TREE PLANTING INITIATIVE

Providing Employment And Income By Repairing Damaged Land

The Rimba Raya Conservation (RRC) team has worked closely with local villages to develop a programme that helps provide employment and income from tree planting. Supporting community Nurseries is vital to the success of any tree planting initiative. This knowledge has led to our funding several nurseries in and around the concession area.

Tree saplings are sourced from these community nurseries, we empower people by embracing the traditional expertise of local stakeholders who help to ensure that only indigenous trees are planted in the area. We pay the communities to plant the trees which has given many individuals in the concession area a steady income resulting in increased economic stability.

Non-cash crops are developed to reforest degraded areas and cash-crops to create diversified sustainable income for communities.

Rimba Raya provides technical support, teaching people how to produce high-quality seedlings.  We give them capital to produce seedlings, and then teach them how to plant trees and take care of them. The next stage is to make sure people can be independent in restoring damaged land, burnt land. To make it productive again or return it to its condition as a natural, forested area.

In November 2018, we planted 3.500 mangrove tree saplings and in July 2019 an additional 16,500 mangrove tree saplings were planted. This brings the total of mangroves being planted in that time frame to 20.000. We’ve signed contracts with corporate sponsors to plant another 100,000 in 2020 and 2021.

In the last quarter of 2019, 16,587 forest seedlings were growing in our North Unit nursery, these will be ready to be planted in March 2020. That equates to approximately 1 tree per village per day (10 per day) or 3,650 trees per year from being harvested.

We have partnered with the Seruyan Government who hope to develop the area as a tourist destination and who also understand the value of a thriving mangrove ecosystem.