Scaling forest restoration in Indonesia

The rainforest in Borneo is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and a major deforestation hotspot. The damage to the Borneo forests is immense, but not yet irreversible. Protecting the remaining forest requires viable alternatives to slash and burn agriculture and large-scale plantation development. Fairventures Social Forestry (FSF) was created in 2018 as an investment vehicle for forest restoration with the explicit goal to implement and scale-up commercial restoration models. This ambition originated from the field work of its sister NGO, Fairventures Worldwide, which has been active in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia since 2014 and has planted nearly 1 million trees, reaching more than 1,100 farmers.

FSF aims to address the challenge of deforestation by partnering with local communities and forest concession owners to develop and implement a business model for the restoration of degraded areas based on fast-growing timber trees, cash crops, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and carbon certificates. In 2019, FSF began piloting its first investment project to restore 4,000 ha. in Central Kalimantan.

FSF’s ambition is to scale restoration in Indonesia by mobilising private capital and proving that large-scale restoration is viable and profitable for local communities, forest concessions and investors.

Read more about Fairventures Social Forestry’s work.

Photo courtesy: Fairventures Social Forestry.