The pillaging of Indonesia’s forests has been called one of the biggest environmental crimes in recent history. It is estimated that in the 1980s and 1990s, Indonesia lost 1.5 million hectares of forest each year due to rampant, illegal logging. Large-scale forest destruction resulted in serious loss of biodiversity, displacement of indigenous populations, and disasters like landslides and floods. Its impact went much further: deforestation made Indonesia the third largest contributor to greenhouse gases in the world. A problem of such epic proportions demands the response of governments, international bodies, and the broad population. But the response can also begin with the actions of individuals.
AMBROSIUS RUWINDRIJARTO, born in Central Java to a father who was a teacher-farmer and a mother who until now practices organic farming, grew up to enjoy and value his natural environment. As a student in Bogor Agricultural University, his passion for forest trekking and mountaineering led him and five schoolmates to bond with forest dwellers, and organize Telapak for small projects in wildlife protection and village self-help. But things turned much more serious and complex when the group started to confront the issue of illegal logging.
In 1999, partnering with the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which specializes in the investigation of environmental crimes, Telapak began undercover investigations of Indonesia’s logging concessions. Tracking the timber trade from source to market, the Telapak-EIA investigations uncovered the illicit, transnational operations of timber bosses, brokers, and smugglers, in cases involving billions of dollars and the trade in endangered hardwood species. This was dangerous work, as RUWI would personally experience when he and an EIA representative were forcibly detained in the premises of a timber company in central Kalimantan, physically assaulted, threatened with death, and pursued by a mob even after they had found refuge in a local police station. They were flown to safety under armed escort only after local and foreign authorities intervened. But this did not stop Telapak and EIA.
Their exposes on the how and who’s who in illegal logging and smuggling sparked public indignation and heightened pressures on Indonesia and other governments to tighten and enforce regulations on timber production and trade. Telapak went on to participate in framing laws and regulations on forest management and timber legality verification, and was part of negotiations for an Indonesia-EU treaty on the handling of the illegal timber trade. RUWI and his co-founders in Telapak did not only oppose and expose; they also proposed principled but pragmatic solutions. Telapak promoted sustainable, community-based logging and has created community logging cooperatives that legally and sustainably manage forests in more than 200,000 hectares of forest land, using an approach that does not only conserve forest wealth but also benefits the local communities instead of a few well-connected concessionaires and unscrupulous traders.
This approach echoes what RUWI developed from his four-year immersion in two coastal communities in Bali. Working directly with the fishers and villagers, RUWI and his Telapak colleagues led the destructive fishing reform by creating viable programs which reconciled conservation, coral reef restoration, and economic improvement. These villages have now become the model for other fishing villages in community-managed marine resource management.
After more than ten years, Telapak has grown into a 247-member organization engaged in social forestry, marine conservation, and indigenous people’s rights. It has initiated community logging cooperatives and social enterprises engaged in the ecologically-friendly production and marketing of forestry, fishery, and agricultural products. Its programs have had an impact in many of the thirty-three provinces of Indonesia.
This expansion owes in large part to RUWI’s leadership as Telapak’s executive director, and then its president. Pragmatic, hands-on, and action-oriented, he has infused the organization with his zeal and optimism. Even in the dark days of the anti-logging campaign, he would insist, “We are trying to find a hope, some light. We have to work hard to make it happen.”
In electing AMBROSIUS RUWINDRIJARTO to receive the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his sustained advocacy for community-based natural resource management in Indonesia, leading bold campaigns to stop illegal forest exploitation, as well as fresh social enterprise initiatives that engage the forest communities as their full partners.