Hutan Harapan
Indonesia: Restoring forests for future needs
Hutan Harapan (Indonesian: forest of hope) is a tropical secondary lowland forest in Sumatra, Indonesia, and one of our most precious conservation and restoration programs. The forest represents about one fifth of all remaining lowland forest on Sumatra. On more than 98,000 hectares, we strive not only to save a stunning biodiversity but also the sustainable livelihood of the indigenous Batin Sembilan.
The project is supported by the International Climate Iniviative of the German Government (IKI) and the German Development Bank (KfW) and jointly managed by an international consortium of our partners Burung Indonesia, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and BirdLife International. Our project is based on a Ecosystem Restoration Concession - granted by the Indonesian government in order to protect and restore the forest. Hutan Harapan was the first of its kind.
Main activities of the Hutan Harapan project include
Forest protection and restoration
First and foremost, we protect the ramaining forest and its flora and fauna against illegal encroachment, conversion of forest into farmland and poaching. This includes also the prevention of and fight against forest fires. Furthermore, we restore encroached areas in order to achieve a permanent closed forest canopy.
Research
Multiple surveys and studies are conducted on biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon uptake and water storage.
Community partnership and empowerment
NABU supports and empowers the Batin Sembilan — an indigenous community that has been inhabiting the forests since the 7th century. We help organizing basic health, education, water supply, electric lighting, and more. The Batin Sembilan play also an active role in helping to protect the forest.
Business Development
The project helps to create and support various sustainable business models such as ecotourism and sustainable use of non timber forest products like honey.
Get more details
Hope alone will not preserve the rainforest in Indonesia. The project was launched in 2019 and has the chance to make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, the livelihoods of the indigenous population and biodiversity in the Forest of Hope". Visit our detailed website.
Project Websiterelated topics
An ecosystem is a complex of living organisms. NABU focuses on restoring ecosystems to their original state and important regulatory functions such as carbon sequestration. Ideally that's done by creating conditions in which the ecosystem can recover on its own. more →
Climate change and biodiversity loss are the most pressing challenges to humanity and people start to realize they are both sides of the same coin. NABU stands with science. We demand and support all efforts to reach a net-zero-carbon economy globally. more →
Ecosystem functioning needs to be seen as a global task: Therefore NABU is active in biodiversity hotspots and beyond. As part of the BirdLife network bird conservation has a long tradition for us. It’s efforts are directed to the whole biodiversity.
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