With 3.7 million hectares of coconut farms, Indonesia is home to the largest area allocated for coconut production in the world. However, its annual coconut production remains below that of other countries such as India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. During my travels, I noted that many Indonesian coconut farmers discarded the shells as waste. This was despite the fact that coconut shells are fairly difficult to get rid of, and also despite the fact that in other countries the coconut coir — the natural fibre that can be extracted from the coconut husks — is used to make derivative products such as mats, brushes, mattresses, sacking and even fishing nets. Inspired, I set up a business producing coconut fibre netting known as cocomesh. Cocomesh is coconut coir netting that can serve as a growing medium for grass and trees, and can assist in the revegetation of former mining reclamation sites. Cocomesh is 100 percent biodegradable, and can help prevent erosion, flooding and other land degradation — making it potentially a very useful product considering Indonesia’s numerous mining sites such the Grasberg mine in Papua and Batu Hijau in Sumbawa. Recently, the Mining Advocacy Network warned that the 84 million hectares of land allocated for mining in Indonesia, along with another 54 million hectares for forest concessions, were outstripping the country’s total land area. I am confident of his project’s success as I already have several contracts to produce cocomesh from, among other companies, PT. Agincourt Resources, Chevron Geothermal in Garut, Total E&P and Riau Baharum Coal. I am also targeting to sell my product to several other large companies and have recently increased my workforce to 100 women farmers from the original five I employed in Yogyakarta, Kebumen and Kroya in Central Java.