String of Pearls

The Banjarese farmers in Punggur on the coast of West Kalimantan create diverse agroforestry systems by draining, burning, and slowly getting rid of the peat that underlies local forests. A network of canals - dug by hand - grid the area and regulate the daily tidal flow.

Coconuts are one of the most important plant products during the early developmental stages of these systems. To get the coconuts to market, they string them together in long chains and float them out in the canals.