenuous exercises. They maybe harmful to your body.

The Magical Power of Forest in Healing Diabetes

by Charles Roring, Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia

Perhaps many of you do not know that forest can stabilize our blood glucose and cure diabetes. I know a wealthy businessman who quit working in the city and live near a forest in Minahasa North Sulawesi. His name is Sammy.
When he had been diagnosed of suffering type 2 diabetes, he asked his doctor about the best solution for his problem. The doctor said that he had to quit smoking, he had to exercise more to reduce his blood glucose level. And he had to stop doing vigorous works.
Sammy is a rich man, he has a factory, two resorts, and one stable. He also has a large farming land with the size of 200 hectares.
His younger brother had been suffering from type 2 diabetes and was now blind.
Sammy was afraid that he would experience the same thing. He had done all his doctor advice. When he came again to check his health in the hospital, his blood glucose level did not change much.
When he found out that all his efforts to control his blood sugar level had failed him, he decided to fly to his hometown trying to find a traditional medicine for curing his diabetes.
He was there for one week. He walked through the tropical rainforest, working in farmland, meeting his relatives and friends which he had left for years. When he returned to Jakarta for checking up his health, he got a surprising result. His blood sugar has dropped to slightly above the normal level.
The next day, he made up his mind. He called his manager and appointed him as the new Chief Executive Officer of the stainless steel factory. He bought a new house in Minahasa and began living an ordinary life.
He liked walking around the nearby forest. When he was in the forest he could breath pure and clean air. He could listen to the natural songs sung by various birds, the sound of leaves blown by the wind and the sound of water flowing along a small stream.

This is a natural relaxation that relieve stress from his body and mind. This is the magical power of a forest that can bring everyone who walks under its canopy closer to nature besides the healing power the forest provide through its Papuan red fruit that can normalise the blood glucose level of patients with diabetes.

This magical healing power is now getting weaker due to the rapid deforestation of most of the tropical rainforests around the equator.

Export of Non Wood Products from Papuan Forest Should be Encouraged

by Charles Roring

Theoretically, Papua has 31.5 million hectares of forest area. This figure is getting lower day by day due to irresponsible deforestation and conversion to palm oil and rice field.

In my previous article, I mentioned about the need to certify Papuan forests for carbon capture so that the carbon offsets from this island can be sold to global carbon market.

It needs experience company such as Global Carbon to help the indigenous people to achieve this goal.Other scheme which is possible to be implemented in Papua is the harvesting of non wood products such as masoi and kulilawang barks, red fruit, sarang semut and rattan, and gaharu. These commodities can provide sustainable economic improvements for most of the villagers living near the forest.To optimise the harvest of the products, we must help them in improving their products quality, harvesting practices that are not harmful to the environment. In addition, the non wood products which these indigenous people harvest from their forest should sell in good price. It means the distribution chains from the producers to consumers should be as short as possible.Papuan villagers can be organized to form community cooperatives so that all their non - wood products can easily be collected for export.Most of the complaints which I found among the villagers are related to the selling price which commodity traders gave to them for the masoi, kulilawang, and gaharu wood that they sell. They said that the price is low.On the other hand, commodity traders who came to Papua complain that the quality of the products the villagers sell are not high enough. They need to re-process them. For instance a very good quality Masoi oil is worthy of 200 US dollar/ kilogram. Such price is better than the recent leasing price of a hectare of tropical rainforest for palm oil plantation.

BP LNG Tangguh, Doubling Natural Gas Reserve Doubling Green House Gas Emission

by Charles Roring, Manokwari West Papua

Papua island has one of the most important last remaining tropical rainforests in the world. It is located in the Pacific region between Asia and Australia. This forest works as "respirator" that absorbs or captures huge amount of world's CO₂ emission produced by human activities. While it is shrinking rapidly due to irresponsible logging, in recent years, the burden the Papuan forest bears is getting heavier. It has to neutralize additional CO_2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions from Berau bay.

