Farhan, Farwiza

As the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is blessed with abundant natural resources and biodiversity, but it has also come under severe pressure from human growth and exploitation. This is no more apparent than in Sumatra Island’s Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6-million-hectare expanse in Aceh province where some of the world’s most highly endangered species have managed to survive.

However, despite being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 and a protected National Strategic Area in 2008, the Leuser Ecosystem has continued to be ravaged by deforestation, infrastructure, commercialization, and weak law enforcement. Worse, the Leuser Ecosystem Management Authority or Badan Pengelola Kawasan Ekosistem Leuser (BPKEL), which had been fighting the ecosystem’s destructive intruders in court, was abolished by the Aceh government in 2013.

Instead of giving up, some BPKEL ex-employees got together to form a new organization called the Forest Nature and Environment of Aceh Foundation or Yayasan Hutan Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA), dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring the Leuser Ecosystem.

Leading HAkA from the beginning was a young woman named FARWIZA FARHAN who saw in the Leuser Ecosystem an opportunity not only to save preserve nature at its best but also to engage local communities in securing their own future. Born in Aceh in 1986, FARHAN as a young girl had fallen in love with its natural beauty, leading her to dream of becoming a marine biologist and working in conservation. Pursuing her education overseas and returning as an adult with a master’s degree in environmental management, she was stunned and saddened to see how her beloved forests had been ravaged by commercial exploitation.

Taking it personally, she joined BPKEL. When it was shut down, she founded HAkA. Instead of depending solely on the government, HAkA believed in the power of local people, especially women, to safeguard the ecosystem through a vigorous advocacy campaign, forest monitoring, and community empowerment.

Since its establishment, among other successes, HAkA helped to achieve a court verdict that led to USD 26 million in fines against a palm oil company that burned forests in the Leuser Ecosystem, and stopped a hydroelectric dam that would have threatened the elephant’s habitat. The money was used by the government to rehabilitate the damaged areas.

But an equally important albeit less visible victory has been HAkA’s mobilization of Aceh’s citizens in protecting their environment. HAkA has done this, first, by informing the people about the Leuser Ecosystem and its importance, and also by including the ecosystem in the curricula of local schools and universities. HAkA has employed a geographic information system and other forest monitoring tools to assist local governments, communities, and universities in monitoring Aceh’s forest areas in real time. Looking to the future, HAkA also promoted community-based sustainable forest management to ensure improved management of forests.

HAkA’s programs for and with women are particularly effective and encouraging. Women are given paralegal and citizen-journalism training, engaged in micro-entrepreneurship, and organized into women-led ranger groups that patrol forest areas to monitor poaching and illegal logging. The women are supported by men who are similarly trained.

In a society where women have traditionally been relegated to secondary roles, none of these would have been possible without the energetic, courageous, and visionary leadership of FARHAN. A young Muslim, she has defied conventions to serve as an inspiration and a model for a new generation of Indonesian women coming into their own and taking charge of their lives and future. As HAkA’s chairperson, FARHAN has not led from the top, but rather from below, encouraging decentralization to promote sustainability and resiliency within the organization and develop the next ranks of environmental champions. She often works in the background and with local actors, but she also liaises with government officials, donors, and academics—anyone whom she can bring into the fold of HAkA’s concerns for Aceh’s environment and its people.

For her efforts, FARHAN has been recognized by many international institutions. Her greatest reward, however, has been to see HAkA’s initiatives bear fruit, not only in a resurgent forest and environment but also in the change of values and attitudes among the people she and HAkA have reached: “Throughout my training, we were taught that the local members of the community are often the perpetrators of illegal logging, of poaching, of destructions in wildlife habitats,” she observes. “But then, when you spend more time with them, you will realize that they are also the best protectors of wildlife. They are also dealing with the pressure of losing their lands and their rights as much as the animals are losing their habitats.” With foresight and tenacity, FARHAN is a prime exemplar of what can be done against all odds: “I can’t stop global temperature from changing, but if it’s the forest, there’s a bit more that I can do than surrendering to global challenges.”

In electing FARWIZA FARHAN to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her profound understanding of the vital connection between nature and humanity, her commitment to social justice and responsible citizenship through her work with forest communities, and her promotion of greater awareness of the need to protect the beating heart and lungs of her country’s and Asia’s rich but endangered natural resources.