Ashoka
This description of Sukianto Lusli's work was prepared when Sukianto Lusli was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2007.
Introduction
Sukianto has developed Indonesia’s first commercial model for conserving forest ecosystems. His work allows for-profit and non-profit investors alike to lease degraded forest land from the government for the purpose of rehabilitation. Investors purchase 100-year concessions on marginally degraded forests, agreeing to a 20-year moratorium on logging and the right to develop the land’s productive potential in other ways. Under Sukianto's model, such land has been turned into an international birding center and a provider of carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, paving the way for viable economic alternatives to logging and other destructive practices.