The Location of BP LNG Tangguh Project

Source: Tangguh LNG Commercial Success in a Challenging Environment

One of the most important mining projects in West Papua - Indonesia is BP LNG Tangguh. It is located in Berau bay of birds head region of the island. Next year, it will begin exporting LNG to China, Korea, Mexico and probably other emerging markets in Asia. Although there are many problems related to environmental issues, and claims from indigenous tribes living around the bay over a fair compensation, BP considers this project a commercial success. This can be read in a paper written by Jim Egger, Vice President of Tangguh LNG Marketing entitled Tangguh LNG: Commercial Success in a Challenging Environment.

Source: Tangguh LNG Commercial Success in a Challenging Environment

In August 1998, subsidiaries of BG plc and ARCO announced in a press release that the proven gas reserves in three Production Sharing Contracts had more than doubled. From the previously certified 14.4 trillion cubic feet, the additional proved and probable reserve was 18.3 tcf. But this huge amount of natural gas stream contains approximately 12.5% or 4.08 tcf CO_2e.

When the LNG plant in Berau or Bintuni bay starts to produce LNG, it will have to separate the CO₂ from the natural gas stream. According to AMDAL study document, tens of thousand tons of CO₂ will be released annually by the project into the atmosphere. This green house gas will spread to the surrounding tropical rainforest of the island. When high concentration of carbon dioxide is found in the atmosphere, it will raise the temperature and create acid rain that may be harmful to plant leaves and animals in the region.

There has to be a win-win solution to this problem. There are several options which BP can choose, some of them are re-injecting the carbon dioxide to the ground or to deep sea; capturing the CO₂ for growing algae that can be used for making bio-fuel, or buying the carbon offset from the indigenous tribes who are the real owners of the forest around the LNG plant. The cheapest option will be purchasing the carbon offsets. The money that the indigenous tribes receive can be used to improve their education and health facilities or run businesses that are not related to logging activities thus preventing deforestation. Therefore, it is the moral obligation of the British Petroleum to help the local people in the bay certify their forests for Emission Reductions. Purchasing carbon offset from the indigenous tribes living in the Berau bay is a win-win solution or the most acceptable scheme which BP should do to answer questions related to its CO_2e emissions in Papua.

Irresponsible Logging the Main Cause of Rapid Deforestation in West Papua

by Charles Roring, Manokwari, West Papua

Papuan forest continues to shrink rapidly due to irresponsible logging. We definitely have to stop this. Here in Papua, logging is legal if loggers have got the license to do so. To obtain a license letter, loggers must pay certain amount of money to forestry agency as contribution to the state for every log they cut. Being a legal logger does not mean that somebody is a responsible one.In recent days the demand for wood in local market is getting higher caused by rapid increase of population in Papua. Such increase is not caused by the improvement in birth rate of native people but more on the massive influx of migrants from other parts of Indonesian islands. I said earlier that the higher the population, the higher the demand for wood as construction material. According supply and demand law, the price of wooden blocks and planks in local market is going up.Another factor for the increase of logging activities in Papua is the practice of logging companies that continue their operation using the reason of opening roads to remote villages in the isolated interior region. While the width of the roads is only four meters, in practice, the width made by the cutting of the trees can reach up to twenty or thirty meters.In my previous article I emphasized my rejection on the conversion of Papuan tropical rainforest into massive monoculture Sawit Plantation using a leasing scheme. The continuous rising of the price of fossil fuel has triggered the use of palm oil for making biodiesel. Supporters of biodiesel say that by increasing the percentage of bio-fuel such as bio-ethanol and bio-diesel in our vehicles, we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuel thus making significant reduction in CO_2e

emissions.

