- Loan Successfully Funded On 25 Sep 2023 ​
Forest Regeneration and Crop Project for Abang Mountain Community in Bali
Green Indonesia Initiative
- Amlapura, Bali, Indonesia
Menu
- 70,000 AUD
Loan successfully funded
PT Restorasi Alam Hutan (PT RAH) is partnering with the East Bali community to launch a cash crop farming project on Abang Mountain. The impact loan will finance costs to plant and harvest chillies, cucumber, zucchini and bitter gourd on 2 hectares of degraded land, which will then be sold into a growing local market. Sales will provide employment, profit share to the community, enable loan repayment, and support expansion of farming to more hectares of degraded land.
- 10 Lenders
Committed
- 24 months
Loan Period
- 8%
Interest Rate
- BACKGROUND
Loan summary
PT RAH requires AU$80,000 to finance the preparation and cultivation of 2 hectares of degraded land within an 80 hectares allotment held by the community members of Banjar Pule, adjacent to remnant forest on the side of Abang Mountain on East Bali regency. The funds will also finance the purchase of initial seedling stocks and other materials and equipment, as well as the employment of the local community members for all farming activities to get the crops to harvest and sale.
The loan funds are catalytic, providing for the creation of a commercially sustainable project. The cornerstone crop to be farmed are chillies, which have a 12 month planting cycle (4-5 months from planting to being ready to harvest, then produce for 6-7 months), and are in high demand in the local Bali market. Chilli trees will be interspersed with other crops in demand in the local markets (cucumber, zucchini and bitter gourd) that have shorter planting cycles (3 months from planting to being ready to harvest, then produce for 3 months) and can have 2 cycles per year.
Beyond year 1, revenues enable preparation and cultivation of additional hectares of degraded land that can be planted in the same ways. RAH is targeting conversion of 3 hectares over the 24 months of the loan. The profits from the first 24 months will enable ongoing expansion in future years.
Borrower's mission
Amir Rabik, co-founder of PT Restorasi Alam Hutan has been involved in many environmental associations in Bali, including creating green television for environmental education in Bali. He has also been a leader in promoting and using bamboo plants as an alternative of forest wood, and introducing many alternative materials for handicrafts. These have been successful initiatives.
Over the last 5 years, Amir has been pursuing a licence for a forest concession to start the Green Indonesia Initiative. In the last year, the Indonesian government has granted this license (for 35 years) and now PT Restorasi Alam Hutan and KTH Pule Lestari are ready to commence the pilot project.
Through the planning stages for the Green Indonesia Initiative, both organisations identified that providing an alternative form of income for the community living around the forest was essential for preventing further forest degradation and for engaging the community in the regeneration activities. The opportunity to produce cash crops on existing degraded land for the local market was identified and this has become the initial focus for the broader pilot project activities of the Green Indonesia Initiative.
The activities funded by this loan are helping to achieve the above Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN.
Intermediary's experience with impact enterprises
For more than 8 years, Red Hat Impact has helped impact enterprises by raising capital and providing other kinds of business and strategy support. We have raised more than $3M from our network of impact investors, and loaned this capital to support 30 enterprises. We use a crowd-lending model to raise loan capital. As of May 2024, we maintain a 98% success rate on loan repayment. We establish close working relationships with all of the impact enterprises we raise debt capital for, and co-manage risks with them during the loan term.
- IMPACT
Impacts and how they are measured
The impact loan for PT Restorasi Alam Hutan will unlock short, medium and long term impacts. Immediately, the loan provides incomes for the 90 family members of KTH Pule Lestari. The members of this forest community will be employed to prepare, plant, raise and harvest the cash crops. PT Restorasi Alam Hutan will focus on employment of the women from the village (some of whom currently beg on the street to survive). In the medium term, the project has a 25% profit share with KTH Pule Lestari. The community will be able to allocate these funds to additional initiatives and projects to address their needs. With the success of the early crop planting and harvesting, PT Restorasi Alam Hutan will invest in expanding the crops onto further hectares, with the plan to convert 50% of the current 32 hectares of degraded land into crop production over a five year period. Expansion will create more jobs for the local villagers and generate further profit share. It will also preserve the current forest as it will not need to be used for income generation for the local community. Longer term, the cash crop production funded by this impact loan catalyses the Green Indonesia Initiative and broader forest regeneration and local community development activities.
Ready to lend?
This loan is not currently accepting subscriptions, but we invite you to check out some of the other live loans on the platform. In order to participate in loans you must be a registered lender on the LendForGood platform. If this is your first time lending with us we’ll guide you through the process to first get registered. Thank you for lending your passion!