This project is conserving a biodiverse peat swamp forest in Indonesian Borneo that was slated for conversion to palm oil plantations. Along with protecting this carbon rich ecosystem, the project supports the reintroduction of critically endangered orangutans into their wild habitat. By addressing issues such as poverty, hunger, and disease, the project is tackling the root causes of deforestation while improving the livelihoods of local communities. Due to its holistic approach, Rimba Raya is the first REDD+ project to be validated under the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard for contributing to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Indonesia’s rainforests are a biodiversity hotspot and the tropical peat swamps in Borneo are no exception. More than 50 endangered species, including Bornean orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pangolins, hairy-nosed otters, and Borneo Bay cats, can be found in the peat swamps on the island’s southern coast.

Unfortunately, Indonesia’s critical peat swamp ecosystems are rapidly disappearing, primarily to develop palm oil plantations. After years of extensive development, Indonesia is now the world’s largest producer of palm oil. The process of converting the land to a plantation involves logging and burning the trees and subsequently draining the peatland. As this happens, the massive amounts of carbon that are stored in the aboveground biomass and the deep layers of peat is released into the atmosphere. The draining of the peat swamps also leaves them far more vulnerable to fires. Fires set for agricultural purposes often get out of control, causing further devastation to Indonesia’s peatlands. Between 1990 and 2005 Indonesia lost about 2% of its forest cover annually. 

As Indonesia’s peat swamp habitat disappears, so do the animals that depend on it. It is estimated that palm oil development results in the deaths of around 1,000 to 5,000 orangutans every year. Over the last half century, substantial loss and fragmentation of their habitat has led Bornean orangutan populations to decline by 95%. 

Luckily, there are efforts underway to protect Indonesia’s orangutans and other vulnerable species. In Borneo, the world-renowned Tanjung Puting National Park houses one of the largest protected orangutan populations and Orangutan Foundation International leads ongoing orangutan conservation activities.

Wild animals are not the only beings affected by the loss of Indonesia’s peat swamps. Indigenous communities lose access to their land and resources, sometimes without their consent. Once their land has been converted, community members are left with few options but to work on the palm oil plantations where they face degrading conditions and are underpaid. Women often end up helping out on the plantations for little or no pay, and are tasked with more hazardous activities like spraying pesticides without protective gear. The development of palm oil plantations can also cause other harmful impacts for nearby communities, such as flooding, pollution of their water sources, and exposure to smoke from fires. 

This project is protecting over 225,000 acres of primarily peat swamp forest on Borneo’s southern coast between Tanjung Puting National Park and the Seruyan River. This particular area was slated by the government for conversion to palm oil plantations. By obtaining the land rights and establishing the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, the project prevented this destruction from happening. Along with safeguarding the ecosystem within the project boundaries, the Rimba Raya Reserve also acts as a physical buffer zone for Tanjung Puting National Park, preventing it from encroachment and exploitation.

Even with the reserve in place, peat fires, illegal logging, and encroachment by oil palm plantations still present very real threats. The project is taking steps to prevent and respond to these threats earlier by building a network of guard posts and fire towers, establishing fire breaks, funding daily patrols, and acquiring airboats and other equipment designed for combatting peat swamp fires. Local community members will be trained and hired as guards and fire fighters to support these activities. 

The project will also regenerate areas that were previously degraded. Nurseries will be created to produce native seedlings and villagers will be paid to plant them. An agro-forestry program will also be launched as part of these rehabilitation efforts. The fruit, nut, spice, and rubber trees will generate income and provide a reliable food source for communities as well as orangutans. To date, over 300,000 trees and 20,000 mangroves have been planted in the reserve.

Funds will also be used to support Orangutan Foundation International’s ongoing orangutan rehabilitation and release activities. This includes the reintroduction of 300 rehabilitated orangutans back into the wild. Three new orangutan release centers and six feeding platforms will be constructed within the Rimba Raya Reserve to provide a staging ground for their migration into the national park

Along with protecting the land itself, the project is also addressing the root causes of community-based deforestation in neighboring villages. Most villagers earn their living from fishing in the Seruyan River, but increased flooding has caused fishing yields to decrease in recent years. Many community members live in extreme poverty, unable to afford the day-to-day cost of living. 

Beyond the employment opportunities noted above, the project is creating alternative livelihood opportunities that will provide residents with a sustainable income stream. The project is building the capacity of local people, particularly women, to take on livelihoods in chicken farming, shrimp paste production, and handicrafts. Microloans provided by the project will remove the financial barriers that typically prevent those living in poverty from starting their own enterprises.

