Impact in Numbers
- 2023 Achievements: restored 21 hectares of degraded rainforest, planted over 4,574 trees, and reduced emissions by up to 25%. On track to restore 40 hectares to date.
- Through Bumiterra’s program, community partner’s monthly earnings are projected to increase by up to 80%, to be fully assessed in 2024.
- Planted 20-30 diverse species of native, high-value trees per hectare, averaging 23 species per hectare in 2023.
Key Insights
- Finding your early adopters and local champions: Bumiterra’s efforts to introduce their reforestation efforts became much smoother when they were able to connect with communities who are already experiencing the impact of forest-degrading practices. In implementing social and behavioral change, can you identify your champions?
- The role of data and storytelling: providing data and transparency is at the heart of Bumiterra’s mission to build trust. How can you identify what data matters and present them in a way that moves people?
- Founders boundaries: when you love what you do, your work becomes very personal. Be mindful that when people criticize you, don’t take it personally - it’s a comment on your work, not your identity.
Berdaya Talk is an initiative that explores the stories of change makers and the initiatives they have developed to support sustainable development in Indonesia. This time, we are joined by Tara Susanto (Tara) – Co-founder at Bumiterra.
Hi Tara, can you share with us what Bumiterra is and what’s your mission?
At its heart, Bumiterra is a reforestation company dedicated to restoring forests in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
What sets us apart is that we don’t own the land we work on. Instead, we partner exclusively with local communities and landowners, restoring the forest while providing them with alternative sources of income that are not tied to forest degrading practices.
This way, people can earn a livelihood in an environmentally sustainable manner – a win-win for both the community and the planet.
In exchange for a monthly subscription, companies who work with Bumiterra receive valuable data, including reports on carbon sequestration (which just defines how much carbon has been absorbed by the trees we plant). They also receive data on biodiversity, detailing how many plant species have been regenerated and how many fauna species have returned.
But perhaps the most important metric we share is the community impact: how much local communities have benefited from our reforestation efforts, specifically how their incomes have grown as a direct result of the program.
How would a Bumiterra project support the community and help improve their income?
Bumiterra operates by establishing agreements with landowners, who typically possess hectares of ancestral land. These lands are often informally divided within communities, meaning there can be a lack of formal paperwork.
Part of what we do involves helping these landowners collect the necessary documents and data to obtain legal documents and confirm their land ownership – thus protecting the rights to their land.
This legal recognition provides resilience and safeguards them from potential approaches that could incentivize them to adopt unsustainable practices.
Bumiterra then pays these landowners a monthly fee, as well as provide training and capacity building to ensure they maintain their lands within Bumiterra’s reforestation standards.This ongoing process is important because reforestation isn’t just about planting trees – it’s also about ensuring the survival of those trees over time.
We regularly collect monitoring data, track the progress, and ensure that the reforestation efforts are maintained. Bumiterra’s subscription model is designed to support this continuous care and incentivize landowners to protect the land long-term.
We are conscious of ensuring diversity in what we plant, replanting at least 20 different species to mimic the original ecosystem of the Kalimantan rainforest and avoiding monoculture practices. This includes high-value native vegetation like durian and rambutan, which provide long-term economic value, ensuring the land remains protected for future generations.
What’s the inspiration to Bumiterra and how did you find yourself entering the world of sustainability?
It’s an interesting journey, actually. My partner, James used to be a carbon trader, which, similar to stocks, treats carbon credits as tradable assets. He was actively involved in selling carbon credits to companies looking to meet net-zero goals or offset their emissions.
However, as we progressed, we started questioning whether this was the best approach. There were just so many uncertainties about how to properly calculate carbon in its truest sense.
The conversations around carbon markets were complex, filled with jargon, and lacked transparency.
What we noticed was that the market didn’t need more of these carbon credits or confusing terms – it needed more visible, verifiable, and immediate ways to show the positive impact in the nature-based solution space.
People wanted to know exactly where their money was going – they wanted to see the real tangible impact from their investments – that trees were being planted, that people were being paid fairly, that the land was becoming greener, and that communities were genuinely benefiting.
Kalimantan, as you know, is a very raw-material-intensive area in Indonesia. These communities relied heavily on the income from such industries. However, during periods like the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumer demand decreased, their income became unreliable.
