ANNOUNCING: THE FRIENDLY FOREST INITIATIVE
A new program at Planet Indonesia: The Friendly Forest Initiative.
“I look forward to creating solutions for this community that I have grown to love so dearly ”
The target village of the Friendly Forest Initiative, Pulau Limbung
Our staff meeting local community members to discuss the Friendly Forest Initiative
In early May 2015, our staff conducted a site visit to Pulau Limbung. This community is embedded in a network of rivers and wetlands resulting in extreme isolation. High costs of fuel with no access to roads limits the mobility of most individuals with each community owning a few small wooden boats mostly used for occasional trips inland or for fishing. Most of these "islands" have no access to health care, education, or electricity, and have limited amounts of running clean water.
The lack of economic development, plus the recent exploitation of palm oil plantations, has led to high levels of poverty and deforestation. We met with community groups to discuss how Planet Indonesia's market-based approach could serve as a catalyst for development and conserve local culture and resources.
Recently, Bapak Hasbi joined our team, he has years of experience in developing sustainable, sound, and beneficial agricultural systems. Moreover, he and his wife have moved to Pulau Limbung where she works as a civil servant in the only grade school in the area. His strong ties to the local community have enabled us to mobilize and train locals in agroforestry practices.
Some of the village children who joined us on our site tour
Specifically, our innovative Friendly Forest Initiative works to establish small agroforestry business groups. We work with these groups to provide training and cover the upfront costs of converting degraded lands into forests that have value for both nature and local economies. Through our revolving fund, these small business groups are able to generate their own income with products from their plantations. Meanwhile, degraded land is turned back into forests providing benefits for local biodiversity. Each farmer is required to return a small number of seeds every year, which we then use to grow seedlings to convert and plant new lands into plantations. This ensures the sustainability of our impact as each small business group can generate their own income, sustain their forestry practices, but also provide market access to those who are interested in joining.
“The Friendly Forest Initiative further reveals the flexibility and scalability of our market-based approach to conservation at Planet Indonesia. I am ecstatic to have the chance to work together with this community and create solutions together.”
Want to know the impacts? Well here they are:
-1600 family groups targeted
-80% of the public land will be restored to have economic and ecological value
-2000 hectares of empty grasslands restored to forests
-1000 producers generating income
-Decreased carbon emissions
A beautiful sunset on our team's last night in the village