Mardanina: From Mului Woman to Gender Champion of East Kalimantan

Celebrating International Women’s Day on 8th March, FCF featured Mardanina, usually called Nina, an indigenous woman from Mului Customary Community in Paser district, East Kalimantan province, Indonesia in a post, Indigenous woman helps save Mului Customary Forest.

Nina represents the young female generation in her community. She makes the best of her abilities to sustain her community’s nature and culture by being a young forest patrol team member to protect Mului Customary Forest. A teacher at the Customary and Conservation Education School teaches her fellow youths and juniors the traditional dances that represent the values of their local culture.

Nina’s profile in the article received special attention from Dina Riska from Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) who then collaborated with Yayasan PADI Indonesia, grantee of the Forest Conservation Fund (FCF) for Mului Customary Forest project, to nominate Nina for a Gender Champion candidate from East Kalimantan province representing Agriculture and Forestry sector.

The Gender Champion in East Kalimantan is an annual program organized by the province’s Women Empowerment Agency, women’s organizations, and other development partners including Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) since 2022.

After a careful selection by the committee which consists of representatives from the national ministry and relevant provincial agencies, Nina was selected as one of 15 Gender Champions from East Kalimantan, representing the Agriculture and Forestry sector. The gender champions are categorized into 5 areas, i.e. Education and Digital Technology; Health; economics; Agriculture and Forestry; and Social, Culture, politics, and Law. The video that was shared with the committee is here.

The Awards Event was held on Tuesday, 7 May 2024 at Ruhui Rahayu room, East Kalimantan Governor’s office. It was attended by representatives from the national ministry, relevant governmental agencies, partner civil society organizations, and community groups. In her speech, the Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Mrs. I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati usually called Mrs. Bintang Puspayoga through a video recording, said that “Kartini, the Indonesian heroine, has paved the way for Indonesian women to get high education and Gender Champions are role models on how women, if given freedom and equal opportunity to use their best capacities, could contribute to making positive achievements in various life dimensions and development.” ?

As a Gender Champion, Nina will be a potential cadre to be involved in future activities that are related to forest conservation and reducing carbon emission from forestry and agricultural sector, especially because East Kalimantan is the first pilot province in Indonesia for FCPF (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) program, an agreement between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). As a Gender Champion, Nina can inspire women in her community and broader indigenous communities to contribute more to protecting and conserving the rainforests.

Yayasan PADI Indonesia has received funding from Waitrose & Partners John Lewis Partnership and PZ Cussons through the Forest Conservation Fund (FCF), to work with the Mului Customary Community to protect and conserve 7,803 ha of customary forest.

Commodities in this landscape are palm oil, timber, gold mining, and pulp & paper. Now that the Mului community has tenure over this forest, it is relatively safe from deforestation for mining or plantations. The main risks are poaching, illegal logging, and forest fires.

For more information please contact the Forest Conservation Fund.