Each planting season, we provide smallholder farmers with thousands of tree seedlings completely free of charge. Recently, our team in Indonesia has established two new nurseries. This puts them on track to achieve their goal of providing over 100,000 seedlings to more than 200 farmers in the months of March and April.
With almost 1.5 million tree seedlings distributed up to this day, we are still working hard on reaching our ambitious goal of planting 100 million trees in Indonesia. The recent establishment of two new nurseries in Borneo is another milestone towards this mission. It will not only increase the quantity of seedlings, but also their quality.
The nurseries are located in the districts of Gunung Mas and Katingan in Central Kalimantan. Their development was met with enthusiasm and support by the local communities. Having the new nurseries close to their homes allows smallholder farmers in the area to learn more about the origins of the light wood that we have been promoting to them. Being run by locals, the new facilities also aim to strengthen the communities and enable them to gain practical knowledge and experience in the field of nursery work. In addition, the new facilities will make even more people aware of our initiative and encourage them to get involved.
“The community’s involvement in the nurseries proves our commitment to collaborating with them. With the presence of these nurseries and their increased insight, I hope this can be a starting point for the community to be able to establish and develop their own nurseries someday.” said Rayanansi, our country director in Indonesia.
The establishment of these nurseries has been going along very well, but that does not mean that there have not been any challenges to overcome along the way. In view of the threats posed by floods in the area around our site, our team needed to be very careful when determining the best location for the nurseries. Moreover, they needed to deal with pest issues and design preventive measures. Thus, we can’t be thankful enough for the effort given by our team and also for the smallholder farmers, who supported us by making their land available for the nurseries.
“Through these nurseries, we can finally increase the capacity of our team, such as knowledge that they can acquire not only in theory but also in practice.” Raya adds. “They learned a lot during the establishment of these nurseries. Their professional development will be shaped by these experiences.”
Looking into the future, we have high hopes that the local communities we work for will profit immensely from the establishment of the two new nurseries. While our ongoing projects will benefit from expanded capacity and improved seedling quality, the impact of the nurseries also extends to building communities and attracting potential participants. And just like that, our journey to 100 million trees in Indonesia continues.