GREEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

C

urrent Condition

Honey bee

Social context of local communities in the project sites is dominated by traditional fishermen and farmers in poor condition due to low income from unsustainable farming practices. The selected villages in project sites have a high percentage of poorest population, fragile ecosystem, and lowest economic level. The provincial data record shows some villages having extreme to high poverty level at rural areas. Around 90% of the population in selected sites rely on traditional fishing and farming system for their survival life. The average family income is at low level and their daily cash income are much depend on the fluctuation of sessional natural resources that can be harvested.

Community poverty at project sites is a sad paradox and occurring such a long time. Current economic crisis due to various factors is also bringing significant impact to slow down of job opportunities that increase un-employment. Economic consideration and local community empowerment will be main-streamed and being the spirit of this proposed project. Above all, the slowed-down of economic-chain will be restored to better support for sustainable social business to eradicate an acute poverty of local communities. Solutions must also directly benefit for traditional fishermen and farmers and women groups who suffering day-to-day impacts of economic crisis.

The carbon investment will be strategically used to build strong foundation that is not only for climate mitigation program but also adaptation program by increasing community resilience. The economic stimulant will increase community’s interest and their confidence in roles of project participation. The proposed project will capitalize lesson learnt on ecosystem restoration, water and soil conservation and local communities’ green livelihoods.

The project scale-up the integrated project on ecosystem-, social-, economic resilience for the reasons:

Many local communities are in economic condition of acute poverty in which they are currently struggling to make a decent living. There is limited central and provincial government budget and no-capacity of communities to invest in climate adaptive management. Therefore, climate issues will not be understood, coastal- and watershed ecosystem will continually be degraded, and local economic will not improve if no intervention from carbon finance.
The main targets of this project are local communities who live in selected villages that are extremely vulnerable to the land abrasion/erosion/slide, sea level rise, flood and drought. These communities much depend on the natural resource collection and vegetable open-land agricultural system and being impacted by combined climate change and land-use change of coastal- and watershed ecosystem.
The scaled-up restoration and will not only benefit for targeted communities in selected villages but also will provide indirect positive impacts to the people living in other villages, especially on flood and drought prevention, collecting natural resources and value chains of social business.
The fund support from this project will leverage community groups and private financing on the supply chain from production into markets that is enabling village entrepreneurs to grow their profitable sustained business.
Local government and stakeholder have limited actions on climate awareness, disaster prevention training, food and water security, and poverty eradication program. This limited financial resources and facilities weaken the social resilience at site levels.
Local governments are prioritizing on development program which include basic infrastructure, public education, social life, public facilities and access to public services. Therefore, it is very limit resources allocated to the program related to coastal- and watershed management.

Sustainable green economy

The diversification of income sources will lessen people’s dependency to natural resources and vegetable cropping system and help them move away from deep poverty towards sustainable and secure livelihoods. Beyond project completion, the challenges in the future are still on how to minimize land conversion and reduce poverty level. The revolving fund from social business created by this project will be a big challenge to increase ecosystem resilience while reducing poverty level.

To build long-term commitment on carbon conservation, we facilitate various Income Generating Activity (IGA) for local communities. The incentives of IGA is given if the community groupss activitively plant and maintain mangrove- and agroforestry trees. The priority IGA to the local community groups is focusing on women groups and unfortunate people on various social business to increase family income. The IGA activities related to blue carbon project include silvo-fishery, mangrove food processing, organic batic mangroves, mangrove eco-tourism, shrimp paste and dried fish, and other micro-family business. In addition the IGAs related to agroforestry and forest conservation are organic coffee-, cacao-and fruit products, bamboo craft, natural dye from strobilinathes and other plantation, red-ginger, cardamon, Non-Timber Product (NTP), and eco-tourism. The project also facilitates community skills on additional processing, packaging, branding, certification, licensing, and marketing capacity through e-commerce. This will expand trade and increase access to market of community base products. Our team have prepared marketed brands for mangrove base products, organic coffee- and cacao, palm sugar and other cash crops on the name of POPI (Premium Organic Product of Indonesia).

Capacity building

Capacity development for local communities in sustainable economic activities aims to improve the skills, knowledge, and resources of individuals or groups to be able to carry out business practices independently. The field action includes technology training, efficient natural resource management, and sustainable business practices. Capacity building also involves strengthening institutions, understanding regulations, and cooperation networks between stakeholders in supporting low-emission and environmentally friendly products. We also have a team experienced in the field of agricultural and fisheries technology to help and design business facilities based on environmentally friendly technology, so that later they will be easy to operate, use, and maintain by the fostered groups.

We also help communities in preparing business plans, such as building a transparent, accountable, and sustainable financial management system, guided by professional and experienced trainers. The trainings include: (1) financial structure, (2) budgeting, (3) financial recording, (4) payment and receipt systems, (5) reporting, (6) audit and evaluation, (7) reserve fund and investment planning. With a good financial management system, community groups can increase mutual trust between members, maintain business continuity, and achieve common goals more effectively.

