Dear friends! 

As many of you are aware, we started our marque mangrove conservation and regeneration project, the 001-OxC mangrove project, in early 2021 in partnership with Yayasan Gajah Sumatera (YAGASU). From July to September 2021, we organized village meetings with the communities in the Pulau Kampai Island area in North Sumatra and worked hard to realize the first important step of establishing local governance. Our work culminated in the co-creation and signing of a series of memorandums of understanding with the leaders of four villages in Pulau Kampai, Pangkalan Siata, Salahaji, and Halaban – in which the villages committed to protect the local mangrove forests, support a research program to investigate the mangroves’ carbon sequestration potential, and baseline the conservation and restoration zone for a long term blue carbon regeneration project. 

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to hold virtual meetings over the past two years with our local NGO partner Yagasu. But with the help of Hogan Lovells International in Hong Kong and Jakarta, we were able to ensure a coordinated engagement with a high level of sustained input and alignment with the local community leaders. We appreciate HGL’s support particularly in conducting a comprehensive review of Indonesian forest and maritime laws and analyzing dynamics in Indonesian regulations. 

Together with YAGASU and HGL, we drafted the essential frameworks for Community Benefits Sharing, Land Management, and Carbon Financing, to ensure that all stakeholders were aligned with the long term conservation and regeneration of the forests. And we’re still working with Hogan Lovells Jakarta today to make sure that our project complies with the evolving regulatory framework set by the Indonesian government.

– The Global Mangrove Trust team