Regenerating Rainforests

Last month we celebrated the 12th anniversary of our Indonesian partner organization ASRI (Alam Sehat Lestari). In 2007, when Dr. Kinari Webb and Hotlin Ompussunggu founded ASRI, they based their work on hundreds of hours spent talking with the communities surrounding Gunung Palung National Park, a huge rainforest park in Borneo that was subject to rampant logging. When Dr. Webb and the rest of the team asked these communities what they needed to be able to give up logging as a means of survival, the answer was both simple and revolutionary: the first thing they needed was good health.

Cut to 12 years later: Health In Harmony and ASRI are leaders in the emerging field of Planetary Health. ASRI has been providing high quality and affordable health care, allowing families to break their dependence on illegal logging. As of mid-2019, medical staff at ASRI have treated over 32,000 patients who otherwise would have little or no access to care.

What's more, the non-cash payment program -- which allows patients to pay with seedlings, reforestation supplies, labor, or handicrafts -- is an extraordinary solution for the community’s economic and health care needs. These alternative payment options allow patients to pay for their care in ways that help ASRI to conduct forest conservation and reforestation.

In just the first half of 2019, ASRI received more than 15,000 seedlings from patients. These seedlings are then cultivated and planted in logged or degraded areas. More than 250,000 seedlings have been planted to date. And that's in addition to the 21,000 hectares of forest that have grown back naturally since logging dramatically declined, due to the availability of affordable, reliable medical care!

In addition, the value of our Planetary Health Education programs cannot be stressed enough, as the future of our health and the health of the planet depend on the next generation. Through community outreach and education efforts, ASRI and Health In Harmony have provided environmental education for more than 10,000 adults and kids surrounding Gunung Palung National Park.

Meanwhile, our Chainsaw Buyback program, which offers incentives for loggers to switch to sustainable livelihoods, has taken 128 chainsaws out of commision so far. ASRI buys their chainsaw, and the former logger gets to use the funds to start a new business. We even include vocational training in fields such as organic farming and gardening, fish farming, and goat husbandry. So far, this program has protected almost 20,000 trees -- and the number goes up every day!

In these 12 years, ASRI has helped save the precious rainforest ecosystem of Gunung Palung National Park while simultaneously making the local communities healthier and more prosperous. In fact, the ASRI model - and your donations to Health In Harmony, which supports ASRI - have made our whole world healthier!