We are working alongside communities experiencing extreme poverty in Eastern Indonesia to provide consistent employment through mangrove reforestation projects.
Indonesia is the world’s largest island nation, composed of over 17,000 islands and home to one-fifth of the world’s mangrove forests. Mangroves are essential to healthy coastal ecosystems, providing habitats for tropical fish, stabilizing shores, and protecting nearby coral reefs from pollution. Indonesia is also home to endangered wildlife such as tigers, orangutans, rhinoceros, and elephants.
Mangrove deforestation has left coastal communities vulnerable to flooding due to extreme weather events such as tropical storms. Locals to Biak Island rely on healthy mangroves to support fisheries and protect against extreme weather conditions. However, in 1996, a tsunami struck Biak Island, destroying mangrove forests, homes, and infrastructure.
When mangrove forests are restored, communities are protected against extreme weather and habitats for marine life are revived. One of our planting partners began its reforestation program in Indonesia in late 2017 with a focus on the restoration of mangroves and tropical forests. By also establishing an agroforestry program, we are helping promote food security in the community. Our planting efforts have expanded rapidly as the leadership team mobilizes local leaders and engages planters to become part of the program. Through this project, meaningful employment and ecological restoration have once again been brought to the shores of Biak.
Mangroves have the ability to absorb up to four times more carbon dioxide by area than upland terrestrial forest ecosystems
The percentage of Indonesia’s original forest habitat that has been lost. Indonesia continues to lose 6.2 million acres a year.
Million people is the number of people living below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.
Eastern Indonesia
An island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.