Giti Sees the Woods for the Trees

In 2007 Giti Tire acted as co-sponsor for the ‘Great Turtle Race’, an international sea conservation event designed to raise awareness of and funds for the endangered leatherneck turtle. This year the tyremaker’s support for green causes continues, and Giti Tire recently announced it is donating $1 million for conservation projects in Indonesia’s northern Sumatra region and the mountains of southwest China as part of an agreement with Conservation International.

The program will protect the habitat of threatened species such as the Sumatran orang-utan in Indonesia and pandas in southwest China through the replanting of forest areas. Giti reports that, during the first year, the investment will offset the corporation’s overall 2008 carbon emissions.

Half the pledged funds will support Conservation International’s work towards protecting the tropical forests of northern Sumatra. “Giti Tire has pledged the money for conservation and to empower local communities to increase rubber production in the buffer zone of the proposed Batang Toru conservation area in northern Sumatra,” said company director Enki Tan. “We believe that supporting the livelihoods of people living in the buffer zone will prevent forest destruction in the Batang Toru protected area.”

“This collaboration is an important step in bringing more private sector investment for conservation programs in Indonesia,” said Dr. Jatna Supriatna, Conservation International’s regional vice president for Indonesia. “We hope that the communities benefiting from better livelihoods in the buffer zone will support our conservation efforts for the orang-utan in the wild.”

The remaining funds will support Conservation International’s affiliate in China, the Shanshui Center for Nature and Society, in its replanting 60 hectares of native forest, along with conserving wetlands and watersheds while benefiting the livelihoods of local communities in the Mountains of Southwest China. “This is an innovative investment that recognises the combined value of multi-faceted ecosystem services and the contributions of local communities to conservation in very remote areas of China,” said Dr. Lu Zhi, director of CI-Shanshui.

This is not the first occasion that Giti Tire has supported Conservation International’s work; the company bid $480,000 at the September 2007 Monaco Blue Auction to help develop Marine Protected Areas in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesia’s Papua province.