Despite growing pressures of development and urbanization, community members from Sendangsari village in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta province improved the local economy through sustainably managing their teak forest. Surrounded by the village’s lush greenery, members of the Wono Lestary Community Forest Management Unit explained to some 20 journalists how the community accomplished this. They acquired a SVLK (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu) license, boosting exports by allowing the EU to import their teak without due diligence. The village women also began processing previously unwanted vegetables and tubers into snacks, herbal jamu health drinks and gluten-free flours.
Ground-level sustainability efforts were at the forefront of the two-day journalism workshop, organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in partnership with the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists (SIEJ) as part of April’s 2018 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Yogyakarta. Read the full story on Forests News.
