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Winter 2015 WHAT’S HAPPENING AT PLANET INDONESIA?
IN THIS ISSUE
Helping People, Helping Forests, Changing Lives by Planet Indonesia
Planet Indonesia is a 501(c)3 not-forprofit dedicated to the conservation of earth’s ecosystems and communities by providing market-based incentives that balance ecological and human livelihoods with cultural preservation.
What is a Market-based Approach?
Why Does This Approach Work? How can we ask a family to stop logging when they use this money to pay for food, education, or healthcare? How can we ask families to stop hunting endangered species when they need that the money to feed their families?
Our market-based approach is an innovative method to incentivize conservation and community development at the grassroots level. We ask the question: “How can we help low-income communities out of poverty, and also provide an incentive to preserve local resources and culture?”
Our market-based approach provides new incomes, new livelihoods, and new ways of life. When communities participate in these programs they no longer have to log, hunt, or negatively impact the world around them. In addition, they also experience increased financial income and increased quality of life.
This approach focuses on providing new livelihoods and job opportunities, and in these new positions individuals change a behavior that is negatively impacting the world around them.
Central to our message is the connectivity between economics, culture, people, and the environment. Planet Indonesia works at the intersection of these areas.
This new paradigm directly links the livelihoods of people with resource-use and local culture.
News at Planet Indonesia Check out what’s happening at Planet Indonesia!
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Programs and Initiatives What does our market-based approach look like on-theground? Check out our initiatives and learn how Planet Indonesia is an innovator for change.
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Our Vision Our vision is a world of balance, where economics, wise-resource use, and culture are all valued and conserved. But how is Planet Indonesia working to achieve this goal? By the year 2020 our program partner and domestic branch located in-country, Yayasan Planet Indonesia, will be 80% selfsufficient. This will allow our U.S. based international branch to expand our impact. Planet Indonesia International will become Planet Initiatives, and will create solutions on a global-scale. Although it may seem far away, we are already considering how to apply our grassroots market-based approach to other countries and issues around the world.
We believe we have invented a method that works, and we want to include you in this vision! As a notfor-profit we are only capable of creating change when contributions are made by our dedicated group of donors and investors. Help us to help others. Make a contribution today!
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News at Planet Indonesia Executive Director Becomes AIFIS Fellow Congratulations to our Executive Director, Adam Miller, for becoming a new fellow at the American Institute for Indonesian Studies and the Center for American Overseas Research Centers. This fellowship will provide important funding that will help us better design our Birds for Communities in Action Project and Center for Alternative Livelihoods (CALs) programs. Through this fellowship Adam will conduct the first ever study investigating the impacts of the wild bird trade in West Borneo. His bird surveys in Gunung Palung National Park will also be the first surveys conducted in the park in over 15 years.
American Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) Recently Adam Miller and Elizabeth Kennedy (Planet Indonesia Board Member) joined a team of 5 international exchange alumni on an American Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) project. Through this project Planet Indonesia and the Little Circle Foundation are proposing to design Indonesian Youth Climate Change Adaptability and Leadership Camps. These camps will help empower the next generation to become activists in their local communities.
Corporate Sponsors Planet Indonesia wants to give a huge shout out to the Fire Station Advertising Agency for making two large contributions to our organization.
Thank you Donors!! We want to give a big thank you to all our donors and contributors. Our work is only possible from contributions from the network of people who believe in social and environmental change. As a 501(c)3 not-for-profit all donations are 100% tax deductible. Alleviate Poverty, Save Forests, and Preserve Culture!
Help Us and Help Others Planet Indonesia Partners with JMM Planet Indonesia has made several new partnerships that are extending the reach and impact of our organization. Recently, KOPERASI JASA MENENUN MANDIRI (JMM) and Planet Indonesia have partnered to work together through our Integrated Art Project. We are now working with over 1500 indigenous dayak women to improve the quality of the work, and provide a place of selling. Stay tuned for the launching of our international online store!
Franciscan Sisters of Mary The Franciscan Sisters of Mary in St. Louis, Missouri recently made a U.S. $ 25,000 investment in Planet Indonesia! We want to send a huge thank you to the Sisters of this foundation who so graciously have gifted us with these funds.
This year Planet Indonesia hopes to raise $10,000 from private donors. Please help us reach this goal. Even a small gift of $50.00 can help cover the costs we need to reach some of our rural field sites.
DONATIONS:
Online: www.planetindonesia.org www.gofundme.org/planetindonesia Mail in: Planet Indonesia 241 Selma Ave St. Louis, MO 63119
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FAST FACTS FOR MORE INFORMATION
1st Indonesia currently has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world. If we don’t act quickly, the rich tropical forests of Indonesia will be gone forever.