Business plan

Business orientation is the main priority in Yagasu’s activities with the fostered groups. The first step taken is to determine the type of product that suits the target market, based on a comprehensive market analysis. Marketing strategies are carried out through direct sales, social media, and participation in exhibitions to expand product reach. We always maintain product quality by selecting the best raw materials, and supervising the workflow to ensure the process runs smoothly. As part of the promotional strategy, we also emphasize the uniqueness of our green products to make them more attractive to the markets.

Value chain

In the process of forming a group business to produce premium products from raw materials to finished products that have high market value, we provide coaching with a focus on several main steps:

Capacity and skills strengthening – training group members in technical skills, management, and product innovation to improve quality and efficiency.
Product development and differentiation – developing products with added value through innovation, packaging, or certification to suit market needs.
Increasing market access – building marketing networks, both online and offline, and collaborating with distributors to expand the national and international markets.
Supply chain optimization – collaborate with local or regional suppliers for cost efficiency and sustainability.
Technology implementation – use simple technology, such as applications for production management or digital marketing, to improve operational effectiveness.
Effective financial management – encourage members to manage their finances well through record keeping and planning, allowing for reinvestment for business development.

Mangrove Products and services

The project facilitates local communities to proceed mangrove resources for foods and beverages: Soneratia spp for syrup, jam and candy-jelly; Avicennia spp for various cakes and cookies; Nypa fruticans for pudding, palm-sugar, vinegar and tobacco paper; Acanthus ilicifolius for herbal tea; and Bruguiera gymnorhiza as rice mixed supplement. Based on our proximate analysis of Avicenia marina consist of protein (4.83%), fat (0.24%), carbohydrate (25.25%), amylase (17%), water (37.15%) and vitamin C (70.6 mg). Mangrove fruits consist of bioactive compounds: alkaloid, flavonoid, fenol, terpenoid, steroid, saponin and tanin. Moreover, we also conducted join-research on the use of mangroves for the natural color of organic batik. Working in collaboration with Muhammadiyah University in Malang, we conducted Research & Development on mangrove and coastal food processing. The combined mangrove fruits and fishery products are developed as a granule rice. This high protein and non-gluten rice will be distributed to the villages for anti-stunting foods for poor families.

Our projects contribute to the Investment’s Strategic Impact on an increased resilience of most vulnerable people and communities. The project will directly benefit to the small farmers. The benefits include cash and direct involvement on program implementation, increased knowledge on climate issues and disaster prevention, increased family income from social business, collecting natural resources from ecosystem, improved skills from various trainings. Many people will receive in-direct impacts on flood and drought prevention, natural resource collection and multiple effects of social business. As a return of restoring watershed ecosystem, the project creates multiple economic effects on (1) feasible and profitable village enterprises on cash crops, (2) improving local community incomes, (3) revolving fund for sustainable business in the villages, (4) creating new work-opportunities (men and women group), (5) providing profit sharing for environmental- and social mission.

Agroforestry Products and services

HARVESTING COFFEE

penjemuran kopi arabica dengan rumah plastik

DRYING COFFEE CHERRY

COFFEE BEAN

BOTTLE OF COFFEE

MULBERRY LEAVES

SILKWORM

SILK COCOON

HAND WOVEN SILK

STROBILATHES

WITHERING LEAVES

PASTA PROCESSING

BLUE COLOUR

Lemongrass

Pressing roots

DISTILLATION PROCESS

FRAGRANT OIL

Bamboo products

Genitri products

Rattan products

Spice and Herb products

Feasible business

Based on the business feasibility study, the organic coffee products created by 2,500 ha agroforestry project are very feasible and profitable. Net Benefit Cost of this commodity is more than 1 point and the Pay Back Period of each product and service varies from 5 to 6 years. The project will create over 3,300 beneficiaries on sustainable organic coffee farming and other green commodities. After the coffee is effectively harvested, village business will contribute at least 4.69 Mio USD per annum that equal to 39.08% of total pre-finance project investment (12 Mio USD).

Avocado

With an average 1 ha land ownership per farmer, the transfer from vegetables into coffee plantation will help to increase beneficiaries’ annual income by 118% (from 1.290 to 2.813 USD per family). If added with the potential revenues from intercropping plantation there will be an additional annual income 1.100 USD for per family from fragrant roots and 1.600 USD per family from strobilanthes plantation. The fruit production from the 1^st layer trees will also contribute at least 1.240 USD per family

The detailed community business model based on real data in the field is still being designed. The business model will include each green commodity will be submitted in separated document. Within organic farming practices, the project will create sustainable family income over 30 years period and reduce the vulnerability to flood, soil erosion and climate events.

Key characteristics and dynamics link to the sectors and sustainable markets:

Increase productivity through sustainable organic practices – produce more.
Implement low-cost production of each Income Generating Activity (IGA) – cost controls.
Reduce intermediaries (middlemen) and create marketing transformation to e-commerce – capture more value.
Secure a fair price and reduce community business exposure to the price volatility – better income.
Implement best practices of social business that protect from negative impacts of climate events – improve resilience.
Empower social business at individual and community group levels, particularly for women and youth – strengthen capacity.