Skip to content
  • Who we are
    • About Us
    • Our Partners
    • Contact us
  • What we do
    • We Learn
    • We Protect
    • We Restore
    • We Inspire
  • Act Now
    • Donate
    • Fundraise for us
    • Partner with us
    • Field Courses
    • Shop & Support
    • Back a Campaign
  • Stories
  • Login
  • Who we are
    • About Us
    • Our Partners
    • Contact us
  • What we do
    • We Learn
    • We Protect
    • We Restore
    • We Inspire
  • Act Now
    • Donate
    • Fundraise for us
    • Partner with us
    • Field Courses
    • Shop & Support
    • Back a Campaign
  • Stories
  • Login
donate now
  • Community Development
  • | Written by Admin

Weaving Hope for the Future

Gray clouds blanketed Palangka Raya that morning, as we drove 20 minutes from the city center to the village of Kereng Bangkirai in the nearby Sebangau District. Getting out of the car, we crossed a rickety walkway over the peat-swamp to a small wooden house, propped up on stilts above the black water.

Women’s laughter could be heard from within. Glancing through the window, we saw a group of ladies sitting and weaving together, while others spread plant fibers out to dry at the back of the house. The women were here to make purun bags, a sustainable alternative to the plastic polybags often used in large-scale planting projects.

The bags will be purchased in bulk by the Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) for their 1 Million Trees reforestation initiative, which aims to plant 1,000,000 trees in fire-damaged rainforest by 2025. Purun (Lepironia articulata) is a grass-like plant, commonly found in peat-swamp habitats. It is also a popular natural material for weaving crafts, used to make everything from hats to baskets.

Drying Purun
Making Polybags Purun

Jaliah, the house’s owner, and a mother with decades of experience in the art of weaving, explained the process of making polybags in detail. The purun she and the other ladies were using was collected just 15 minutes away by klotok boat, taken from the swamp and brought here for processing.

The purun is washed with lime powder and ashes, before being left to dry for several days until its fibers fade from green to a light brown. “If the weather is hot and sunny, two days is usually enough,” Jaliah added.

Once the purun is dry, she continued, we pound it with a wooden mortar to flatten the stems. Then the strands are ready to be woven into polybags.

See also: Back to Earth, Replacing Plastic Polybags with Purun

“In accordance with BNF’s needs, the polybags are made to measure roughly seven centimeters across. However, since we weave manually without a machine, there will be some variation in the size of each bag,” Jaliah said.

In a single day, Jaliah can produce up to 10 polybags. For her, weaving purun is like weaving hope for the future. As well as providing additional income for local families, every seedling planted in these purun bags represents regrowth and hope for Borneo’s forests. “If the seedlings grow successfully, we are all happy because the forest will be green again,” Jaliah concluded with a smile.

Purun for Polybags

Purun decomposes quickly to become a natural fertilizer, which makes it especially suitable for use in planting polybags. The broken-down purun bags will help nourish the seedlings, allowing them to grow big and strong.

“Plastic polybags have to be removed before planting, whereas purun polybags can be planted along with the seedlings,” explained Aman, one of BNF’s habitat restoration staff.

“Seedlings planted in purun bags grow faster and taller. While using plastic polybags can stress the plants, causing them to die more easily, purun helps to store water in the soil and improves seedling survival rates,” said Aman.

In short, using purun as an alternative to plastic polybags reduces plastic waste, creates a natural fertilizer to enhance seedling survival, and supports sustainable business initiatives led by local women. 

In 2022, approximately 150,000 native tree seedlings have been planted in rehabilitation zones of the Sebangau National Park. These seeds are part of BNF’s #1MillionTrees program to restore the peatland ecosystem.

See also: Restoring Ecosystem with Native Plants

Written by: Yohanes Prahara, Content Creator and Media Liaison BNF Indonesia

Photo by: Yohanes Prahara/BNF Indonesia

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • December 22, 2022
3 min read
Share to:
Categories:
  • Community Development
MAKE THE CONNECTION.

Get updates from rainforest, job opps, ways to acts and more with our monthly(ish) action letter. 

"(Required)" indicates required fields

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related Posts

  • Community Development, Conservation
  • - March 8, 2025

Women’s welfare and wildlife

In Borneo and around the world, women are a driving force for conservation in their communities. Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the vital

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - October 12, 2023

The Hope of the Himba Tabalien Guardians

“Bawi Kuwu Tumbang Rakumpit,Hantelu Nyahu Ngatuntung Langit.Intan Emas Nihau Bahirit,Manganjang Lewu Tumbang Rakumpit.” Abner Dius could be heard singing in the traditional sackut style as

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - January 30, 2023

Getting to Know Local Food

As well as supporting much of Earth’s biodiversity, forest ecosystems are an important source of human livelihood. For this reason, Borneo’s tropical rainforests are regarded

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - October 13, 2022

Caring for the Earth with Permaculture

The past few decades have seen the rapid advancement of agricultural technology, with widespread use of genetic engineering and chemical fertilisers. However, many movements are

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - July 12, 2022

Learning Culture with the Spirit of Isen Mulang

They came on motorbikes, pulling up to meet us in a Palangka Raya City Park. These five young people — Prilicia, Fani, Dian, Hasyim, and

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - January 4, 2022

Indigenous People and Nature

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING KALIMANTAN’S FOREST In the midst of the hustle and bustle of ecological problems, the recognition of the role of indigenous peoples

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - October 28, 2021

Farming the Ancestors’ Way

TRADITIONAL DAYAK FARMING AND SHIFTING CULTIVATION Farming is a way of survival that has existed for thousands of years in the archipelago. There are various

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - September 27, 2021

Keeping the Veins of Black Water

The river is like a vein and the forest is the heart. When the arteries are damaged, the heart slowly stops functioning. A heart that

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - August 15, 2021

Caring for Village Forests

Written by Yohanes Prahara, BNF’s Content Creator and Media Liaison That afternoon the sun was furious, the heat making the eyes sting and the skin

Read more

  • Community Development
  • - May 6, 2021

Surviving a Pandemic through Permaculture

Permaculture is an alternative livelihood solution during the pandemic Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic has become a global disaster that has hit all parts of the

Read more

  • Community Development, Firefighting and Prevention
  • - July 21, 2020

Prosperity without Burning the Land

The dry season has arrived. As in previous years, forest and land fire disasters begin in the dry season, threatening Central Kalimantan. In addition to

Read more

  • Community Development, Conservation
  • - April 22, 2020

Back to Earth, Replacing Plastic Polybags with Purun

For a long time, Dayak people have used natural materials to craft the tools they need everyday, including hats, sleeping equipment, baskets, and even bags.

Read more

CASH IS A FORCE FOR GOOD; FUND ACTION ON ALL FRONTS
DONATE NOW

We collaborate to protect Borneo’s rainforest, one of the most important on Earth, with science, community-led action and education; for a world where people and nature thrive.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Login
  • Donate
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Login
  • Donate
  • Annual Reports
  • Policies
  • Annual Reports
  • Policies
Facebook-f Youtube X-twitter Instagram Linkedin-in
© 2025 Borneo Nature Foundation. All rights reserved.