At the time, the carbon offset markets in Indonesia couldn’t provide that kind of transparency. It felt like people were just buying a piece of paper without really knowing what impact they were making.
Of course, now there are more ways to verify proper carbon removal credits, and we support that – but Bumiterra was our answer to that need for real tangible results at the time.
Back in 2020-2021, we thought this could be a real opportunity in Indonesia, especially since no one was really talking about carbon markets here. We even considered targeting SMEs, thinking they might see the value in these carbon credits. And initially, it worked well – we were gaining traction and doing well within just a couple of months of starting.
Can you share example stories of the communities you’ve worked with? How has deforestation impacted the communities you are trying to support?
Initially, we tried working with several communities in West Kalimantan, but it was challenging to get things moving because they were heavily reliant on forest degrading practices, like palm oil and mining.
One of the issues they faced was that these industries weren’t providing stable long-term incomes. For instance, different companies can approach the same community with conflicting methodologies for cultivating palm or running a mine. This led to inconsistent quality in their output, and uncertainty on whether their production will be accepted.
As time went on, these communities also started seeing the environmental degradation that came with these practices. In the village we’re working with now called Desa Rumbih, for example, they have noticed that the soil quality is deteriorating each year, and their rivers are getting polluted due to the mines – they can’t even bathe in the rivers anymore.
This led to the community looking out for alternative solutions to these forest-degrading practices. Bumiterra’s reforestation program offered them a solution to utilize the previously unproductive ancestral lands to allow them to generate short-term income while ensuring long-term sustainability.
We focus our effort on working with those community champions first, introducing the Bumiterra program and showing them how it can offer both short-term financial benefits and long-term sustainability, and then using the real success story to scale our efforts.
What advantages would a company have working with Bumiterra as its reforestation partner?
One of the key benefits we offer is transparency – you can track how many trees have been planted, how many survived or died, which species were planted, and even who’s responsible for keeping those seedlings alive.
If you visit our website, you’ll see a client registry that includes everyone we’ve ever worked with. It’s all public, meaning anyone can access it and check out the details of our collaborations. For example, in our client’s registry for Tanamera Coffee Singapore, you can see the “before and after” pictures, which really illustrate the reforestation progress.
It essentially serves as a public ledger of our efforts, offering full transparency on what we’ve done. This visibility is core to what Bumiterra is all about, and we believe it helps build trust.
I mean, as someone who has donated to tree-planting programs before, I always wondered, “What’s happening to my little tree?” So, we created this platform to show people the tangible impact of their contributions.
What’s really exciting is that, beyond just the trees, we also track metrics like carbon sequestration. It’s a cumulative record of how much carbon has been removed. We also provide concise annual reports with full disclosure of our methodologies.
We’re always on the lookout on how to improve our methodologies, exploring ways to make sure we’re sequestering as much carbon as possible per square of trees planted. But I really believe in this approach. When I look at the work we’ve done, I’m proud of it. It’s my life’s work, and it aligns with what every reforestation company wants – to give clients confidence that they’re making a difference.
There are many different ways to reforest, and we’re not claiming that ours is the only or best method. But it’s one way, and we believe that more methods should emerge as we tackle this massive challenge of climate change. This is the hardest thing humanity has ever had to do, and instead of bickering and claiming which method is best, we need to come together and make a collective effort, like assembling the Avengers!
Bumiterra is just one piece of the puzzle – a single interpretation of the larger goal to save the Earth.
Bumiterra’s values revolve around going “nature positive” and not just net-zero. Can you tell us more about what that means?
When most people talk about “going net zero,” they’re usually referring to balancing emissions – if a company emits 100 tons of carbon, they need to remove 100 tons to be net zero. That’s the commonly accepted metric, and it’s really important, but we want people to think beyond just carbon.
We need to start seeing nature-based solutions not just as a way to measure carbon offsets, but as part of a much bigger, interconnected system.
People often talk about climate change, global warming, and the climate crisis, but there’s also a biodiversity crisis happening that’s not getting enough attention.
A simple example: if you wipe out all the bees in a local area, you’re not just losing bees – you’re disrupting entire food chains. Bees are essential for pollination, which impacts the plants and animals that depend on them, and ultimately, human food security.
