ASRI is concerned both with the conservation of Gunung Palung National Park, and with improving the standard of health in the villages that border the park. Reflecting the tight link between human health and environmental health, our conservation and health care initiatives fall neither entirely in one realm or the other — all of our conservation work is connected to health and health care, and all of our health care work is integrated with conservation work.
Currently, our major initiatives are ASRI’s:
- Health Care Clinic – provides high quality, low cost medical care to local villagers.
- Mobile Clinic Unit – visits remote communities around Gunung Palung National Park each month.
- Organic Farming project – teaches local farmers safe, healthy means to improve soil quality, steering them away from slash-and-burn agriculture.
- Goats for Widows – provides a mated pair of goats to widows. Recipients then return the first two baby goats to ASRI, to be provided to other widows, as well as sacks of manure to be used in organic farming.
- Reforestation project – engages local communities to help stock a seedling nursery, replant deforested areas of Gunung Palung, and protect these reforestation plots.
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Health Care
We work to sever the links between poverty, ill-health and ecological damage by letting poor communities “pay” for healthcare by becoming guardians of the forests where gibbons and orangutans live.
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Reforestation
The reforestation program educates local communities about the value of the rain forest and provides them opportunities to participate in restoring damaged areas.
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Organic Gardening
We partner with local communities to train farmers in organic farming techniques to reduce the use of slash and burn agriculture.
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Goats for Widows
ASRI has provided 67 goats to 35 widows and their families to help improve the livelihoods of the area’s most disadvantaged households.
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Conservation Outreach & Education
ASRI places an enormous emphasis on partnering with villagers in local communities. It’s a two-way exchange of information.
