This group in Aceh Tamiang is not only focusing on sustainable palm oil certification, but has also begun establishing nurseries for Acehnese forest trees and fruit trees, as well as tropical forests. There are already 3,500 seedlings of various types, including avocado, petai, jengkol, honey guava, matoa, durian, avocado, langsat, candlenut, mango, and mahogany. The group aims to initially cultivate at least 5,000 trees.

These seedlings will be planted on critical land and areas of high conservation value. This represents a concrete transition for independent farmers toward a regenerative, agroecologically based land model. The Secretary of the Pesatri Putra Gunawan Independent Oil Palm Farmers Group emphasized that smallholders are working together to preserve biodiversity, which will have a tremendous impact on the future of our Earth.

“We are not standing idly by in the face of disasters; we want to initiate and set an example for environmental rehabilitation efforts. We are planting hardy plants and fruit trees to mitigate the impact of disasters, especially landslides.” FORTASBI supports this nursery effort as part of a collaboration to increase concrete actions by smallholders to implement sustainability in their plantation practices.

“We are proud of this collaboration; farmers are consciously working together for a better environment and are beginning to mitigate disasters,” said Rukaiyah Rafik, Head of the FORTASBI Secretariat.