If bees disappear, you’re potentially wiping out a significant part of the food supply. And it’s not just bees – there are countless species, both plants and animals, that play vital roles in keeping ecosystems balanced. For instance, flower biodiversity contributes to healthy ecosystems and supports pollination, which leads to things like honey production. Honey, as a natural product, is something that humans still haven’t been able to replicate in terms of its nutrient density.
Biodiversity isn’t just about individual species – it’s about the complex web of interactions between them. When we lose biodiversity, we’re not just losing plants and animals – we’re losing cultural practices, traditional knowledge, and ways of life that are connected to the natural world.
It’s not just a scientific loss – it’s a loss of humanity, of the wisdom passed down through generations, and even of alternative ways of healing and living.
So, when we talk about going beyond net zero, we’re talking about taking care of the world around us in a holistic way.
Protecting biodiversity is about protecting the future, ensuring that we leave a healthier, more vibrant world for others. Ultimately, caring for the environment is caring for people. It’s about making sure that our neighbors, both near and far, can live happy, healthy lives. That’s why we believe it’s important to go beyond the basic metrics and embrace a more expansive view of what it means to truly tackle climate change.
How do you measure success at Bumiterra and what are the impact areas you’re trying to focus on?
Right now, our main focus is delivering the best, most visible registry out there. It’s not just about gathering more data; it’s about collecting the right kind of data – and sharing this data and story in a way that moves people and shows real impact.
We can’t just flood people with endless data and expect them to feel inspired. It’s about curating what we show and ensuring it’s meaningful.
Of course, I’d love for us to restore a million hectares one day, but before we get there, we need to figure out how to properly restore 100 hectares first. It’s about building that strong foundation, step by step. For now, 100 hectares is our bullseye, and we’re working toward that before we even think about the bigger goals.
You’re on your way to restoring more than 40 hectares right now , congratulations!
What’s crucial is not just that we’re on our way to restoring 40 hectares – it’s that we’re maintaining it. No one’s cutting down trees, there’s no leakage, and we’re ensuring sustainable practices. We’re also making sure that the community isn’t deforesting other areas just because they now have these restored parts of land.
Honestly, the work has only just begun. You might think that after reforesting 100 hectares, the job is done. But the real challenge is making sure that the ecosystem stays healthy and sustainable. The goal might be big, like restoring millions of hectares, but it’s a long-term process, and with that comes the risk of burnouts.
We’re very mindful of burnout culture, starting from within. There have been heavy moments, definitely. But it’s worth it – this cause is worth fighting for. I truly believe there’s no other occupation that can simultaneously provide for communities, not harm animals or the environment, and still make money.
The reality is that for years, making money has often meant sacrificing some part of nature, and I really want to challenge that. We’re committed to building Bumiterra for the long haul, and because of that, we don’t put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to achieve everything quickly.
What are some important lessons that you’ve learned during your time building Bumiterra?
The importance of setting boundaries. People will have all kinds of opinions on how to save the world, and you can’t listen to every single one.
I’ve found that meditation and self-reflection really help me face challenges and learn from them instead of running away. It’s not just about reflecting when things get tough but making it a regular practice. It’s all about growth, reflection, and being intentional with your time.
Another big lesson I’ve learned, which ties into boundaries, is not to take things too personally. When you love what you do, your work becomes very personal. So, when you receive feedback that doesn’t sit well, it can feel like a personal attack.
But in reality, they’re probably just critiquing your work, your approach, or your methods - not you as a person. That perspective has helped me grow a lot. It’s like, just because someone says something about your work, it doesn’t mean they’re saying that about you as a person.
We wear so many hats in life. You’re not just the co-founder of your organization; you’re also a friend, a family member, and so much more. So when feedback feels harsh, it’s important to remember that it’s not a reflection of your whole self, just one aspect. This is definitely a lesson I’m still learning.
What are some exciting projects that you have on the horizon for Bumiterra?
Oh, we have a lot going on, but if I had to pick one thing, it’s the next version of our registry. It’s going to be even better than what we have now. People who already think it’s cool are going to be shook—so be prepared! I’m super excited about launching it.
Besides that, we have some side projects we’re excited about, like making our entire operations zero-waste and plastic-free. For example, the polybags we use for hosting seedlings in nurseries usually get discarded after one use. But instead of throwing them away, we send them to a waste facility to turn them into wearable pins!
If people want to learn more about Bumiterra, where can they find you?
Learn more about Bumiterra and their works here:
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