Four years ago, then West Lampung regent Erwin Nizar asked the Home Ministry to let the regency lead the way as a conservation-based regency, a move prompted by its abundance of forested areas.

Of the 495,000 hectares of forest in West Lampung, 76 percent are national parks, protected forests and limited production forests.

Despite this figure, more than 50 percent of the wooded areas in West Lampung have been severely damaged by illegal logging, funded by financiers from outside the province.

As forested areas in Bukit Barisan National Park are gradually converted into coffee plantations, a large number of local residents remain untouched by the newfound wealth.

Residents and environmental groups have embraced the establishment of West Lampung as a conservation-based regency, especially since farming communities in Lampung are already familiar with the land conservation method, introduced in 1999 and later followed up by community-based forest management.

Rural communities, grouped under farming communities and under the guidance of local NGOs, such as the Watala, were given the right to manage critical forests through the Community-based Forest Program (HKM), in which farming groups are allowed to manage up to 5 hectares of land by employing the mixed-farming method.

In this method, farmers grow a variety of plants, such as the robusta variety of coffee, durian, bananas, silk trees, chillies, peppers and areca nuts, and must also grow hardwood trees in an effort to restore the forest.

"The program carried out by the conservation-based regency is fits well with the HKM. Now farmers can prosper by carrying out forest conservation while farming, especially a few years down the road, when farmers around the forest will also breed goat, thanks to rolling assistance from the West Lampung regency administration and Heifer International Indonesia," says Watala executive director Rini Pahlawanti.

She adds forest conservation is unlikely to be achieved without improving the welfare of the people living around the forest.

"They have witnessed loggers steal trees from protected forests for the past dozens of years. The forest has been depleted but local residents have been blamed and chased off. They remain poor due to the lack of access to resources available in the forest," Rini says.

She says there are now fewer poor residents living around the forest in Way Tenong district, West Lampung.

"Poor residents would certainly receive assistance from their neighbors through the goat-breeding rolling assistance program, from which poor farmers can now improve their welfare by receiving four goats and managing farms located on critical land. And more significantly, they are now aware of the importance of organic farming and drinking milk for a healthy lifestyle," she says.

Heifer International Indonesia country director Henri Sitorus is satisfied with the success achieved by residents of Gunungterang village and other villages around the forests in effectively integrating the conservation program by improving the economies of local households.

"The assistance in the form of 480 heads of the Etawa breed of goats has apparently borne fruit. Many of the first assistance recipients in 2006 are now able to provide four goats to other farmers, and they benefit from goat milk and organic farming," he says.

Gunungterang village administrative secretary Paryoto says farmers can now make higher profits thanks to advances in organic farming. They can cut costs, have begun to adopt a healthier lifestyle, and now reap more profit from their harvests.

Previously, dried robusta coffee beans sold for between Rp 7,000 (60 US cents) and Rp 13,000 per kilogram, but now, by growing coffee organically, the yields are better.

"We usually sell ground organic robusta coffee for Rp 30,000 a kilo. At the Organic Shop chain, organic coffee sells for Rp 40,000 a kilo," says Paryoto, adding that marketing organic produce is not very difficult.

"The Organic Shop in West Lampung and Bandarlampung are ready to accept the produce."

He says organic farming adheres to sustainable farming concepts, in which aspects of natural resource conservation, environmental pollution, product safety for humans, and nutritional value are given high consideration.

"So if you want to be healthy, come to Gunungterang frequently to enjoy organic rice, vegetables, fruit, meat and coffee," he says.