By Trina Jones | Development and Administration Associate
Hello Global Givers,
Two collaborative opportunities have come up at ASRI this spring that both recognize the impact your donations are having in the area, and both will make it possible for ASRI to do even more work to save forests with stethoscopes.
At the end of March, ASRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gunung Palung National Park Office (BTNGP), which allows the two organizations to better work together to achieve their shared aim of ending illegal logging in the park.
ASRI has partnered with the national park office since our founding in 2007, but without a formal relationship, they could not realize all the benefits of collaboration. Now, ASRI can more effectively share the results of the Forest Guardians' on-the-ground monitoring efforts to assist with enforcing logging laws within the park. Further, ASRI will use the systems already in place to maintain alternative livelihoods programs BTNGP is able to start with government funding. BTNGP can now also grant ASRI greater access to the park for educational purposes like ASRI Kids field trips.
The MoU is a critical step in conserving the rainforest. ASRI and BTNGP are two of most powerful actors in this fight and have now teamed up to pool their already significant resources. Together, we will be able to educate more, train more, enforce more - all leading to less desire, need and ability to cut down trees and destroy the precious Gunung Palung habitat. Please read more about the MoU on our blog.
Second, just last week, ASRI Cofounder Dr. Hotlin Ompusunggu and Health In Harmony Executive Director Michelle Bussard attended the Forests Asia Summit 2014 in Jakarta. Organized by CIFOR and co-hosted by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, the summit invited leaders and stakeholders from Southeast Asia to share knowledge and best practices for managing forests. ASRI was recognized by this group as a significant contributor to rainforest conservation in Borneo and asked to participate in this event to influence social and economic policy in a sustainable direction. I haven't heard their final take on the week yet, but I feel sure that, as with everywhere the HIH model is represented, people were impressed and inspired by what donors like you have accomplished with a small clinic next to a rainforest.
It has taken years of visionaries, like all of you Global Givers, who have seen the connections between human and environmental health then invested in the communities in West Kalimantan. The world is now taking notice of all you have accomplished in partnership with those communities. I am so excited about these two recent capacity-building opportunities because they represent the ways is which ASRI is growing to tackle problems the size of climate change, human health crises, and poverty. Thank you, thank you Global Givers for being the first to believe they have what it takes.
Til next time,
Trina
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By Trina Jones | Development Associate
By Trina Jones | Development Associate
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