06/05/2015: Cargill commits to planting 150,000 trees in Indonesia over the next three years to commemorate Earth Day

Trees planted to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers and for conservation

Cargill announced that it has committed to planting 150,000 trees in Indonesia across its company sites nationwide over the next three years. This initiative is in celebration of Earth day and the company’s 150th year anniversary. Cargill employees celebrated Earth Day 2015 by planting 1,000 treees at Kampong Tunggilis, Ciputri Village, right on the foot of the Gede Pangrango Montain in the Cianjur Regency, West Java.

Kampong Tunggilis is a rain-water absorption site that provides water supplies to Cianjur, Jakarta and Bekasi areas. Protecting water-absorbing forests at Tunggilis is critical for ensuring sustainable fresh water supplies to the Great Jakarta areas and reducing water volumes in rivers flowing to the Java Sea, which will help lower the risk of flood in Jakarta or Bekasi and to prevent soil erosion.

Image: Mr. TinDC

”The planting of 150,000 trees program by Cargill underscores our committment to improving the livelihood of the communities we operate. Protecting natural resources such as fresh water supplies, is vital for the livelihood of the people in Indonesia and this sustainability effort goes towards our goal to protect vitals elements of the environment. Besides planting trees to protect the environment, we will also plant productive trees such as coconut, cocoa, fruit trees to help improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. Cargill’s Earth’s Day 2015 national celebration is a collaborative work of our team across business units in 18 locations in Indonesia,” said Jean Louis Guillou, Country Head, PT Cargill Indonesia.

The three-year’s tree-planting program in Indonesia started in April 2015 and the second phase of will take place at the start of rainy season in October 2015. In the first year of the program, we are expecting 70,000 trees planted across 18 sites of Cargill plants. The same number of trees will be planted in 2016 while in 2017, a minimum number of 10,000 trees will be planted.

The tree-planting program will support biodiversity and the tree varieties will be decided by the team on each site. For example, Cargill team in Amurang, Sulawesi, prefers to implement the tree-planting program by donating coconut trees to smallholders farmers in those areas; Cargill Makassar trained and supported the cocoa farmers to make their own cocoa nursery; Cargill team in South Sumatra chose to donate fruit trees to the smallholder farmers in the area; Cargill team in Pasuruan, East Java, prefers to work with a local NGO Kaliandra, to plant trees in the Arjuna Mountain conservation area in East Java; and Cargill team in the Jakarta Head Office choose to plant trees at Gede Pangrango Mountain. 

Cargill teams in all areas consulted with local Environment Agency Office to make sure that the conservation objectives are achieved. Cargill also teams up with NGOs and local communities to nurture the planted trees to make sure that the trees grow well and provide the intended benefits. 

Cargill has conducted a variety of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in Indonesia to improving the lives of smallholder farmers while also working to protect this country’s precious natural resources. CSR programs include providing power, water and Internet access to more than 10,000 people, and maintains more than 2100 miles of roads; running underground pipes from ex-SEA Games water treatment plant to surface tanks installed in the village of Desa Sentosa, South Sumatra, providing more than 3000 underprivileged villagers with access to clean piped water; providing clean drinking water to hundreds of families in Pandaan, East Java, by funding deep wells in four different villages; and conducting a tree planting program for protecting and rehabilitating water resources around Arjuna-Welirang Mountains, where 12 out of 28 water springs have dried because of the deforestration.

 
Visit the Cargill website HERE.

 

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