The extensive damage to Indonesia’s rainforests is now seriously affecting the global climate. The island of Borneo is considered by many to be the “lungs of Southeast Asia” with its rainforest and peatland ecosystems storing immense amounts of carbon. These ecosystems are also home to some of the world’s most endangered species like the Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and Bornean Orangutan(Pongo pygmaeus). Indonesia’s portion of the island of Borneo is called Kalimantan. Sadly, Kalimantan has already lost up to 50% of its forest to palm oil and other industries. 42% of those emissions are caused by deforestation and forest fires making Indonesia part of the top 10 global Greenhouse Gas emitters in the world according to data from Climate Watch.
Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), a multi-awarded non-profit organization dedicated to the health of our planet, has been working hard to halt and reverse the extreme forest degradation in Kalimantan. They have been working together with local communities and the government to restore the forests of Western Kalimantan’s Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP), a critical conservation area. The success of their reforestation program yielded very promising results. According to a 10-year study by Stanford University scientists that culminated in 2020, the impact of ASRI’s community-led solutions showed a dramatic drop in logging households, stabilization of primary forest loss and 21,000 hectares of secondary forest regrowth. This was very good news to 2,500 Bornean orangutans. Additionally, infant mortality rates decreased by 67% and overall health conditions improved drastically. ASRI’s hard work in West Kalimantan has earned them the Ashden Award for Natural Climate Solutions in 2022.
Due to the success already achieved, ASRI intends to expand their program to the eastern part of the protected area. This is where Communities for Nature comes in. ASRI’s aim is to increase access to healthcare, regenerative livelihoods and planetary health education. They attribute the positive impact of their current programs to two principles: Planetary Health and Radical Listening, both unique and compassionate approaches to halting the degradation of their forests. CfN is aligned with these principles and is excited to work with ASRI in the next coming months.
ASRI and CfN’s partnership will focus on the following three flagship programs:
CfN happily welcomes ASRI as our newest partner in conservation! We are so grateful for this collaboration and look forward to supporting their exciting programs in these coming months.
If you or your company are interested in getting involved, please write to us at info@communitiesfornature.org.
[Photo from Alam Sehat Lestari’s YouTube Channel]
One of the main visions for Communities for Nature (CfN) is to help raise the next generation of conservationists. You will hear us harp about the importance of educating the youth over and over again – and we will not apologise! We provide education and skills training in many different ways, but one is through immersive learning opportunities for ALL students of the world, often with our partner Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc (PRRCFI).
Recently, we treated 300 enthusiastic primary students from Holy Trinity School in Surrey, England to an unforgettable virtual adventure of Danjugan Island, Philippines – all from the comfort of their classrooms. Danjugan is a 48-hectare island rich in biodiversity. It has five lagoons, white sand beaches, bat caves, lush limestone and mangrove forests and is surrounded by vast seagrass beds and fringing coral reefs. It is a marine sanctuary and an environmental education destination.
To share the unique wonders of the island and the importance of conservation, CfN took students on a virtual exploration via Zoom of the different ecosystems and precious wildlife that inhabit the island. Through virtual instruction, videos and trivia games, the students learned how corals, sea eagles, sharks, bats, snakes, sea horses (and more!) survive and thrive in their natural habitat. They learned about the pros and the cons of the environment, including tougher topics, such as climate change and pollution.
Among the students was a team of Eco Warriors, a group of passionate ambassadors at the school dedicated to making a positive impact on the environment. They helped steer the conversation with smart questions and comments throughout. After the virtual experience the students used worksheets to test their newfound knowledge and engage in lively class discussions about nature and the interconnectedness of living things.
Debbie Caunce, a Form 1 teacher said, “Virtual experiences such as the one CfN and PRRCFI provide are absolutely necessary in early education. They pull young children out of their everyday classroom and plant them in an exciting new environment that brings a deeper level of understanding of the world around them. My class loved the opportunity to learn from CfN and PRRCFI and understand their (very!) different world from ours in England. I could just see their minds at work! Thinking about how important it is to care about the climate, the flora and fauna, the animals, our Earth, and, now, our new friends at CfN and PRRCFI.”
Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc (PRRCFI), the foundation that owns and manages Danjugan Island, has taught more than 2000 youth and 100 scholars about the value of wildlife conservation for over three decades. Its credo is “TODAY’S YOUTH ARE TOMORROW’S CONSERVATIONISTS”. This educational activity ties in as part of CfN’s continuing work with PRRCFI.
