PATTIRO organized a coaching clinic for civil society groups to strengthen their capacity in accessing Forest and Other Land Use (FOLU) funding through the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH). This activity is part of the SETAPAK 4 Program supported by The Asia Foundation, which focuses on forest and land protection through strengthened governance to enhance national-level policies in support of optimizing environmental and forestry financing.

Currently, more than 100 civil society communities from various regions are engaged as PATTIRO’s assisted groups. These communities include social forestry groups, forest farmer groups, women’s and youth groups, as well as groups working on environmental issues. Of this number, 40 communities have developed draft funding proposals through this coaching clinic. The activity provides intensive assistance to communities throughout the process of preparing and submitting proposals for BPDLH FOLU small grants.

The mentoring is conducted on a 1-on-1 basis, where each community receives guidance tailored to their specific context, needs, and capacities. This approach ensures that the proposals developed not only meet administrative requirements but are also substantively robust and aligned with FOLU funding objectives.
Several types of proposals submitted by communities include FOLU Goes to School, FOLU TERRA, and FOLU Biodiversity, reflecting efforts to raise awareness, promote community-based actions, and protect biodiversity.

This community assistance responds to challenges frequently faced by civil society, particularly regarding the very limited proposal submission window for small grants—typically only about three days and often opening on public holidays. “We want to ensure that when the official registration opens in early February, the communities will already be in the final stage and only need to submit their proposals,” explained Fabya Budi, PATTIRO’s Program Officer for the SETAPAK 4 Program.
During the mentoring process, PATTIRO provides not only substantive input on program design and alignment with the FOLU framework but also technical assistance—from account creation, identity form completion, to navigating the BPDLH dashboard.

The themes proposed in community proposals include environmental services and ecotourism, waste management, greening and reforestation, coral reef conservation, and river restoration. Meanwhile, the types of activities proposed range from training, awareness campaigns, tree and herbal planting, mangrove planting, coral transplantation, environmental clean-up actions, to forest protection initiatives.
Through this coaching clinic, PATTIRO hopes that an increasing number of civil society communities will be able to access environmental funding in a fair and effective manner, while also making tangible contributions to the protection of Indonesia’s forests, land, and ecosystems.