A wild orangutan of Sumatra hangs on a tree at the Soraya Research Station in the Leuser Ecosystem Area, Subulussalam, Aceh province, Indonesia March 14, 2021. Photo Credit: Syifa Yulinnas/Antara Foto via REUTERS.

Environment Indonesia25. April 2021

Big Brands Give Big Bucks to Save Rainforests

Nestle, Pepsico, and other major palm oil buyers have joined forces in a collective to invest $1 billion over 25 years, with a drive to do their part to protecting and restoring tropical forests in Indonesia and all across Southeast Asia.

Nestle, founding partner of the Rimba Collective alongside PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Wilmar International sees the initiative as a way to “enable us to speed up our proactive efforts to protect forests and peatlands as well as human rights.”

“By linking conservation funding directly with company operations, it has the potential to be a game-changer for forest protection and restoration,” says Michal Zrust, co-founder of Lestari, a Singapore-based impact investment firm that developed Rimba Collective.

Apart from building more sustainable palm oil supply chains, the partners wish to contribute to the conservation of 1.2 acres of forests by funding forest conservation projects aimed at protecting and restoring natural ecosystems and critical habitats. Those projects have many benefits, as much on a human level as on an environmental level: carbon will be sequestered, water purified, and the soil improved.

Source:
Thomson Reuters Foundation

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