Helping Indonesia's Coffee Farmers Become Forest Guardians

There are two goals that motivate Intan Fardinatri, our coffee manager in Indonesia: conserving biodiversity and protecting local livelihoods. Years of working with coffee farmers in the buffer zone of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, on the island of Sumatra, have taught her that those goals are interconnected. “[Farmers] are the true guardians of this forest,” she says.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park provides essential habitat for the critically endangered Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhino, and Sumatran tiger, but more than 22 percent of its forestland is threatened, in part by agricultural activity. That’s why Fardinatri and her team provide training in more sustainable practices—like planting shade trees— that can also boost farmer incomes.

With the Rainforest Alliance’s support, these farmers have planted nearly 50,000 trees along the park’s border and learned to conduct biodiversity assessments of local wildlife. The assessments help attract tourists, who come to see rare species like the “stinking corpse lily”—the world’s largest known individual flower, named for the foul insectattracting odor it emits.

After inventorying flower locations, farmers were paid to lead tours and provide visitors with coffee and food—offering yet another example of how biodiversity conservation can generate economic value. Fardinatri remains hopeful that through innovation and collaboration, “we can protect Indonesia’s precious ecosystems and support the communities who depend on them.”