Planet Indonesia, one of FSM’s impact investing partners, has been awarded the 2017 United Nations Equator Initiative prize for advancing nature-based local solutions for sustainable development. Out of 806 nominees from 120 countries, only 15 were chosen for this honor.
This prestigious prize acknowledges Planet Indonesia’s innovative solutions to encouraging economic development in rural areas in ways that also conserve the area’s important natural resources.
Adam Miller, executive director of Planet Indonesia, said, “We are so excited to be selected for this award, and feel it is a testament to our model’s ability to both catalyze conservation and promote human well-being.”
Planet Indonesia uses an innovative model that works directly with communities, helping them build businesses based on local resources while protecting and restoring the local ecosystem.
The FSM have supported several of Planet Indonesia’s projects, among them a program to prevent over-harvesting of fish by setting up marine reserves (closing certain coastal areas or sections of rivers to fishing for a specified length of time to allow the main species of fish to reproduce and replenish). They gain the villagers’ buy-in by calling all members to participate in mapping out the area and deciding where the temporary reserve will be set. The villagers then hire a team of four to patrol the area to assure that that no one is breaking the agreement during the closure period. Fish stocks are well replenished before the areas are opened once again for fishing.
We congratulate Planet Indonesia, certainly for its receiving the United Nations Equator Initiative prize, but also for its outstanding work in improving healthcare, education, and sustainable livelihoods for thousands of families while at the same time revitalizing degraded lands and protecting thousands of acres of rainforest and mangrove forest.
