Yuliana travels through Indonesia with the innovative action group Geng Motor Imut to raise awareness about climate change and sustainability. The effects of climate change are noticeable wherever she looks. “The weather is getting warmer, water reserves are drying up, the rainfall is erratic, and droughts last longer. This year in Kefa City it’s been intensely hot. Just five years ago, it tended to be cool from the afternoon until morning. But now, it’s hot all day,” she says
Yuliana (27) is a passionate young climate activist from the Kefamenanu in Indonesia. She is very worried about the impact climate change is having on farmers in her country. “The dry spells are getting longer, so more and more harvests are failing. Then there was the devastating Seroja cyclone this spring that made some farmers not only lose their crops but alleft them homeless.”
If we don’t even try, who will?
Saplings to the rescue
To cope with the climate crisis, Yuliana advocates for reforestation with climate-resistant trees and plants. “I try to convince people how important this is. The trees retain water and prevent soil erosion.” Working with Geng Motor Imut and BPDAS (Central Management of Regional River Flow), she is distributing tree saplings that can be planted to speed up the process of reforestation. “In this way we can slow down rising temperatures and farmers will have good harvests again,” Yuliana says.
She hopes to be able to get as many people as possible to join her reforestation efforts. “No more hunger from crop failures, no more dried up rivers: that is my goal. But that will only work if more people are committed to the climate and our planet. If people like you and me, who have the opportunity to work on this, don’t even try, who will?”
Voices for Climate Action
We work with Yuliana through our Voices for Climate Action program, which aims to ensure that local civil society and underrepresented groups take on a central role as creators, facilitators and advocates of innovative climate solutions. We help them organize and campaign effectively and provide a network in which they can reinforce each other. The program also works to create widespread societal support for locally-shaped climate solutions, like Yuliana’s reforestation efforts.
