A farmer sitting among young trees and pepper vines in a Kelekak agroforestry garden
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Legacy

Kelekak Restoration

Community-led tree planting that renews a Bangka agroforestry tradition.

01 Why it exists

Kelekak is a long-established Bangka agroforestry tradition: trees, food crops, and livelihoods share the same land. aGROWforests works with communities to renew that logic where monoculture and land degradation have narrowed what a farm can provide.

Field system

How the work
moves together.

  1. 01

    Read the land

    The site, existing vegetation, and local needs guide the planting plan.

  2. 02

    Plant in layers

    Trees, pepper, and food crops are placed to share one productive landscape.

  3. 03

    Care across seasons

    Community knowledge keeps the system useful long after planting day.

Field record

What restoration holds together

A programme principle grounded in Kelekak’s local agroforestry tradition.

TreesShade, deep roots, and longer-term value
CropsPepper, food, fruit, and other farm outputs
StewardshipCommunity knowledge carried across seasons

02 How it works

Built for the
real conditions
of a farm.

01

Restore more than tree cover

Mixed planting reintroduces shade, roots, crops, and habitat to land that has become exposed or simplified.

02

Work with local knowledge

Kelekak gives restoration a local language and a lived history. The work builds from practices communities already recognise.

03

Plant for the next harvests

The aim is a farm that can carry pepper alongside food, timber, fruit, and a more resilient landscape over time.

03 What it makes possible

Practical change,
held locally.

Field example

Planting begins with the place.

In Penutuk in April 2025, aGROWforests documented field engagement that included measuring a farmer’s land for agroforestry, then laying out rows for pepper and Kelekak planting. It is a small but useful picture of how restoration becomes a farm plan: through local coordination, field measurement, and planting decisions made on site.

Location
Penutuk, Bangka
Activity
Land measurement and row layout
Timing
April 2025

Field documentation

A farmer sitting among young trees and pepper vines in a Kelekak garden
01A Kelekak garden holds pepper and young trees in the same productive landscape.
A young tree planted in a field as part of a restoration activity
02Restoration takes shape through repeated decisions about what belongs in the field.
A field facilitator examining pepper vines in a diverse agroforestry garden
03Diverse planting gives farmers a system they can observe, care for, and adapt over time.

Sources

Programme documentation
and further reading.

These links distinguish aGROWforests’ own project reporting from the independent context used across this site.

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