The Tropical Forest Conservation Action Sumatra (TFCA-S) programme has been active for more than a decade with intervention focus on saving the remaining tropical forests and biodiversity. During this period, TFCA-S has provided grant funding support to non-governmental organisations, community groups, and universities operating in 13 Sumatran landscapes and contributed to the conservation of four endangered species such as the Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), and Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii). (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), Gajah Sumatera (Elephas maximus sumatranus), Harimau Sumatera (Panthera tigris sumatrae), dan Orangutan Sumatera (Pongo abelii).

To assist in project management, since 2015 TFCA-S has appointed local institutions in Sumatra to act as regional facilitators (faswil) to assist TFCA-S administrators in the assistance, capacity building, monitoring, and management of knowledge products of partners who receive funding support from TFCA-Sumatera. The working areas of the facilitators are divided into three regions, namely the northern, central and southern regions.

For the Central and Southern regions, Pundi Sumatra has been the facilitator from 2015 - 2020. However, since 2020, Pundi Sumatra has focused on managing TFCA-S partners in the Central region.

"We have been the regional office in the central region for almost 3 years, covering the landscape of Kerinci Seblat National Park, Siberut National Park, Tesso Nilo National Park, Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, and Kampar - Kerumutan - Senepis," explained Sutono as the coordinator of the central regional office. Furthermore, Sutono said that more than 33 partners have been assisted by Pundi Sumatra.

During his activities, Sutono is assisted by programme monitoring and evaluation staff, counterpart financial monitoring and evaluation staff, and communication and knowledge management staff. "The role of the regional facilitators is quite important in improving the effectiveness of TFCA-S project implementation in all locations," said Damsir as the programme monitoring and evaluation assistant.

Evaluation in the Regional Meeting

During the 2020 pandemic, evaluation meetings between regional offices and Administrators were organised online. Although the pandemic has ended, online coordination remains routine and effective. However, at the beginning of 2024, a meeting for the purpose of coordination as well as evaluation of regional office performance was held face-to-face at Aston Sentul, Bogor on 22 - 23 January 2024.

This coordination meeting was also an opportunity for the regional facilitators of the 3 regions to reflect and report on the achievements of the implementation of their mandates, as well as to identify the lessons learnt from the role of the regional facilitators towards the project management performance at the site level for the period of 2021 to 2023. The event was opened by Mr Samedi, Ph.D. as the TFCA-S Programme Director.

"For nine years, the regional office has provided assistance to partners. Surely there will be lessons that we can harvest together to become better evaluation material in other projects," he said.

The first day's activity began with identifying the achievements of the partners' activities Leuser Conservation Partnership (LCP) as the facilitator of the Northern region had the first opportunity to present the results of learning mapping of TFCA-S partners in the northern region. In his presentation, Ismail as the coordinator of the Northern Regional Facilitator said that some partners are quite intensely involved with the regional facilitator both in the activities in the context of the TFCA-S project and outside the project activities.

"Involving regional offices in partner meetings is good because it provides a platform for partners to provide updates on the implementation of their projects. So we don't have to wait for the quarterly report, we can already get updates on programme progress," he said.

In line with what Ismail said, Rini as the Coordinator of Faswil Selatan also agreed with several things, such as administrative completeness being an important instrument in conducting report reviews, monitoring and evaluation.

"This standardisation of administration helps us in assessing reports sent by partners. For WATALA itself, one of the successes that can be replicated is the collaboration of the parties which is considered quite effective in mitigating Human and Elephant conflicts," he said. WATALA itself is an institution appointed by TFCA-S as a facilitator for the Southern region since 2021. Its area covers the landscape of Berbak - Sembilang National Park, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, and Way Kambas National Park.

On his occasion, Sutono as the Coordinator of the Central Regional Office conveyed several lessons learned, namely the process of strengthening the capacity of institutions or community groups is the most important thing for the Central Regional Office. This is because strengthening self-help or partner groups is like providing a sustainable programme for the village or surrounding community.

"Unlike projects that conduct wildlife rescue studies, after the project is over, the patrol activities and so on end. It is different if we improve community groups such as KMPG (Elephant Care Community Group) and PAGARI (Patrol Anak Nagari). When the project is over, they can independently continue patrol activities and other activities because they have been equipped or given institutional capacity building," Sutono explained.

The second day of activities continued by mapping the success of the partners' work that could be replicated by other parties. In addition to discussing partners and facilitators, the Administrator also provided capacity building to the participants who attended about Fundraising and Investment for Institutions by Riki Frindos as Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the KEHATI Foundation.

Riki said that KEHATI is developing as a conservation trust fund institution in Indonesia. In addition, as a conservation institution in Indonesia that is at the forefront of implementing one of the principles in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely sustainable financing, KEHATI must be able to maintain and improve its collaboration with the business sector.

"There are many direct funding sources that can be sought by all NGO friends, strengthening funding sources is very important for friends to be able to continue to oversee the achievements and cooperation investments that have been built through previous projects," said Riki.

In his session, Riki said that the KEHATI Foundation is quite different from existing NGOs / CSOs in Indonesia, with one of its mandates being to develop organisational independence at the site level. Apart from community organisations, KEHATI also provides opportunities for the academic community.

Entering the changing times, the KEHATI Foundation began to try funding strategies that were quite different from the fundraising techniques of other institutions. Along with the addition of Division Four - Sustainable Investment in the management organisation structure, the KEHATI Foundation ventured into the capital market by providing consulting services to business people and fund managers by conducting an analysis of companies that have implemented good environmental principles in their business practices.

"The result is that the KEHATI Foundation will advise or influence potential investors to invest in companies that only adopt conservation practices in running their business. Then the KEHATI Foundation will get a service fee for the business analysis from the Fund Manager," Riki explained further.

Read more: Conservation Talk Show for the Higher Education Academic Community