I don't think such perception is true. I don't reject bio-ethanol and bio-diesel projects. What I reject is the deforestation of the pristine rainforest both in West Papua and Brazil and many other regions around the world where there are forests. Sawit is a native plant of Africa. It should not be introduced massively into South East Asia region. Such invasive plants will harm the whole ecosystem of the region.If bio-ethanol companies want to make environmentally friendly bio-fuel products and at the same time improve the living condition of the Papuans, they could take advantage the available Arenga Pinnata forest located along the rivers and the swampy areas in Southern Papua. Huge areas of Aren trees (Arenga Pinnata) can produce millions of liters of sweet sap every day. If bio-ethanol companies really want to take it. They don't have to cut any single tree from the region. They can harvest the sap to produce bio ethanol and at the same time hire the local people for collecting the sap. In addition, these plants are native ones and have thrived in the region for hundreds or even thousands of years. The taking of Aren sap will not destroy the environment.Or they can move on to another innovative project such as utilizing the CO₂ wastes for growing algae plantation in the Berau bay of West Papua. An LNG plant operated by British Petroleum produces 12.5% of its natural gas stream in the form of CO₂ that is released into the air. Bio-fuel company like PT Medco Papua Hijau Selaras should work together with BP LNG Tangguh in producing bio-fuel from algae that needs a lot of CO₂. I think this is one of the best alternatives that bio-fuel companies should do to achieve their goal and at the same save the earth from global warming.Technorati : deforestation

The leasing of Papuan Tropical Rainforest, too low for compensation, too stupid for conversion

by Charles Roring from Manokwari West Papua

In my previous post I criticized about how unfair and unwise the leasing of Papuan forest in Manokwari, West Papua is. A palm oil plantation company named PT Medco Papua Hijau Selaras has reached an agreement with families of the indigenous tribes in Manokwari for the leasing of a total land area of 5,930 hectares for Sawit Plantation. The company has begun paying Rp. 450,000 or around 36 US dollars per hectare once for 35 years. It is the same as Rp. 45 per square meter. For me, it is CRAZY and it makes me angry.

Through this posting I appeal to environmental groups in local, national and international levels to take actions to save this last remaining tropical rainforest in the world beside the Amazon of Brazil.
Until now, the company has been preparing sawit seedlings. Next year they will begin logging and clearing the land and possibly start planting the sawit seedlings.
It seems that local government officials do not see this as a serious problem. As they don't have any comprehensive plan to lift these indigenous Papuan tribes from poverty, they tend to invite as many investors as possible to the area without looking into details of how these investors take advantage of the Papuan natural resources, for instance, from logging these 5,930 hectares alone, the company will get a lot  of profit. When the seedling starts to grow, they can sell the carbon offset to world market if they successfully get the certification for carbon capture.
Scheme such as eco-tourism where travelers can enjoy bird watching and orchid observation is considered not important due to its tiny or no contribution to government's budget. Another option such as selling carbon offset to carbon market is seen as a complicated one.
While Papuan rainforest has been the respirator that absorb million tons of the world's CO2e emission for hundreds years, the world has not done enough to protect it. We need immediate actions to provide alternatives to the conversion of tens of thousands of hectares of this pristine rainforest into a monoculture palm oil plantation.
We cannot only shout "stop logging the Papuan rainforest, stop converting it to sawit plantation, stop clearing the swampy sago trees area for rice fields." We have to move out from these old jargons. We know that these indigenous Papuan needs improvements in their living condition. We must help them from giving up their lands to sawit plantation and rice fields which are not native plants for Papua.
I know that some groups in Papua have begun extracting the wealth of Papuan forest by harvesting its  non-wood products such as Red Fruit, and Sarang Semut, and Masoi bark for medicinal products. Some travel agencies in Europe also have done their best by selling tour package to those who want to watch exotic paradise bird and bower bird perform their courtship dance or observe wild orchid. We need more sustainable schemes to support the indigenous people.
Well, more things need to be done ranging from helping the local indigenous people to certify their forest for selling carbon offset where the money can be used to improve their education and health facilities, to inviting more eco-travelers to Papua.
But the most important thing that we must do now is stopping the clearing of thousands hectares of this Papua forest into monoculture sawit plantation. Somebody out there, do something!
Also read:  Irresponsible Logging the Main Cause of Deforestation

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working at Home

by Charles Roring from Manokwari West Papua

In my previous article I emphasized the importance of writing a business plan when we want to open a home business. Now I am writing some of my personal experiences about working at home to make money. I am going to discuss about the advantageous and disadvantages of running a home business.

