Sustainable Development Impacts

ASRI alleviates financial precarity for the rural poor. Instead of using cash, patients can pay with seedlings, manure or handicrafts, making high-quality healthcare accessible to all. Patients can also “bank” seedlings and accumulate financial credit before healthcare is needed. These seedlings are used to reforest priority corridors identified by the communities. In hundreds of Radical Listening meetings, nearly all loggers expressed willingness to quit logging if a viable alternative livelihood was offered. One logger summarized the prevailing sentiment: “If there was any other stable work than being a chainsaw operator, that would be better.” The alternative livelihoods designed by former loggers are more durable, more ecologically sustainable, and less physically demanding than illegal logging. Organic Farming training has reached 280 farmers, and the Kitchen Gardens program supports 324 women to grow nutritious, fresh produce for their households.


RESILIENCE, ADAPTABILITY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

ASRI develops all of its programs through Radical Listening, a method that trusts community members to be the best solvers of their problems. Since 2007, ASRI has spent 400 hours listening to 40 communities around GPNP. When the Organic Farming program decided to provide goats as a manure source, community members came forward and requested the livestock go to widows. So, ASRI has distributed 282 goats to widows since 2008. When a low level of logging persisted despite ASRI programs, village leaders suggested that each community appoint one person to help his logging neighbors find alternative livelihoods. This idea became the Forest Guardians program, successful since 2011. Radical Listening makes ASRI programs resilient to change, adaptable to local needs, and self-determined. Both the Goats for Widows and Chainsaw Buyback programs and are self-sustaining: the goats and micro-loans provided to new participants are sourced from the repayments of previous recipients.ASRI serves diverse populations of Malays (coastal peoples), Dayak tribes (indigenous forest peoples), and landless migrants from the islands of Java and Bali. In general these communities are very poor, with an average income of $1.44 per day. A 2007 baseline survey of 1,500 households around GPNP revealed poor health access: an average emergency-room visit cost $227 (more than average annual income) and the nearest hospital was 2 to 12 hours away (if roads or rivers were passable). One-third of interviewees reported having had to choose between healthcare and food. Health metrics have improved dramatically since ASRI began working: communities surrounding GPNP experienced a 90% drop in under-five mortality, an 85% drop in infant mortality, and a significant decrease of fever, diarrhea, and persistent cough. The number of births per mother has dropped. ASRI’s program of directly-observed tuberculosis treatment has a patient-dropout rate of only 1-3%, far below the national average of 10%—a critical intervention given that Indonesia has the 2nd highest rate of TB in the world, and drug-resistance poses a global threat. Lack of access to healthcare drives deforestation, which in turn contributes to poor health by reducing freshwater, destabilizing weather, and increasing insect-borne illness. ASRI disrupts this vicious cycle by opening the opportunity for communities to care for their forest while receiving the care they need.


REDUCED INEQUALITIES

ASRI serves diverse populations of Malays (coastal peoples), Dayak tribes (indigenous forest peoples), and landless migrants from the islands of Java and Bali. In general these communities are very poor, with an average income of $1.44 per day. A 2007 baseline survey of 1,500 households around GPNP revealed poor health access: an average emergency-room visit cost $227 (more than average annual income) and the nearest hospital was 2 to 12 hours away (if roads or rivers were passable). One-third of interviewees reported having had to choose between healthcare and food. Health metrics have improved dramatically since ASRI began working: communities surrounding GPNP experienced a 90% drop in under-five mortality, an 85% drop in infant mortality, and a significant decrease of fever, diarrhea, and persistent cough. The number of births per mother has dropped. ASRI’s program of directly-observed tuberculosis treatment has a patient-dropout rate of only 1-3%, far below the national average of 10%—a critical intervention given that Indonesia has the 2nd highest rate of TB in the world, and drug-resistance poses a global threat. Lack of access to healthcare drives deforestation, which in turn contributes to poor health by reducing freshwater, destabilizing weather, and increasing insect-borne illness. ASRI disrupts this vicious cycle by opening the opportunity for communities to care for their forest while receiving the care they need.


GENDER EQUALITY

ASRI is an organization run by women: its two founders and its two successive executive directors have all been women. Several ASRI reforestation and agricultural programs—traditionally dominated by men—are led by women. A former reforestation-site manager explained the impact on community members: “They see that ASRI, under the leadership of women, can do many things. So we know that women have the power to make change and can work just as well, or even better, than men.” With ASRI support, several women who formerly served as “shadow members” of farmers’ groups, attending meetings only to represent their husbands, are now fully-participating members. One of ASRI’s community health workers was elected head of her dusun (village unit of around 800 households), becoming the first female head of a dusun in ASRI’s 125,000-person regency. Women currently bear the brunt of limited healthcare access, and over 90% of births occur at home. ASRI supports maternal health by training midwives and birth attendants, offering prenatal HIV testing and treatment, family-planning education, and access to birth control. In 2018, as its first response to Radical Listening meetings, ASRI hired two full-time midwives in the remote communities around BBBRNP. ASRI is planning to hire an obstetrician-gynecologist to further improve maternal and neonatal care for the GPNP region. Female empowerment and gender equity are woven into all ASRI programs.


SOCIAL INCLUSION

The ASRI Kids program brings conservation education to 27 primary schools around GPNP—an important service, as environmental education is not included in public school curricula. Since 2012, ASRI Kids has taught 941 students the importance of ecosystems for health, wildlife and climate. Field trips to rain forests, reforestation sites, and organic farms are a highlight. Through the ASRI Teens program, 42 motivated middle and high-schoolers take their environmental education to the next level by contributing to conservation efforts. Health and conservation outreach programs have reached 9,144 people through evening classes in the communities and the ASRI Clinic waiting room. ASRI serves widows, one of the most marginalized demographics surrounding GPNP, through the Goats For Widows program. Since 2008, goats have been distributed to 282 widows, many of whom had never owned property. Each widow receives monthly visits from the Goats For Widows coordinator, who assists with hoof-trimming, breeding, birthing and deworming. A goat’s first offspring is returned to ASRI and passed on to a new widow from the waiting list. A goat can be sold for $100-200, providing a financial safety-net. Widows have used the profit from selling goat offspring to pay for healthcare, house repairs and school fees.