EcoNusa Foundation: Backing Indigenous Guardians of Papua's Rainforest

Founded in 2017, the EcoNusa Foundation works across Indonesia's Papua and Maluku islands, home to a share of the world's third-largest rainforest, to strengthen Indigenous land rights and community-led resource management. The foundation helps communities map customary land, secure legal recognition, and build sustainable agroforestry and marine enterprises as alternatives to selling land to oil-palm or logging concessions. From 2017 to 2022, EcoNusa's advocacy contributed to local governments revoking palm-oil concessions covering an area roughly two-and-a-half times the size of Los Angeles. By the end of 2024, EcoNusa had partnered with more than 200 Indigenous Peoples and local communities managing 238,000 hectares of forests and mangroves that store an estimated 21 million tons of carbon.