Along with supporting new income generating opportunities, the project also is also improving local quality of life by:

• Implementing a floating clinic that can deliver medical services to communities up and down the Seruyan River who do not have access to healthcare facilities.
• Distributing clean water filters to families and installing village-level water purifying systems to reduce deaths from waterborne illnesses. 
• Providing clean cookstoves that require half the amount of fuel wood as traditional stoves and generate less smoke and indoor air pollution. 
• Increasing access to education by providing scholarships to high school students, creating village libraries, and distributing reading glasses to community members with vision impairments. 
• Increasing production of fruits, vegetables, and fish by training farmers on sustainable production practices, providing aquaponics systems, and developing plantations of pineapples and other crops. 
• Providing solar lanterns to families and installing large solar generator systems in villages that lack electrification. 
• Organizing cleanups and establishing a recycle bank to reduce pollution in villages and enhance the water quality of the Seruyan River. 

By maintaining the reserve and tackling social issues such as poverty, hunger, and disease, the Rimba Raya project ensures that environmental conservation and community development go hand-in-hand.

This project is generating renewable energy from pig manure in Thailand. By capturing methane and generating electricity from biogas, this project reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by pig farming. Furthermore, the new treatment system provides an affordable source of fertilizer while lessening pollution and other negative impacts on the surrounding environment and community.

Agriculture is responsible for just over 14% of Thailand’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is the leading source of methane, accounting for 70% of the country total. When it comes to pig farming, manure management is the primary source of emissions.

In Thailand, the most common way that farmers treat their pig manure is via anaerobic lagoon systems that store the slurry in uncovered ponds. As the manure breaks down, it releases harmful methane emissions into the air which have 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. 

However, emissions aren’t the only harmful side effect of this process. When waste is contained in open ponds it can cause foul odors that bother neighboring residents. There is also a greater risk of overflows during the rainy season which can lead to wastewater pollution.

Through this project, one pig farm in Thailand’s Ratchaburi province is employing a different, more sustainable method to treat its pig waste. By replacing their old lagoon system with a closed anaerobic system, SPM Farm is able to capture the methane rich biogas that is produced during treatment. This biogas is then combusted using spark ignition engines to produce electricity that can be used on-site. This new source of power replaces the electricity that currently comes from the grid. Furthermore, any excess electricity produced by the farm will be sent to the national grid. By generating a renewable source of energy and reducing the farm’s reliance on fossil-fuel, this project will avoid over 3,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.   

Along with generating electricity, the waste treatment process also produces a fertilizer that can be supplied to local farmers at low cost and is distributed for free to schools where it is used to grow food for students. 

Because it is enclosed, the new treatment system also helps to prevent some of the other negative impacts of manure management, including wastewater overflows, groundwater contamination, and unpleasant odors. This project is intended to drive further adoption of waste-to-energy systems by building confidence among Southeast Asian farmers in the efficacy, cost and safety of this newer type of technology.

Increasing the perceived value of forest conservation through ecotourism development

Made up of over 17,000 islands dotting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Indonesia is a country with rich natural and cultural wonders. From dense rainforests and towering volcanoes, to picturesque mountain valleys and secluded stretches of beach, Indonesia possesses some of the world’s most spectacular biodiversity. Indonesia has the third largest expanse of tropical forest in the world. At least 30 million people depend directly on Indonesia’s forests for their livelihood but deforestation rates are some of the highest in the world.

The areas most at risk include the carbon rich peat forests in Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo) as well as areas of northern Sumatra and Papua. From sequestering carbon and combating climate change, to providing freshwater for local communities, these forests represent a precious and vital resource. In addition, these forests are home to a number of critically threatened species such as orangutans and Sumatran rhinos and elephants. Reducing deforestation will help conserve the environment, protect rare species, safeguard the community’s livelihood, and preserve the destination for years to come.

Our Role

In 2015, USAID launched the LESTARI project to combat Indonesia’s growing threat of deforestation. LESTARI means “everlasting” in Indonesian and the project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve protected area management in Central Kalimantan, northern Sumatra, and Papua.

LESTARI  is a five-year project implemented by a variety of partners under the leadership of Tetra Tech and funded by the United States Government. Sustainable Travel International’s role in this project focused on identifying and developing alternative livelihoods through ecotourism.  Our specific goal was to develop a series of small scale ecotourism partnerships in Central Kalimantan and Aceh that have high conservation value, bring community benefit and are economically viable, appealing to domestic and international markets. Areas of particular focus are Sebangau National Park, Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park, Gunung Leuser National Park, and the Trumon-Singkil Wildlife Reserve.

