Boost for indigenous people and rare wildlife of Harapan Rainforest

Last night, the RSPB’s Chief Executive Graham Wynne and Head of Global Programmes Dieter Hoffmann were in Berlin to welcome major German government funding and the backing of NABU, the German BirdLife partner, for the ground-breaking Harapan Rainforest project in Sumatra. They were joined by representatives of Burung Indonesia and Yayasan KEHI, the implementing agency for the Harapan Rainforest project.
The German Ministry of Environment (BMU) is injecting 7 million euros in new funding to the project, via KfW Development Bank, to restore degenerated habitats, conserve the species-rich forest, and give local communities a boost.
“A significant proportion of the costs for reforestation, infrastructure development, management, protection and community development initiatives will be financed for the next four years via the KfW Development Bank”, said Uwe Ohls, Senior Vice President Asia, KfW.
Dieter Hoffmann said: “We are delighted about this grant from the German Ministry of Environment and welcome NABU and the German KfW Development Bank as partners in this ground-breaking initiative. Their commitment will make the world of difference, enabling the Harapan Rainforest project to consolidate its good work so far, and scale up tree-planting and community development efforts to provide a healthier environment for people and wildlife in the future.

Indonesia holds about ten percent (90 million hectares) of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests. Two thirds of these are classified as production forest. Under a business as usual scenario, the Indonesian government estimates that around 14 millions of hectares of forest could be lost or heavily damaged within the next 20 years, which would result in the emission of 2.8 billions of harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Harapan Rainforest is held under a new type of forestry licence, introduced in 2004, which requires the concession holder to conserve and restore the forest ecosystem and runs for up to 100 years.  Harapan Rainforest is the first forest managed under this form of agreement in Indonesia. If applied more widely, this type of forest management could restore hope for forest-dependent communities and biodiversity elsewhere in the country, and reduce carbon emissions significantly. 

Mairi Dupar - RSPB