Regenerating land with students and farmers in Lombok

Published on: March 31, 2018

Severe storms and heavy rainfalls are threatening small islands worldwide due to the climate change. It’s time for us to take action to prove that we can create a more climate smart agricultural system. Resilience and restoration are key in this agroforestry Lombok project where students and farmers learn form each other.

There is a big challenge ahead of us. Lombok is in high risks of floods and droughts. The intense heavy rainy season puts serious pressure on the Lombok ecosystem and food production. Due to deforestation and conventional agricultural practises on the island, the soil turned compact and degraded which prohibits the absorption of excess water.
Conventional agricultural systems are starting to fail in these extreme weather conditions. The compact soil is causing floods and water runoff, making farmers vulnerable and unable to grow as much food as in the past. Lombok is becoming more and more dependent from other islands.

Share knowledge of generations

To make this agroforestry project on Lombok successful, we bring local students and farmers together with our team so that we can learn from each other and make the best plan. It’s crucial to understand the local issues and threats, because only then we have a clear view of the real challenge and come with a solution that suits the indonesian nature and culture.

Project planning

We start in June to understand the existing situation of the local ecosystem and meet up with the students of the university, the partners and the local farmers. As a step in the agroforestry development process we will start gathering relevant data from local communities and mapping the 1.7 ha we are going to plant.
In July we will give workshops and courses to students, farmers and tourists together so that they have a basic knowledge and understanding of what Agroforestry is about. Our aim is to inspire as many people as possible to use this knowledge back at home. After that, around August, we will make the plan for the land. We will come back in November during the rainy season to implement the agroforestry.

reNature’s team in Indonesia

Rafael, Gabriel, Arthur, Breanne and Ismael will join the team in Indonesia. The full reNature team will be listed here soon. The team coordinators for this specific mission are Felipe Villela and Geoffroy Damant. Felipe is the Founder of reNature Foundation and Geoffroy is Research Manager within reNature. Felipe has studied Sustainable Agriculture in the Netherlands and Geoffrey studied Agro and Ecosystems Engineering in Belgium. They both did research together on water availability at Ernst Götsch farm in Brazil.

We need your help

Yes, it’s true. We need some financial support. Your donation can vary from $10 to $10k. It really depends on how much you want to contribute. If you like you can share your contribution on your social media and so will we. Your financial support can help us to bring the best experts to Lombok and make this a great learning experience for students, farmers and ourselves.

About our partner DOME Village

The project was submitted by Dome Lombok, a company creating and selling sustainable concepts within house construction, water management and food production. The project will promote respectful interaction and co-operation with the local community as well as establish a good network with other eco-projects around the world. Through the construction of Eco-domes, made mainly with compacted soil and lime-stone, they are pushing boundaries in sustainable housing construction without neglecting quality and comfort.

General Info
Team
Partners
General Info

Location: Gerupuk, Lombok – Indonesia.
Size: 1,7 ha
Challenge: Developing agroforestry field
Period: June – November 2018

Team

Assigned by: DOME village
Project Manager: Felipe Villela
Coordinator: Geoffroy Damant
Volunteers: Rafael Lima, Gabriel Haag, Arthur Venturella, Breanne Gibson, Ismael Leven, Gabriella Marins
Consultancy: Namastê Messerschmitt

Partners