LESTARI targets a 41 percent greenhouse gas emissions reduction in its landscapes by project completion in 2020.

This project is reducing cooking emissions by producing and distributing more efficient cookstoves in Cambodia. By reducing the amount of fuel that is required, the new cookstoves also reduce pressure on forest resources. The project improves living conditions, particularly for women, by reducing their exposure to harmful pollutants and time spent collecting wood and cooking.

The objective of efficient cookstoves in Cambodia is to reduce fuel consumption through production and distribution of Lao cook stoves in nine provinces of Cambodia. Part of the larger Cambodian Firewood Saving Project (CFSP), this project avoids emissions from direct combustion while also protecting local forest ecosystems through increasing the efficiency of traditional wood-fuel stoves.

Ninety percent of the Cambodian population depend daily on fuel for cooking purposes. In addition to fuel conservation, the cookstoves emit less airborne particles like carbon monoxide to improve the living conditions of the users. Benefits have been shown to positively affect women more proportionally than men through decreasing ill health within the home, saving the time to collect fuel wood and cooking, and reducing the cost of purchased fuel. Additionally, economic opportunities are created through production distribution and management opportunities.

This project improves access to safe drinking water in Cambodia by providing water filters to rural families. By eliminating the need to boil water using wood fuel, the project prevents CO2 emissions, reduces pressure on Cambodia’s precious forest resources, and improves indoor air quality.

Water-borne diseases are a major health concern in Cambodia, particularly among young children in rural areas. Untreated water and poor sanitation causes about 10 million cases of diarrhea and 10,000 deaths in the country each year. Most families in Cambodia boil water on wood or charcoal stoves to make it safe to drink. Typically women and girls are responsible for gathering and burning the firewood. This exposes them to harmful smoke which can cause adverse health effects. In addition to affecting respiratory health, this burning process also produces carbon emissions and puts pressure on Cambodia’s precious forest resources. 

This project will improve access to clean drinking water and reduce emissions by selling affordable ceramic water filters to rural households in Cambodia. Over the seven year crediting period, water filters will be provided to up to 1.7 million people across a potential 312,000 households. The filters are shown to remove 99.9% of bacteria from water and can produce up to 30 liters of clean water per day.  Families that have water filters in their homes will no longer need to disinfect their water by boiling it. 

By eliminating the need for wood fuel, the project reduces depletion of Cambodia’s forest resources, relieves mothers and daughters from collecting firewood, and lowers household fuel expenses. The use of filters instead of wood burning also lessens indoor air pollution, thereby preventing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the risk of respiratory illness. Plus, since the filters are produced by Hydrologic, a Cambodian social enterprise, the project also generates employment opportunities for local residents.

By installing biogas digesters in households across Vietnam, this project provides rural families with a clean and affordable source of energy. Use of these digesters reduces reliance on traditional fuels which lessens greenhouse gas emissions, prevents deforestation, and improves community health.

Vietnam is home to millions of small family farmers, many of whom raise livestock such as pigs and cattle. The waste from these animals produces large amounts of methane emissions – a greenhouse gas that is even more potent than carbon dioxide. Since 1990, Vietnam’s methane emissions have nearly doubled. In addition to fueling climate change, the waste produced by these animals can lead to water pollution and poor sanitation when it is not properly managed. This poor waste management can cause health issues for many local families.

In order to create energy, many families in rural Vietnam burn wood or conventional fossil fuels indoors. This process emits harmful particles into the air which can lead to respiratory illness. Parts of Vietnam experience limited access to traditional cooking fuels and firewood, and are affected by the increasing price of commercial fuels. Despite recent development, 59% of Vietnam’s small family farms remain below the national poverty line. Fuel costs are just one more financial burden on these communities.

This project installs biogas digesters in rural households, providing families with sustainable and affordable energy. Local people are trained to build and maintain the digesters which work by collecting human and animal waste in a brick reservoir. When this waste decomposes, it releases methane gas which is piped into homes and used for cooking and lighting. The remaining is converted into an organic compost that can be used to fertilize their crops.

As of 2017, the project has supplied 158,500 biogas digesters and over 2,600 local people have been trained as masons and technicians. The digesters provide a clean, renewable, and reliable source of energy for 790,000 rural individuals. By converting methane from animal waste into household fuel, the project lessens harmful greenhouse gas emissions and prevents indoor air pollution. Since the project reduces reliance on wood fuel it also helps to protect surrounding forests areas, while reducing income spent on fuel and time spent collecting firewood. The project also improves sanitation and reduces water pollution by removing animal manure from the surrounding area.