Indonesia is very rich in terms of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, yet so many Indonesians live in poverty, their cities are some of the most polluted in the world, year after year their forest go up in flames, and in the monsoon seasons so many people must suffer the woes of floods and landslides, often fatal.

Indonesia is very rich in terms of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, yet so many Indonesians live in poverty, their cities are some of the most polluted in the world, year after year their forest go up in flames, and in the monsoon seasons so many people must suffer the woes of floods and landslides, often fatal.

WWF-Indonesia’s ultimate goal is to stop and eventually reverse environmental degradation and to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.

Their mission is to conserve biodiversity and reducing human impact through:

• Promoting strong conservation ethics, awareness and actions in Indonesia society.
• Facilitating multi-stakeholders efforts to preserve biodiversity & ecological processes on ecoregional scale.
• Advocating for policies, law and law enforcement that support conservation.
• Promoting conservation for the well-being of people, through sustainable use of natural resources.

In WWF-Indonesia they prioritize their work in important centers of biodiversity known as the Global 200 ecoregions. They are currently running conservation programs in 23 sites in 16 provinces throughout Indonesia in a number of marine, freshwater and forest ecosystems. They strive to save the diversity of species by promoting sustainable conservation that can give continued social and economic benefits to local communities. They also work with various stakeholders to restore damaged ecosystems and mitigate various threats such as climate change and toxic chemicals.

Some vital preconditions need to be in place for effective conservation to happen. These include empowered citizens, responsible governments and businesses and strong conservation policies. Unfortunately currently Indonesia is lagging behind on all three fronts. To this end, WWF-Indonesia works to promote:

• Strong conservation policies at all levels, from the local, regional, national and international government levels, through their advocacy work. They do not stop with governments, since in today’s world corporations can impact conservation negatively if they are not guided by strong corporate environment and social policies. Thus, through corporate engagement they encourage companies to strengthen their conservation policies and practices.
• Community empowerment, whereby local citizens are able to protect natural resources, be actively involved in determining how resources are managed, and protect their rights to receive benefits from sustainable use of these resources, is crucial for conservation in Indonesia to succeed. Their community organizers work to creatively face the challenges of poverty. Nationally, they run public campaigns, designed to help citizens understand issues related to conservation and governance, and provide them a way to participate in making the change for a better world.

They strongly believe in collaboration and dialogue. Every stakeholder has something positive to bring to the conservation table. They conduct ongoing conservation education programs to encourage more and more people to join in the conservation effort.

What They Do

Climate and Energy Programme

Climate drives seasons and regulates weather patterns. There is growing evidence that climate is changing. As a results coral reef bleaching occurrences are happening more frequently, threatening the livelihoods of millions of coastal people, wild fires increase, precipitation increases, habitats change and many more impacts can be perceived. There is a strong and growing consensus that humans have had a role in this change, and because of this they can help to slow down this process and help nature and communities to adapt to these changes

Forest-Species Programme

In the last 50 years, deforestation and damage to forests has occurred in an unprecedented rate in the tropics, including in Indonesia. Estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) put the rate of loss at 14.6 million hectares every year. Sometimes, cleared forests are replaced with agriculture or plantation crops, but often the forest soils are too poor to sustain them and result in degraded lands with little value for livelihoods, biodiversity conservation or economic development. WWF-Indonesia is working to protect the last frontiers of Indonesia’s natural forests, ensure sustainable management of production forests, and restore degraded forests.

Marine Programme

The Indonesian marine fisheries sector is facing a serious risk due to overexploitation. Millions of poor coastal people depend on small- scale fisheries to fulfill their protein needs and to earn some cash for a living. Today, many fisher people are managing to catch less and smaller fish. From all the fish caught by small coastal fishers 70 – 90 percent of these fish depend on coral reefs, while according to the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries only 6 percent of Indonesia’s coral reefs are still in truly good condition. WWF-Indonesia is working with relevant stakeholders to create a network of Marine Protected Areas, in which communities are actively involved in the planning, implementation and reaping the benefits of.

Freshwater Programme

Since 90’s, WWF Indonesia has been working on freshwater issues and its biodiversity in some priority freshwater habitats in Indonesia. Two Ramsar’s sites, Danau Sentarum National Park in West Kalimantan and Danau Biru in Wasur National Park-Papua have been supported by WWF Indonesia through sustainable watershed management approach. In the long stream flow areas of Kreung Peusangan and Krueng Sabee-Aceh; Kapuas Hulu-West Kalimantan; and Noelmina-West Timor, WWF Indonesia has been engaged with the river’s management authorities to develop an integrated sustainable watershed management.