January 04, 2018 2 min read

In 2017, we began working with the Friends of the National Parks Foundation on a pretty big reforestation project: planting 70K trees in Bali and Kalmantan, Indonesia. The trees will be planted over the course of a year, in several regions, so today we're sharing an update on how things are progressing.

Here's a video to show some of what's going on, then read on below for more details!

The primary objective is to restore critical wildlife habitat for endanged species including orangutans, Bali Starling, proboscis monkeys, several species of birds, and countless other native rainforest dwellers. Indonesia is home to 10-15% of the world's biodiversity, but in the last half century, more than 74 million hectares of Indonesian rainforest have been logged, burned, or degraded by palm oil plantations, resulting in a loss of over 70% of Indonesia's intact forests. Sadly, this has lead to a significant decrease in wildlife survival, and we'd like to help reverse that by reviving safe habitats as much as possible. 

An additional benefit to reforestation here includes improving the wellbeing of local communities by increasing options for employment and income generation (through education, agroforestry, ecotourism, mixed & organic farming, etc). In order to complete these projects, local people are hired to help with preparing the land and getting all those thousands of saplings planted. 

In each of the project locations, nurseries produce tens-of-thousands of tree saplings per year. These are planted on reforestation sites, and are also given away freely to any local village member to plant on their own private land. Through education and working with local communities, this program also aims to encourage ecotourism and agro-forestry, reducing the need for harmful industries by providing environmentally-positive employment opportunities. There are also volunteer opportunities.

In the video above, you'll see many of the saplings being grown in the nurseries, and some of the efforts to get land prepared. In a future update, we hope to capture more tree-planting!

Curious about the tree species? Here are the types of trees we'll be planting as part of this project:

Durian, Rambutan, Jengkol tree, Light Red, Parkia, Speciosa, Areca, Catechu, Cempedak, Meranti, Aquilaria, and Malaccensis.

Special thanks to House of Marley for helping to support this project!

Want to help?

Every $1 donated plants a tree! You choose the region, and we'll get your trees planted.