First, the advantages, when you have made up your mind that you want to make money from home, you will have to see the advantageous side. It is clear that working from home will save you a lot of money, especially the cost of transportation. If you are an office worker, you must wake up early in the morning. You will always move in a hurry if you wake up late. If not, you will get to work late. Your employer or colleagues will complain about it. When you work at home running your own business, you will be your own boss. No one will complain if you wake up late. But I suggest that you set up a regular business hours so that your customers will not complain. Be a professional business owner even when you run a business from your backyard. When you open your business from a garage in the morning, wear a proper dress. Don't only wear a short and T-shirt if you plan your company is an engineering consultant or a language course. In addition of being your own boss, you will have more time to look after your family. You can do some housework while working although I don't recommend this thing. Some housewives look after their babies while typing on the computer designing web or sending e-mails to prospective customers. It is important to run your business professionally. If possible separate the private domain from company domain.

Second, the disadvantages, it is clear that there are some inconveniences which you might experience when setting up a home business. Usually, you will have to sacrifice some of your family privacy. This is one thing that many home business owners like to complain. There are times when customers call to yur home while you are sleeping. Although you have closed your door, they could see that the lights at your living room still on and they will ring the doorbell. The worst case is when there are some arguments between you and one of the family members, your clients will be much affected. Another problem is mixed administration. This is something that you have to avoid if you want to build a professional company. Separate the money of the company from the household.

As a solution, try to separate your office with your home. There has to be a clear partition for that. If your office is a garage then your customer cannot go beyond that area. Then, you must state a clear working hours both on the name plank of your company hanging outside of your house or at the door, or even at your business card. If possible, provide a separate telephone and fax lines. When you have closed your office, then you will only receive calls at home.  If you really want to have a professional business, do your business during business hours and take after your family during the family hours. Don't mix them or your family will be jeopardized.

Write a business plan for your home business

by Charles Roring

Many people seem to forget how important a business plan is. They usually think like this, "Well, I just started my home business with very small capital. I don't think I need a business plan. I will not be able to work from home if I have to spend more time writing my business plan." In my opinion, a business plan doesn't have to be a comprehensive book which explains how you run your business in every detail. What you need is a simple business plan which you can make it as a roap map to making money from home.

A good business plan must contain answers to the following questions:

What business are you in? Whether your business ideas are about designing a website, running a guitar course from your garage, or selling flower seeds through the internet. You must explain them on the first chapter of your business plan. Inside this chapter you need to give detail explanation about kinds of your products and services.

The next question which you have to answer is: who are my competitors? You need to know your competitior so that you can make some adjustments in the pricing, quality and marketing strategy.

How should you utilized your resources? This question will help you make list of your personal belongings which you still keep on the attic of your house and which can still be used for running your business. Resources are not limited to things in your home, it can be your backyard if you intend to sell flower seed.

The last but not the least is what is your business's profit potential. Know your potential markets. Write them in your business plan together with the projected profit. Make some pre-calculation about the cost of equipment, raw material (for instance if you are interested to make doll) and the advertisement. Make sure that your expenses should not be higher than your projected profit for any item that you intend to make. If the cost of production is higher then the selling price of your product will be expensive. Compare the price of your products with similar ones available on the market. Your products should be on the competitive price to sell well.

So, making money from home is a challenging experience. You become the boss. 

If you are still confused about writing a business plan for your home business, try to find some samples from the internet. There are many websites that provide sample business plans plus consulting services. You can also join list whose members are home business owners. You can share ideas, and information and if possible open more ways to cooperation.  

