Reforestation for Natural Disaster Mitigation

Thank you so much for your donation to IDRAP’s work on Disaster Mitigation efforts in rural areas of Southeast Sulawesi Province in eastern Indonesia through reforestation of both rainforest and mangrove forests. Your generosity means everything to us and to the community we serve. We know you have a lot of choices when it comes to donating, and we are so grateful that you chose to donate to our cause. We promise to be responsible stewards of both your donation and your trust.

During this period, IDRAP distributed tree seedlings to the community in one of the villages in Southeast Sulawesi. The teak seedlings provided were 6-12 month old to be planted in the vacant lands owned by the targeted village community, including in between existing plant cells, such as in between cashew trees. The village community was very happy with this free distribution of seedlings, as evidenced by 27 heads of families taking the seedlings provided. Each family received a distribution of around 40-60 trees according to the area of empty land they had to plant. If this project is successful, in other words the planted trees grow well, it will provide wood needs such as for household utensils and so on from the community's own land without taking wood from natural forests as is currently still done by local village communities.

Because the teak seedlings provided come from other areas in Southeast Sulawesi, IDRAP asks the villagers not to plant them directly on their land but to leave them in polybags and store them first in the area of the land to be planted for the adaptation process to the local weather. This is also to check whether all the seedlings can adapt well to the new environment. If there are any dead seedlings, IDRAP will replace them with new ones in the same amount of dead seedlings. After 3-6 months of adaptation, the community is invited to plant them in their own land.

“I support this project to replant trees on my vacant land and in between my existing plants. This will give me and my family the opportunity to obtain the wood we need in the future without having to cut it down from the natural forest.” Ardin, one of the residents who received teak seedlings.

Thank you all for your support. We are all preparing the lives of people who live amidst the threat of natural disasters, to be more resilient to disasters that lurk at any time and reduce the impact/risk when disasters occur, especially high waves, abrasion, landslides, floods and clean water crises.