By SHALOMAIGNE MAPAGU
Farwiza Farhan was a 22-year-old well-paid research intern in Australia in 2010 when she had an epiphany: It was time to go back to her place of birth in Aceh, Indonesia, and become a nature conservationist.
Upon her return to Aceh, Farhan joined the Leuser Ecosystem Management Authority or the Badan Pengelola Kawasan Ekosistem Leuser (BPKEL), the agency protecting the 2.6-million-hectare Leuser Ecosystem. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Leuser is home to a rich forest cover and endangered species like elephants, orangutans, rhinos, tigers and other big cats, bears and pangolins. It is also one of the world's largest carbon sinks, which is important in mitigating global warming.
Farhan was the public relations officer of the BPKEL which was tasked to protect Leuser from illegal logging, mining, poaching and other forms of exploitation. In 2012, she left the agency and organized the Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh Foundation or the Yayasan Hutan Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA), to augment government efforts to protect, preserve and restore the Leuser. But in 2013, the Aceh government abolished the BPKEL, leaving Leuser without forest rangers and regulators.
Former BPKEL members joined Farhan's HAkA and they immediately organized the communities into teams monitoring illegal logging, arson and poaching, and reporting them to law enforcers. It also informed and educated communities on the importance of protecting the ecosystem and empowered them by training and providing them with equipment.
Several years later, the group scored two legal victories that fended off threats to Leuser – one upholding a US$26-million fine on a company for a 2012 forest fire. The other was in 2019, annulling a permit to construct a $3-billion hydroelectric power dam that would deprive people of their livelihood, and could trigger flash floods, and drive elephants from their habitat. In the first case, HAkA and other NGOs sued the company for dubiously getting permits to farm in protected areas. The hefty fines paid to the government were used to rehabilitate damaged areas, according to reports in Indonesian media.
The 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Awards named Farhan an awardee for Emergent Leadership for "her profound understanding of the vital connection between nature and humanity, her commitment to social justice and responsible citizenship through her work with forest communities, and her promotion of greater awareness of the need to protect the beating heart and lungs of her country’s and Asia’s rich but endangered natural resources."
Since 1958, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered the Nobel Prize of Asia, has been "given to persons and organizations who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity, and in doing so have made contributions that have transformed their societies for the better." It is named in honor of Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, who was known for his integrity in public service in the 1950s.
In a zoom interview, Farhan lauded HAkA's members and the stakeholders in Leuser. "Each of us has the responsibility to do something. So many people are fighting for causes but do not have my privilege."
HAkA understands all the issues in the cause, enabling it to adjust quickly to developments. It works with government prosecutors and law enforcers; mobilizes women in key roles as forest rangers, citizen journalists and paralegals; and educates children and the youth in schools and universities about environmental protection, Farhan said.
HAkA has been able to mobilize Aceh citizens in the protection of Leuser, through an information campaign in the communities. It conducted an education campaign integrated into the curricula of schools and universities. It also developed a geographic information system and other forest monitoring tools to enable local governments, communities, and universities to monitor Aceh’s forest areas in real time. And it established community-based sustainable forest management involving locals who could ensure the best forest management strategies in their areas.
Women have also been given major roles in the protection of the ecosystem. They have been trained in paralegal services, citizen journalism, and micro-entrepreneurship, just like the men. They were also trained as forest rangers and organized into teams to monitor poaching and illegal logging, together with the men. By getting the communities involved, Farhan said HAkA has been able to transform mindsets and she's proudest of that.
She emphasized the importance of women in the cause: "Women are disproportionately impacted by climate change disasters." In times of crop failures after floods, women lose access to clean water and studies saw spikes in child marriages, wrecking girls' futures in Bangladesh, she said in a zoom interview.
Farhan is credited for organizing the local communities as guardians of the forest and by leading "from below." She's been promoting decentralized leadership by training community-based teams to take charge of the many tasks of ecosystem protection in their areas and develop the next generation of environmental champions.
She has come to understand the communities better: “Throughout my training, we were taught that the local members of the community are often the perpetrators of illegal logging, poaching, destruction in wildlife habitats. But then, when you spend more time with them, you will realize that they are also the best protectors of wildlife. They are also dealing with the pressure of losing their lands and their rights as much as the animals are losing their habitats," Farhan said.
While working in the background to develop local leaders, Farhan also works with government officials, donors, and academics to beef up support for HAkA's cause. On the legal front, HAkA provided public prosecutors and judges with expert testimonies.
"Prosecutors and judges are not ecologists. So we help them by providing them with expert witnesses," Farhan said.
Farhan sees bigger fights ahead in the issuance of concession licenses in Leuser. In a zoom interview with Philippine media on Sept. 6, Farhan said HAkA has been providing the Aceh government with relevant data to convince them not to open up protected areas to commercial use.
“I can’t stop global temperature from changing, but if it’s the forest, there’s a bit more that I can do rather than surrendering to global challenges. None of us can survive without the basic resources that only the environment can give us – water, air, food," she said.