The Largest Marine Park in Indonesia - Cendrawasih bay

by Charles Roring
Cendrawasih Bay National Marine Park occupies 1,453,500 ha. It is the largest marine park in Indonesia. Geographically it is located between 1° 43'- 3°22' LS dan 134°06' – 135°10' BT. Administratively it is under two regencies, i.e. Wondama Bay and Nabire. Around 80 percent of the marine park is under the jurisdiction of Wondama Bay Regency.
The Cendrawasih Bay National Marine Park stretches from Cape Kwatisore in the south to Rumberpon island in the north. It also covers 500 kilometers of beautiful beach of West Papua island, as the mother island. Coral reefs, which are world class diving paradise, are scaterred in 18 islands of the core zone, protected zone, and limited exploitation zone. The 18 islands are Nuburi, Pepaya, Nutabari, Kumbur, Anggromeos, Kabuoi, Rorado, Kuwom, Matas, Rouw, Iwaru, Rumarakon, Nusambier, Maransabadi, Nukup, Paison, Numerai, and Wairundi.
Rumberpon island
This island is located in the north of Wondama Bay Regency near the border of Manokwari regency. This island has beautiful white sandy beach. The length of the beach is 6,000 meters. The island is surrounded with 100 meters flat reef up to the edge of the walls. The water is clear so, people can enjoy the colorful reef from their boat. It takes 5.5 hours by boat to reach the island from Manokwari. Tourists can also see various birds and animals such as eagle, deer, kuskus. In certain month, turtles come to its shore to lay their eggs.

Nusrowi island
It is located in the west of Rumberpon island. It is only a small island. The waters around it is shallow and full of various kinds of fish schooling among the reef.

Nukusa island
It is located in the south of Rumberpon island. The slope reef, mostly granulatus and acropora tabulate, is beautiful.It is a good island for diving.

Mioswar island
The island is within the administration of District of Wamesa. Hot water flows out from the ground. The spring is around 300 meters from the beach. There is a historic cave where you can see carved box, antique plates, and human bones. Besides enjoying the thermal spring water, and the cave, visitors can see waterfall or dive to enjoy the beauty of the reef of the island. Bats (pteropus sp.) live there too.

Roon island
It is located in the northern part of Wandamen peninsula. Villagers built their houses on the water. There is an old church with a 1898 bible. You can do the diving and snorkeling here.

Aitumeri hill
It is a historic hill for West Papuan people. Here, the Dutch used to run an educational center. The best Papuan intellectuals used to come from this hill. It is considered the entry point to Modern Civilisation for Papuan.

The objective of the establishment of the park is to maintain and preserve the diversity of flora and fauna in the region. This marine park supports the environment and the people who live in the region. Sustainalbe exploitation of the regions and waters adjacent to it will be better if the marine park is well protected. The Cendrawasih bay national marine park has 1.385.300 Ha sea area including 80,000 hectares of coral reefs. The park is also important for such activities as research, science and education, aquaculture, eco-tourism and recreation.