Environmental Education and Youth Leadership We are working to empower the next generation of leaders. Planet Indonesia is currently working with high school and university students to develop critical thinking skills, leadership skills, and raise awareness about the issues we face in the world today.
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Indonesia has the second highest number of endangered species in the world.
2,825,000 Yep! That’s a big number. That is the number of people in Indonesia that are still considered under the world poverty line.
Integrated Art We work with indigenous women to revitalize traditional art works as a way to economically empower low-income communities. Women are able to provide an income for their families, as well as preserve their traditional customs and styles of art.
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Indonesia is now the world’s 3rd largest democracy.
4 Kubu Raya Initiative The Kubu Raya Initiative focuses on restoring the services provided by coastal mangrove forests. Recent research has shown these forests are the most economically important in the world. It is estimated in one year they provide as much as U.S. $1.5 Billion dollars in supporting fisheries and local livelihoods. We work with local communities to restore degraded lands. To bring further benefit we partner with these villages to allow limited sustainable amounts of logging to bring further income to these impoverished areas.
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Indonesia is the 4th largest country in the world. What most people think is just a bunch of islands in the Pacific, is actually one of the world’s fastest growing economies and political powerhouses.
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www.planetindonesia.org PLANET INDONESA
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PROGRAMS AND INIATIVES
Overview: Programs and Initiatives Birds for Communities in Action: Currently, over 600,000 birds are trapped and traded every year in Indonesia. Most of these traders make less than U.S. $100.00 a month. This program attempts to break this negative cycle of human poverty and environmental degradation by providing new livelihoods for these impoverished people. Through our Center for Alternative Livelihoods (CALs) we provide training in captive breeding methods to ensure that those who are not willing to leave the animal trade can decrease their reliance on wild populations while still maintaining an income. This program illustrates our marketbased approach well, as we help villagers find new livelihoods or alternative income sources, and by doing this, they are helping to conserve populations of wild animals. Integrated Art (IA): We are working with the Indigenous women of Borneo (commonly known as Dayak) to revitalize traditional art works. Weaving is an ancient art with strong tries to local customs, gender roles, and traditions. We help to provide training, capacity building, and a place of selling for these products. The result? Women can provide an income for their family by selling their art work, while also preserving their local customs. Our international branch is working with consumers (stores, museums, artisan groups, etc) worldwide to purchase these works, while our domestic branch works directly with the women to increase the products quality and capacity of local women. We are currently working with over 1500 indigenous women. The Kubu Raya Initiative (KRI): This project focuses on reforesting mangroves in coastal areas. New studies have shown that mangrove forests are the most economically valuable forests in the world. It is estimated they provide U.S. $1.5 Billion dollars a year in fisheries (i.e. fish breed in these forests and are later caught/consumed and so on). They have also been shown to provide storm protection past any creation by man (i.e. tsunami walls, levees), and are the forests with the highest carbon offset value in the world. In other words, on a global-scale there are huge implications for the preservation of
these forests. But we ask the question, how can we create an incentive for the preservation of these forests for lowincome communities on a local scale? We are working with low-income fishermen to create a revolving fund where fishermen reforest previously logged lands. After we provide the upfront costs of reforesting the land, we allow local communities to harvest limited amounts of wood products. This also illustrates our market-based approach well, as reforestation is incentivized by a chance for a higher income. However, by reforesting these lands communities are benefiting fisheries, coastal integrity, carbon offsets, and helping a variety of animals from the endangered Irrawaddy River Dolphin to the critically endangered Proboscis Monkey that exist solely in mangrove forests.
Youth Education and Awareness: We are working with local high school students and University students through our Training Camps to build capacity and leadership skills in the next generation of Indonesian citizens. Students learn a variety of skills in these camps and are required to conduct "community action projects" in their local areas. This can be campaigning about human rights, trash pickups, food drives, etc. Additionally, we are in the process of purchasing land that will act as our center for our youth education and leadership building programs.
The Kapuas Mindset Planet Indonesia is currently working on a book project to investigate how different cultural groups in Borneo view nature, conservation, and the environmental movement. This book will provide a comprehensive historical review as well as modern interviews with villagers in order to gain an insight into how ethnicity impacts local mindsets. This innovative project is the first of its kind in the field of ethnobiology in the area.
Birds for Communities in Action We are working to provide alternative and new incomes for low-income animal trappers. Our Center for Alternative Livelihoods (CALs) provides individuals with new sources of income and training in captive breeding methods. Our hope is to decrease human’s reliance on wild populations of birds while increasing local livelihoods and incomes.
