About Us

The dry lowland rainforests of Sumatra are among the most biologically diverse yet most critically threatened habitats on earth. From an estimated 16 million hectares in 1900 there now remains only 500,000 hectares. In 2007, the management rights to one of the largest tracts of unprotected dry lowland forest remaining were secured by a consortium comprising Burung Indonesia, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and BirdLife International. The initiative is being implemented by two Indonesian organisations established by the consortium specifically for that purpose: PT REKI is a company created to hold the licences, as required by Indonesian law; Yayasan KEHI is a not-for-profit foundation charged with the day-to-day implementation of field activities.

This area, named Harapan Rainforest after the Indonesian word for ‘hope’, covers 98,554 hectares of previously logged forest and is being managed for forest restoration with a view to returning the whole of the forest to its original condition. Management of the site has been secured for 100 years, under an entirely new form of licence for ecosystem restoration. It is the first, and presently only site that has been given such a licence to manage production forest for restoration. It, therefore, provides a unique opportunity for innovative forest management which could provide value for logged forests within Indonesia and globally and thus prevent their continued deterioration and eventual clearance.

In addition to their irreplaceable biodiversity, it's increasingly well understood that tropical forests are the lungs of the earth absorbing and storing harmful carbon dioxide whilst emitting the oxygen upon which all terrestrial life depends. Vast areas of forest have been logged and burned in Indonesia, largely for the commercial timber industry and to make way for oil palm plantations. This deforestation has recently led to Indonesia being labelled the third highest contributor to carbon emissions in the world. Harapan Rainforest, as the first example of ecosystem restoration for production forest, offers an alternative to prevailing forestry practice in Indonesia, by promoting the retention of the remaining carbon and sequestration of additional carbon as the forests are restored. This approach also fits closely with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) current focus on the development of a mechanism that would reward efforts to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). Of course, protection of carbon in this way will also deliver significant co-benefits in the form of the ecosystem services provided by healthy natural forests - clean water and air, biodiversity, flood prevention etc. In turn, these ecosystem services support sustainable livelihoods for local communities.

Indonesia has suffered some notoriety for it rapid deforestation in the recent past. However, the Harapan Rainforest initiative and the Indonesian government's support for it, marks a turning point for the country's forests and a new hope for their survival. Their biodiversity, their role in the mitigation of global warming as well as regulation of local climate and prevention of floods and siltation, and their important role in underpinning sustainable livelihoods for local communities make their protection relevant for both the local as well as the global community.