New Threat to Papuan Tropical Rain Forest in Manokwari West Papua

by Charles Roring The photographs that you see below were taken in the Prafi area of Manokwari. The first photo was about the palm oil plantation that belongs to PT Perkebunan II and the second was about the logging business in the concession area of PT Medco Papua Hijau Selaras. Logging both legal and illegal has been a major threat to tropical rainforest in West Papua and Papua New Guinea. Logs taken by timber companies are sold in markets of Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and even to China. I am sad to see that day by day Papuan tropical rainforest continues to shrink rapidly. While timber companies enjoy high profit from this wood business, the indigenous people only receive very small fraction of the revenue their forest creates from logging. Actually, there is no revenue sharing in logging business in West Papua. What the indigenous people receive is tiny compensation compared to the price of wood in national and international market. Besides threat from logging, the increasing influx of migrants in West Papua creates increasing demands in wooden planks and blocks for housing material. More people mean more houses. The price of 1 cubic meter of merbau wooden blocks is around 120 US dollars in local market or even several times higher than that. This amount of money is considered high. As a result more people decide to enter the logging business. To get higher profit, they prefer to bribe the security personnel and smuggle the logs to towns late at night. By doing this they don't have to pay contribution to the forestry agency. It is not surprising to see that the illegal loggers have never faced severe punishment.   Another threat to Papuan forest is conversion to Palm oil plantation. National companies began opening Palm or Sawit oil plantation in around 1990s in Arso area of Jayapura and in Prafi valley of Manokwari. Again very little compensation was paid to the land owners. In recent video interviews made by Kevin and Darcy from Canada, the tribal chief in Prafi expressed his regret of selling his land in very cheap price for the sawit palm plantation. He said that the local people do not get significant benefit from that business. Many return to their vegetable and sweet potato patch. Although the sawit plantation run by PTP 2 - a state owned palm oil company in Prafi Manokwari, has shown its failure, another company named Medco has entered the region and began leasing thousands of hectares of land in Manokwari only for Rp. 450,000 or 36 US dollars per hectare for 35 years. The company will enjoy millions of rupiahs from logging the huge forested land areas that is rich of natural biodiversity before converting it into monoculture sawit plantation. This does not include the possibility of selling carbon offsets once the sawit seedlings start to grow. The pristine tropical rainforest in Sidey Manokwari will soon be jeopardized and converted into massive palm oil plantation with very little benefit to the local people. According to Cahaya Papua, a local newspaper in Manokwari, Medco has began paying 850 million rupiahs for the leasing of 1,896 hectares in Sidey of Manokwari West Papua. In 9-11 December 2008, it will pay 1.3 billion rupiahs for the leasing of 2,890 hectares in Masni of Manokwari. There will be another leasing of 280 hectares of land area in Pantura of Manokwari regency of West Papua.  Through this posting in my blog, I appeal to Green Peace, Down To Earth and any green support groups around the world to take serious actions to prevent this pristine Papuan forest from being converted to Palm Oil Plantation.  Also read:   The Leasing of Papuan Tropical Rainforest - Too Low for Compensation Too Stupid for Conversion Irresponsible Logging the Main Cause for Deforestation

Make Money from Home by Running a Language Course

by Charles Roring, Manokwari West Papua Indonesia

I used to teach English for young learners. If you could teach English, Mathematics or music lesson, then you can use the skill to get money. I personally didn't teach at home. I used to run an English school in Malang. Its name is Englishland. We had up to 100 students with monthly income of 9 to 11 million rupiahs. It is more than enough for an English teacher living in Indonesia. You could do the same with your skill or expertise. Running a home business by opening a computer course or web design course in your garage is also a good choice.

Usually local government will easily release a permit for that. As long as they see that your business gives significant contribution to people or young people living around your house, you will get support from your neighbors.

What you need to prepare when opening a private lesson or course at home. First is classroom. You also need table(s), chairs, and whiteboard for teaching and learning activities. If you have enough money to provide them, then you will have to prepare the teaching material. This include textbook, workbook, CD player and if possible computer (if the class that you are about to open is webdesign course). So, the facilities that you need to provide depend on the types of course that you want to give.

The next step to running a home business is reaching your potential customers. You can place announcement in front of your home, a big banner if you like saying that you open registration for those who are interested in taking an webdesign course. You could also advertise your course in local newspaper or magazine. Sometimes local churches have billboards which you can put your announcement on them.

The revenue that you get should cover your living expenses for three months which is usually the period of one level course. You can charge lower course fee if you intend to open two or three classes. You need to teach twice or three times a day - one in the morning and two in the afternoon and in the evening. If you can open upto three classes, your revenue will be very high, sometimes the same as a top government employee.

In Asian countries like China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, becoming an English teacher is the most preferred profession for native speakers. They come to these countries, buy a big house and run an English course. If they are serious, they can turn a small home based English course into a multi-million dollar language school with branches in many countries.

