Cleanup and Rewild

Indonesia has the Earth’s 4th largest population with 274 million people living in its 18,000 islands. Boasting 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) of mangroves, the most of any country, Indonesia is home to 23% of global mangroves with 92 unique species.

Indonesia faces a sizable waste management challenge - huge population and limited infrastructure, all islands, few landfills - means a lot of plastic waste ends up in the environment.

Limited waste management infrastructure on the 18,000 islands has created a massive problem, as the plastic pollution is harming the precious mangrove ecosystem. Mangroves are one of the highest c02 capturing forest systems when healthy.A 2021 study led by Celine van Bijsterveldt1 revealed that plastic coverage leads to the dying of mangroves systems resulting in loss of forest cover, biodiversity, reduction in c02 carbon capturing and more.  

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33280883/

The foundation’s primary objective is healthy mangroves, and saving them from the plastic pollution issues.The project aims to solve the threat to mangroves through implementing plastic pollution mitigation strategies upstream and downstream, through both household collection and environmental cleanups. These strategies include river barrier installations, regular river waste collections, mangrove and beach cleanups, community education and outreach, and addressing methods to improve waste management infrastructure.The project will commission novel scientific research with the aim to further demonstrate quantitative proof of causality of the impacts of plastic waste on the health and biodiversity of mangrove ecosystems with the hope of unlocking future funding and research.