We look forward to reconnecting with the students at Holy Trinity School again in the future. To continue to fight climate change together, from all around the world.
No matter what age, where or how children live or learn, we truly believe they are the changemakers for the future.
Photo by Kaila Trebol.
From setting up our first partnership between LMAX Group and the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Inc (PRRCFI) to our founder Rhoda Phillips securing an exclusive interview with a local newspaper, we couldn’t be prouder of everything we’ve achieved in just a few short months.
FinTech focus
Back in January our press launch caught the attention of a number of publications across a broad spectrum of sectors, ranging from fintech to the environment. The fintech press were the first to cover our launch: The Fintech Times, followed shortly after by Stocks News.
It has been great to see how we are reaching others through the connections we have made under the ACE partnership – here, specifically thanks to our work with global fintech company LMAX Group.
On the green scene
Soon after, environmental publications like Environment Journal and Green Business Journal followed suit, breaking news of our launch across their respective platforms. We were delighted: we hold the environment very close to our hearts here at Communities for Nature, and to be able to share our knowledge and mission with other like-minded people within the green community means so much to us.
The Chiswick Calendar
Most recently, Rhoda was interviewed by Bridget Osborne, Editor of The Chiswick Calendar, where she had the opportunity to share how she set off on the path that led her to Communities for Nature.
Taking Bridget on a whistle stop tour of how she fell in love with Danjugan Island in the early 2000s, Rhoda spoke of her time as the island’s manager in 2001, and its history of various efforts to preserve the island’s precious flora and fauna – ranging from the fight to save the island’s ‘eagle tree’, where pairs of white bellied sea eagles had been nesting since 1974; to the time Rhoda boarded an illegal fishing boat, refusing to leave until the authorities had arrived.
A quick thank you…
Rhoda’s dedication to protecting the environment is shared by all of us at Communities for Nature, and we are well and truly committed to doing everything we can to preserve the beauty of our natural world. But we couldn’t have made it this far without the help of our friends and supporters.
We’d like to take this chance to thank all of you who have been involved in our journey to a more sustainable future. We look forward to what lies ahead – 2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year.
Photo by Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation
This week, with the release of our new website, we are now ready to share our story and begin to galvanise action on environmental challenges around the world.
Our vision is to support communities working with nature to build a sustainable future for all.
Our aim is to facilitate long term, productive relationships between corporate supporters and individual communities seeking input on projects linked to the environment or sustainable development.
As we build our network of supporters and communities around the world, our focus will be on bringing communities and their supporters together to co-create solutions that deliver results. Every project we back will deliver on environmental education, conservation or regeneration; or around sustainable economic activity.
This is a fresh approach, but through our long-standing connection with the PRRCFI we have seen just how effective it is when local communities lead the way in establishing front line educational and environmental projects.
What happens next?
With the LMAX / PRRCFI partnership up and running and already delivering results we’re actively exploring new opportunities.
If you are a corporate looking for a chance to make a meaningful difference in conservation or sustainable development we want to hear from you.
If you’re a community with a project you would like to get off the ground, then contact us.
Let’s build a sustainable future for us all.
Photo by Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation
Communities for Nature has helped arrange a new partnership between LMAX Group, the global financial technology company and the leading independent operator of multiple institutional execution venues for FX and crypto currency trading, and the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc. (PRRCFI).
This one year ‘Actions for Communities and Environment’ partnership between the UK-based financial tech company and Filipino Foundation was announced earlier this year, just as PRRCFI was celebrating 28 years of its conservation work. In a fitting recognition of this legacy, the new partnership with LMAX will allow PRRCFI to both continue and strengthen its leading conservation and educational work and realise its vision of wildlife and people in harmony for a sustainable future.
Funding from the new joint initiative will be channelled into education on sustainable development and providing local communities with the tools for ecotourism. This will include sustainability scholarships, conservation research, and capacity-building sessions and equipment support for ecotourism.
PRRCFI works with local communities in the marine protected area of Danjugan Island, Brgy. Bulata, Cauayan, and Negros Occidental, in the Philippines on a whole range of biodiversity conservation, education and sustainable development initiatives. You can read more about PRRCFI’s work and history here.
Any questions? Our team would love to hear from you. Get in touch by emailing us at info@communitiesfornature.org or fill in the form below and we will get back to you shortly.