The 2012 WFN/WWF Challenge Grant has been awarded to Indonesian Whitley Award winner, Dami Buchori. Dami will receive £27,000 in project funding to support collaborative efforts between her NGO, PEKA Indonesia, and WWF- Indonesia to develop community-led conservation initiatives around Kalimantan’s Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (BBBRNP).
The Challenge Grant is a collaborative funding award from WWF-UK and WFN that aims to encourage complementary working between WWF local offices and WFN grassroots conservation leaders, providing the opportunity to proactively share ideas and solutions.
This collaborative effort will contribute directly to WWF’s Heart of Borneo programme which aims to protect, manage and restore 220,000Km2 of the Island’s forests, home to orang-utans, elephants and rhinos. By involving local communities living around the BBBRNP in management and decision making, Dami and her colleagues aim to generate greater support for conservation and lay the foundations for more sustainable livelihoods.
Dami is the fourth winner of the WFN/WWF Challenge Grant which, since 2010, has helped Whitley Award winners and local WWF partners to conserve and protect tigers and leopards in Russia, wetlands in Armenia and ancient forests in Ukraine.