The World's Largest Tree Grows In Religion

Deputy Regent of Agam Irwan Fikri and Forkopimca Tanjungraya are on a large log (Antara/Yusrizal)

LUBUKBASUNG - A medang tree (Litsea Sp) has been growing in a community forest area in Jorong Ambacang, Nagari Koto Malintang, Tanjungraya District, Agam Regency, West Sumatra, since 562 years ago.

The tree grows in the forest around Lake Maninjau, about five kilometers to the north, and is one of the contributors to water sources for the community and the volcanic lake.

The location of the tree is about 700 meters from the last location of parking vehicles or about 15 minutes away with road conditions that are not so difficult to pass.

The large tree which has 516 cubic meters of wood has a diameter of 4.6 meters, a circle of 14 meters, a branch-free height of 34 meters and a height of more than 50 meters.

The calculation was obtained based on the wood cubication formula carried out by the Maninjau Natural Resources Conservation Resort (KSDA) using branch-free diameter and height.

According to the Head of the Natural Resources Conservation Resort (KSDA) Maninjau Ade Putra, this tree is the largest in Indonesia, even in the world because the tane mahota wood in New Zealand is only 4.4 meters long.

The Queets Spruce tree in Olympic National Park, United States, as reported by the Outdoor Project, has a trunk volume of 337 cubic meters.

While the red creek fir tree in the San Juan Valley, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada has a trunk volume of 349 cubic meters, The two towers timber tree in Tasmania, Australia. with a trunk volume of 358 cubic meters.

The wooden tree grows in the community forest and is well maintained by the community as a form of local wisdom from the local community, so that the wooden tree is well preserved until it is big.

"If you find large wooden trees in a protected forest, it's normal, but growing in a community forest is an extraordinary thing," said Ade Putra as quoted by Antara, Monday, May 16.

Wali Nagari Koto Malintang Naziruddin said the tree was first discovered in 2013 after he was sworn in as wali nagari or local traditional village head.

At that time, his party and the nagari apparatus tried to find the potential in the community forest in the area and found six large wood trees.

However, at most there is one tree and the rest are only two to three meters in diameter.

"When it was first discovered, there were a lot of small wood trees growing in the location, so they were surprised to see a large tree. Large trees are about 200 meters apart from one tree to another," he said.

The presence of the large logs produces clean water for five jorongs in Nagari Koto Malintang and a source of water for Lake Maninjau.

Currently the community forest in Nagari Koto Malintang has an area of about 1,800 hectares. In the community forest location, there are also hundreds of durian, Surian and other trees with well-maintained conditions.

There has even been a carrion flower of the Amorphophallus gigas species as high as 4.13 meters or the highest in Indonesia.

However, the corpse flower failed to fully bloom due to high rainfall that hit the area in November 2021.

"The flower failed to bloom and withered. The location of the flower was only about 100 meters from the big wood," he added.

Essential Ecosystem Area

The West Sumatra BKSDA will propose the durian and large medang (Litsea Sp) plantation as an Essential Ecosystem Area (KEE) to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

BKSDA proposed the location as KEE representing terrestrial ecosystems to KLHK in 2022 and the KEE did not change the status of land ownership.

Considerations are proposed to be KEE representative of terrestrial ecosystems, because of the potential for forest ecosystems formed from plant vegetation which is dominated by durian trees.

In addition, based on the identification results in 2020, the location also contains wildlife such as sun bears, deer, forest goats, porcupines, hornbills and various other types of wildlife.

The identification was carried out by means of field surveys and signs of the presence of animals in the form of traces, scratches and dirt as well as visual images of camera traps installed at the location.

Prior to the proposal, the West Sumatra BKSDA will coordinate with relevant agencies and the Agam Regency Government.

Head of the Maninjau Natural Resources Conservation Resort (KSDA), Ade Putra, hopes that the location will be approved as a KEE.

Meanwhile, Wali Nagari Koto Malintang, Naziruddin supported and agreed with the West Sumatra BKSDA to propose durian plantations and large timber locations as KEE.

In 2008, the location was proposed to be a botanical garden, but it has not materialized until now.

His party supports the location to become KEE to support the utilization of the existing potential, because it does not change the ownership status.

This location has also become a domestic and foreign tourist destination. The location was visited by tourists from Japan, France and others.

To support this, the Nagari Koto Malintang government has proposed opening a road to the site and this year it has been approved with a fund of Rp. 150 million with a length of 1.5 kilometers.

The existence of this road is to support the development of tourism to the location of the big tree in the hope of increasing the economy of the local community.

"So far, tourists only visit the Buya Hamka Museum and after that go straight to Bukittinggi. With this destination, tourists can visit the big wood," he said.

In line with that, the Deputy Regent of Agam, Irwan Fikri, said that the largest wooden tree in the world could be developed as a nature campus and tourist destination.

"The existence of the big tree can be developed into a nature campus where people learn about how to take care of nature, so that tree wood can be big," he said.

He said it was rare for tree wood to be this large and did not rule out this being a tourist destination.

This indicates that the Koto Malintang people are taking good care of nature. Even local nagari guardians and traditional leaders received national awards.

To realize this natural campus, he added, community leaders, nagari guardians, sub-district heads, the Youth and Sports Tourism Office must establish good communication with stakeholders.

The Agam Regency Government is ready to provide support for the construction of these natural campuses and tourist destinations.

This is in accordance with the Regional Medium-Term Program Plan (RPJMD) to make tourism a superior product in improving the community's economy.

The presence of the large wood also led the Mayor of Nagari Koto Malintang Naziruddin to meet with the President of Indonesia, who at that time held the position of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the recipient of the award.

The first award was Kalpataru from the President of the Republic of Indonesia for environmental pioneers to Naziruddin Nagari Koto Malintang, Agam, West Sumatra in Jakarta on June 4, 2013 for saving large timber in community forests.

After that, the Wahana Lestari Award in 2014 from the Ministry of Forestry was the best I at the national level in the category of traditional village or forestry care village which was received in Jakarta August 15, 2014.

Now local residents continue to strive to maintain the community forest so that it is maintained in order to reap the benefits from nature to the development of ecotourism which also has an impact on the local economy.