It is the primatologist Jane Goodall who signs her portrait in the American weekly: Farwiza Farhan, the Indonesian who obtained a fine of 26 million dollars against a palm oil giant, is therefore named the most influential personality of the year by Time, “commitment” category. An honorary title which comes in addition to the Pritzker Innovators 2021 prize which she received at the start of the year, and the National Geographic prize 2022, making her a benchmark in the fight against deforestation.
Farwiza Farhan lives on the island of Sumatra, the third largest tropical forest in the world which shrinks every year, a victim of palm oil producers. However, if there are no more trees, there is no more water, no more animals, the earth is dying and the local populations with it, the women being the first affected, forced to always go further to fetch water. It is this cycle of impoverishment that prompted Farwiza Farhan to create her association, Haka, to give legal weight to the Leuser forest in the province of Aceh, the last place in the world where tigers, rhinos, orangs live together. utans, elephants and humans.
To better defend this ecosystem, she first brought together representatives of the villages, the men, and convinced them that they would be stronger by including the other half of the population, the women, fine connoisseurs of the forest but traditionally relegated to the shadows. She then created the first group of women rangers, to patrol, locate poachers and map illegal logging. The evidence has been compiled, a complaint has been filed against PT Kallista, a palm oil giant, and the court has decided: a $26 million fine for illegal logging.
It was six years ago, a resounding victory certainly, but Farwiza Farhan wants to go further, to act upstream, before deforestation, before the irreparable. It therefore works to enhance this forest, to show that there is more to be gained by preserving it than making short-term profits. She also reminds those who are kneading their brains to fix our CO2 emissions that the advanced technology to capture carbon and remove it from the atmosphere already exists: it’s called a tree and it’s been working great for 400 million years. ‘years.
How can everyone be better informed?
Participate in the consultation initiated as part of the European project De facto on the Make.org platform. Franceinfo is the partner