So, don't look down at home based language course

Carbon offset from West Papua, an attractive business yet complicated one

by Charles Roring in Manokwari West Papua
Papua island has one of the best tropical rainforest in the world beside Amazon of Brazil. It absorbs million tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) while at the same time emits oxygen which all the living beings need. Papua island administratively is ruled by two states i.e. Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. The tropical rainforest of Papua as one of the world respirators or air filters attract carbon trader to buy its carbon offsets and sell it again in the voluntary market where multinational companies can buy them. One carbon offset equals to one metric ton of CO2 equivalent emission. The price for one offset is between 21 and 24 Euros according to European emission allowances for 2008 - 2012. It is considered cheaper for multi national companies that release tens of thousands tons of CO2 emission into the atmosphere. They can continue running their factories, or refineries without have to install expensive carbon capture and reinjection plant.

When carbon traders are looking eagerly to buy Carbon offset from Papua island. The indigenous tribes who are the real owner of the forest do not know about it. Indonesia recognize and respect the communal rights of the Papuan tribes who have lived in this densely tropical rainforest for years. These tribes do not know if they can get money by selling carbon offset. From all the tribes that I know, only one tribe in South Sorong whose chief is an intellectual knows about it. He has written a letter to a multinational company that operates in Berau bay asking about the priority to buy carbon offset from the indigenous people who live in the bay as the real owner of the forest and whose rainforest is much affected by CO2 emission the multinational company has released.
It is important of traders who want to buy carbon offset in West Papua to also involve the tribal chiefs who own the land and the forest. They cannot only approach local government officials and university staff for buying the carbon offset of Papuan forest. I just read a news story in local newspaper, Cahaya Papua which says that Global Carbon intends to buy carbon offset from West Papua. I have to inform them through this blog that they also have to know the real owners of the forest to avoid any conflicts in the future. Papua island consists of tribes whose territories had been delineated by Dutch anthropologist. Local government know the territorial boundaries of every tribes. It is better to know these boundaries before deciding to buy the carbon offset. The last thing which I have to say here is that large portion of the money has to go to the indigenous people who own the land and the forest.

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What we can do to preserve coral reef

by Charles Roring in Manokwari West Papua

Coral reef is one of the most important ecosystems in the world. It is more diverse than any tropical rainforest around the world. In recent days, many corals have died due to garbages thrown to the sea and destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling and blast fishing. In general the greatest threat which coral reef ecosystem face is more related to global warming. 

So, divers are not the only ones who bear the responsibility in protecting the coral reef. All of us are responsible for that. Reducing CO2 emission is one of the ways that we can do to preserve coral reef ecosystem. Therefore the use of renewable energy other than fossil fuel is highly recommended. We can also improve our environment by biking to work or school. The higher the amount of CO2 that we can reduce the better the coral reef environment can become.

Coral reef is home to various kinds of fish and marine animals. The destruction of the coral for souvenir will be the destruction of the whole marine ecosytem thus endangering the survivability of endangered marine animals such as dugong dugong, turtles and whales. It is important for city dwellers to recylcle their domestic wastes as they will be the real threats to coral reef. One plastic tote bag can cover a fifty year old coral thus blocking the sunlight it needs to do the photosynthesis. Beach clean up should be conducted regulary especially in cities that are located along the beach.

In addition to develop an environmental friendly lifestyle, we can support a number of projects which aim at preserving the coral reef environment. Although we are not divers, we can log on to certain marine protected areas websites and buy their entrance tickets. By doing so, we have directly give our financial contribution to projects such as turtle conservation, beach clean up and coral reef preservation works.

Pacific islands have coral reefs that are still in pristine condition. Some of the best coral reefs can be found in Raja Ampat, Cendrawasih National Marine Park, Mapia island of Biak, Palau island. Global community must pay attention to this region by giving support to the preservation works. Some diving operators have been opened in Raja Ampat islands but more attention should also be given to improve the economic condition of the villagers living in the area so that they will have better life without having to do destructive fishing practices.

The last important thing which we can do to protect coral reef is by avoiding to by sea products that are related to the destruction of coral reef. These products include ornamental fish and corals for aquarium. Necklaces, or bracelet whose materials are made of reef species. .