In East Nusa Tenggara, there are ‘Bamboo Mamas’, women who are creating thousands of bamboo seedlings in bamboo nurseries in preparation to replant degraded lands and bring back the forests of the past. This initiative is a direct response to the threats climate change is bringing to their island home.
The Environmental Bamboo Foundation has been working with rural community empowerment, bamboo agroforestry, and land restoration for over 25 years in Indonesia. The Mama Bambu program is part of the overall vision for 1,000 Bamboo Villages throughout Indonesia.
Nearly 24 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests have been degraded. Meanwhile, about 35% of villages are located in forest fringe areas, where communities are dependent upon natural resources. We have a plan to restore these degraded lands.
This shows education and inclusive economic growth to be the main catalysts in climate change mitigation. Through decades of work in bamboo and agroforestry systems, the Environmental Bamboo Foundation is now on its way to a global Restoration Economy program, designed to reforest degraded lands and turn them into sustainable resources for our community and our planet.