Sungai Tohor is located on Tebing Tinggi an Indonesian peatland island forming part of Riau Province. The peat deposits have accumulated since the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age.

The village of Sungai Tohor was established in 1904. Now the main local cash crop is sago. Local residents say that this region produces the most sago in all of Indonesia. Sago palms are not native to Tebing Tinggi and originate in Japan. Sago palm is a common name for several plants used to produce a starchy food known as sago.

In addition to its use as a food the palm produces fodder for local stock, the firewood, roofing material for houses.

The community begins large scale sago production

The community began investing in large scale sago production from the 1970s. Initially just a subsistence food, increasing the economic value of sago led the community to develop their own refinery to break free of agents and wholesaler’s control.

From in 2011 their production started to decline because of a canalisation project begun by PT Lestari Unggul Makmur (LUM). This company had acquired comany a timber concession for hinterland rainforest that also overlapped community lands. The canal project damaged the ecosystem of the peatlands areas where the sago palm was cultivated.

Fire in 2014

In 2014, a massive fires blazed across the island. After this, the community invited Indonesian President Jokowi to visit the island. Impressed by the community’s peatland management plan his government revoked PM.LUM license in 2016 and gave the 10,390 hectares to the local community to be managed it sustainably. The president also donated Rp 300 million to block the canals dug by the company.

Sungai Tohor On Google maps

Just zoom in and find Sungai Tohor on Tebing Tinggi Island. Sungai Tohor is at 0.88041, 102.78757.

Tree planting Project

Sungai Tohor is at 0.88041, 102.78757 and in the surrounding land there is a tree planting project. The community collects seeds from remnant forest, germinates them, grows them in nursery plots and then plants them out. This is all done without funds.

These photos are from Sungai Tohor .

We can help this community in the reforestation project by sponsoring tree plantings. It has been difficult but not impossible for him to mobilise funds for this, but there has certainly been some progress.

The community has been asking people to sponsor tree plantings. Covering all overheads the cost of each tree is about Rp 100,000 or AUD9.47, which is about USD6.41.

The easiest way to send money is to send it to the project coordinator Ridwan via PayPal. Given the costs involved he thinks sponsoring three threes is the most cost effective way of sending money.

PayPal Details

Here are Ridwan’s PayPal details. I’ve taken these from a trial we did. I sent him what was Rp100000 and it converted to USD6.43, on the day.