River Dolphin Conservation In 2011 two highly threatened species of brackish water dolphins were found to exist our coastal management action area. We are integrating dolphin population monitoring into our reforestation and management plans to help stop these species from disappearing from the wild.
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From the Blog A New Face to Animal Trafficking By: Adam Miller, Executive Director and Founder
It was last fall when I had been called into a local village to evaluate the potential for their new ecotourism industry. What happened I could’ve never foreseen. The village leader was interested in developing their infrastructure to better attract foreign tourists to the nearby national park. The small lodge was nestled on a hill side with a backdrop of jungle covered mountains intermixed with flowing streams and waterfalls. Below the lodge a river flowed down from the rice fields that were tucked away at the feet of the mountains. That evening the village was bustling with excitement, a group of foreigners had arrived in the area! As we sat eating our white rice, Indonesian fried chicken and seasoned tempeh, locals gathered on the far side of the river to watch this strange group of people who decided to stay in their newly built lodge. Having my strong love for making new Indonesian friends, I called across the river in my integration of Bahasa Indonesia and the local Bahasa Melayu language “Jangan malu! Datanglah” [Don’t Be shy, Come here!]. Quickly a young group of boys came scurrying across the bridge and sat a comfortable distance away. What followed will be a story I will hold with me till the day I die. Almost immediately they began serenading us with the most advanced replication of songbird calls I have ever heard. Perfect songs flowed from their lips from trilling metallic high notes to deep clicks and clacks that were so often heard in the early morning canopy of the jungle. As a lifelong birder and enthusiasts, I was overcome with excitement and bliss. A group of young birders? There are few things in the world that could put a bigger and more vibrant smile on my face. I quickly rushed over to the group of young boys, startling them with my onslaught of questions and excitement for their recently revealed abilities. Overcome with excitement, it took me all too long to piece the situation together. Greater Green Leafbird, Long-tailed shama, Greycheeked Bulbul, they hit the notes of these complicated and long bird calls with perfect precision. But wait. I knew these species, I saw them everywhere. Never in the forests, there were few left, but in the thousands of bird cages that hung in front of the tiny houses that scattered the Indonesian countryside.
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Could it really be? Where these young boys bird trappers? Someone had to produce these bird calls to lure them in. Was it really small children who were responsible? I asked them if they went into the national park to trap birds, they quickly answered no and looked frightened. In this particular area, there was no forest left outside of the park, if they were trapping birds there was only one option. So, reaching back into my arsenal of skills from my teaching days I knew I had to comfort these small children to get the truth out. Sadly, I told a small white lie. I told them when I was younger I also used to trap birds, but I realized it was not good for the environment so I stopped. “Yes” one boy started, exchanging nervous looks with the others. “We trap birds. Our fathers’ voices are too deep to make these bird calls. So we do it for them.” “But do you go to school?” I asked, shocked by their omission. They shook their heads. “This is my family’s way to make money. So we dropped out. We help our fathers in the forest from sunrise until the afternoon. My grandpa trapped birds, my father traps birds, and I will teach my sons to make these calls so we can trap birds.” Fighting back tears my greatest fears were thrown in my face. Poverty had not only caused older men to seek a livelihood in animal trafficking, but it had also trickled down to the younger generations. It was a new face of the animal trapper. A young boy, a child, a kid who has given up school, given up all chances of another life to help his father provide an income. Trap songbirds.
Adam with the 5 young bird trappers This story brings great urgency to the work at Planet Indonesia. With current estimates reaching nearly 600,000 birds trapped and traded every year, we have little time before the world renowned avifauna of Indonesia disappears forever. New estimates now say that Indonesia has the 2nd highest number of endangered species in the world, much of it from habitat loss and the wildlife trade. But now these statistics hold a new weight. Does this negative cycle of environmental degradation and human poverty now include young children?
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I am excited about the work at Planet Indonesia and that we are the first organization in this region to address the issues of bird trading and its link to human poverty. Together, we can build a better world around us. A world where human-wildlife conflicts are minimal, and where livelihoods are no longer dependent, linked, and reliant on the exploitation of our natural resources. Terima kasih atas Salam Adam Miller
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DONATIONS: This year Planet Indonesia hopes to raise $10,000 from private donors and investors. This money will help us achieve our goals and maximize our impact. Please help us reach this goal and make a contribution today! Online: www.gofundme.org/planetindonesia
Mail Checks to: Planet Indonesia 241 Selma Ave St. Louis, MO 63119
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