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The end of 2015 was historical for the fight against climate disruption. In December, representatives from around the world met in Paris at the 21st United Nations Climate Negotiations in order to complete the text for an international climate agreement years in the making. The result was the Paris Agreement, and it has been lauded as ambitious and as a victory for the planet. While these negotiators debated the Paris Agreement, the ASRI Clinic in West Kalimantan, Borneo was implementing real solutions and making incredible impacts within the local community, as they’ve been doing for years. In November, I had the opportunity to visit ASRI and see these impacts myself as a volunteer with the Sierra Club’s Global Population and the Environment Program.
Even before witnessing it first-hand, I learned that rainforests in Borneo are being deforested at rapid rates for timber, palm oil, and other resources and that this threatens the health of the forest and of surrounding communities. Non-profits around the world have targeted this island in Indonesia as critical to environmental conservation and have attempted to create community initiatives to decrease deforestation. When Dr. Kinari Webb, Dr. Hotlin Ompusunggu, and Dr. Antonia Gorog co-founded this non-profit clinic in 2007, they embraced the practice of “radical listening.” They held hundreds of hours of community meetings to understand the community issues that lead to logging and to determine the services needed by the community. They learned that the community knew they needed the forests, cared about the forests and wanted to preserve them, but a lack of healthcare made logging necessary to cover medical expenses. People were forced to log in order to pay the expensive healthcare costs for themselves and their family.
For the last seven years, ASRI, its name an acronym that means “harmoniously balanced,” has been providing quality healthcare to communities in West Kalimantan and facilitating the conservation of their forests. They do this by providing economic discounts to communities who have ceased logging activity, allowing non-cash payments, and providing the programs that communities asked for. Every program at ASRI was developed as a result of community conversations, including the Sustainable Agriculture program, which provides education on sustainable and organic agriculture; ASRI Kids, which provides classes for local children about forest stewardship; Goats for Widows, which distributes goats to widowed women to help provide economic independence and security; and Forest Guardians, which places a liaisons between ASRI and each partner community that monitors area logging.
While in Borneo, I was able to sit down with people who developed and worked on these programs and those who received support and resources. They told me about their experiences and how ASRI helped to change their lives and circumstances and the lives of those around them. Together with promoting environmental stewardship, ASRI cares deeply for the health of local communities and recognizes the close connection between environmental protection and community health care. One of the examples of the kinds of health care that ASRI provides is tuberculosis treatment. One woman, a DOT (Direct Observed Therapy) worker for tuberculosis at ASRI, told me of her job delivering medication to the homes of patients every day. Because of her work, compassion, and dedication to the people in her community, the program went from 50 to 60 percent of participants dropping out to 100 percent of participants completing the program in 2015.
After countless aid and development programs failed in decreasing deforestation and assisting local people in West Kalimantan, ASRI is making wondrous strides and impacting the area in a real and meaningful way. Their integrative and community-based health care and conservation program has helped to facilitate more than a 68 percent decrease in illegal logging, and has served thousands of patients.
One of the first integrative programs ASRI started was to provide agricultural training and support that focuses on organic and sustainable agriculture. With this training, farmers are able to save money and increase yields while avoiding costly pesticides and the traditional slash and burn technique - both of which are devastating to the health of the community and environment. The program also gives opportunity to those who wish to switch to farming from illegal logging and other occupations. Since its beginning, ASRI has trained over 500 farmers,41 percent of which were previously illegal loggers. These individuals now have the support and resources to better provide for their families while also contributing to the protection of their land and forests.
In large part, the Paris Agreement calls for countries to create plans to reduce and continually monitor greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent a global average temperature rise of more than 2°C. As exciting as it is that the world now has a global policy for combating climate disruption, the Paris Agreement will not alone solve climate disruption. The agreement does not support or mention crucial integrative solutions individualized to meet the needs of unique communities around the world or take into account the existing and continuing damage happening as the world takes time to determine how to implement the agreement.
If we truly want to end climate disruption and the destruction it leaves behind, we must follow ASRI’s example and radically listen to communities on the frontlines and support their efforts. We must follow the lead and example of communities like those in West Kalimantan and allow solutions to begin locally and organically. These communities have so much to offer, so much knowledge of the devastation of climate disruption, and they know what real solutions look like in their communities.