[Guest Blog] Tanoto Foundation Scholar from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Reflects on Project Sukacita 2018

[Guest Blog] Tanoto Foundation Scholar from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Reflects on Project Sukacita 2018

Editor’s Note: This article is contributed by Shannon Lee, a Year 3 Medical Student at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. A Tanoto Foundation scholar, Shannon served as the leader of the 42-man team of volunteers for Project Sukacita 2018. “Sukacita” – an Indonesian word which means “joy”, was started six years ago […]

16 Villages Renew Commitment to be Fire-Free, Continue FFVP Partnership with Asian Agri

16 Villages Renew Commitment to be Fire-Free, Continue FFVP Partnership with Asian Agri

As part of Asian Agri’s Fire-Free Village Programme (FFVP), 16 villages in Riau and Jambi, Indonesia have renewed their commitment to not use fire as a land management tool. Launched in 2016, FFVP aims to empower and encourage villages to adopt a zero tolerance to burning as an approach to clear land for agricultural and […]

Apical Increases Palm Oil Production Capacity with KRN Acquisition

Apical Increases Palm Oil Production Capacity with KRN Acquisition

Apical, one of Indonesia’s largest processors and exporters of palm oil and its derivatives such as food, oleo chemicals and biodiesel for domestic use and international export, has recently acquired Kutai Refinery Nusantara (KRN) in Kalimantan, Indonesia on 20 June 2018. A member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and a downstream palm […]

SAC Progress Report Highlights Achievements & Challenges in SFMP 2.0 Implementation

SAC Progress Report Highlights Achievements & Challenges in SFMP 2.0 Implementation

APRIL’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) published its progress report, providing a retrospective of its engagement with one of the largest, most technologically advanced and efficient makers of pulp and paper products in the world. Meeting for the first time in January 2014, the SAC operates as an independent body tasked with overseeing the implementation of APRIL’s […]

RER Inaugural Annual Report Highlights Increased Biodiversity, Absent Fires and Engaged Communities

RER Inaugural Annual Report Highlights Increased Biodiversity, Absent Fires and Engaged Communities

Endangered species have returned. Fires have been absent for almost three years. Communities have been engaged and their members, given alternative livelihoods. These are several of the highlights in Riau Ecosystem Restoration’s (RER) first annual report, released in April 2018. Guided by its pioneering approach of a four-phase model of peatland forest protection, creation and […]

Tanoto Foundation Continues to Transform Education in Indonesia with Technology and Teacher Training

Tanoto Foundation Continues to Transform Education in Indonesia with Technology and Teacher Training

How do you transform the fourth largest education system in the world? With more than 50 million students, 2.6 million teachers, and 250,000 schools spread across an archipelago of more than 900 inhabited islands, Indonesia’s educational landscape is vast as it is complex. But with innovation and commitment, Tanoto Foundation continues to help transform the […]

LKYSPP Students’ APRIL Visit: Policies, Programmes & Communities

LKYSPP Students’ APRIL Visit: Policies, Programmes & Communities

On 20 March, ten students from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS) visited APRIL’s operations in Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau Province, Indonesia. The trip was part of the students’ class on “Moral Reasoning & the Policy Process”, a module on the challenges, justifications and implications of policy positions […]

Asian Agri Distributes USD 267,000 to 30,000 Smallholders at Premium Sharing Ceremony

Asian Agri Distributes USD 267,000 to 30,000 Smallholders at Premium Sharing Ceremony

Asian Agri, one of the world’s leading palm oil producers and a longtime partner of Indonesia’s smallholders, distributed USD 267,000 (IDR 3.7 billion) to 12 heads of the Association of Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD), representing over 30,000 farmers in a premium sharing ceremony in Jakarta. Indonesia’s Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and […]

More Communities Reap Full Rewards in APRIL’s Fire Free Village Program 2017

More Communities Reap Full Rewards in APRIL’s Fire Free Village Program 2017

A record 15 of 18 villages in APRIL’s Fire Free Village Program (FFVP) will receive the full award for not using fire as a tool in their approach to community land management in 2017, a significant milestone in their continuing journey towards fire resilience. Now on its third year, FFVP is a systematic and targeted approach […]

RER: Where Conservation and Chilli Farming Meet

RER: Where Conservation and Chilli Farming Meet

There was a time when Riau farmer Zamri had to struggle to make ends meet, having to provide for his wife and children, as well as for his mother and sister. These days, Zamri – better known by his nickname Acok – enjoys a relatively steady monthly income. All by running his own farm in […]