By: Masayu Yulien Vinanda

Jakarta (24/06)-  Renowned supermarket chain Ranch Market launched “One Bag One Tree” programme on Wednesday (24/06/2009) in Mega Kuningan, Jakarta to support WWF-Indonesia forest restoration initiative called NEWtrees.

By launching this “One Bag One Tree”, Ranch Market aims to replant 1 ha in Mt. Rinjani or equal to 400 trees. Previously, it had participated in NEWtrees initiative by planting in two hectares of Rinjani’s mountainous area.

The launching was attended by WWF-Indonesia Director of Governance, Community Empowerment and Corporate Engagement (GCCE) Nazir Foead, President and Director of Supra Boga Lestari, ltd. Nugroho Setiadharma, and WWF-Indonesia Honorary Supporter, Davina Hariadi.

Ranch Market urges its customers to participate in forest rehabilitation programme conducted in Mt. Rinjani protected forest. By buying the”environmentally-friendly bag” costs Rp 95,000.00, every Ranch Market customer would have a chance to donate Rp50,000.00 to NEWtrees program, (an amount to cover seedling preparation, planting and tree maintenance).
President and Director of Supra Boga Lestari, ltc., Nugroho Setiadharma said that “One Bag One Tree” program is the implementation of Ranch Market value: ASES, (Advocate Social Environmental Sustainability). According to him, Ranch Market had previously conducted “green mission” program to support WWF conservation efforts, in which every “green products” sold in the Ranch Market meant “0.5% of the sales” donation to WWF-Indonesia.

“We are very proud of NEWtrees programme…NEWtrees is different from other tree planting programmes. The philanthropists are able to monitor their own trees, how they grow,” said Nugroho.

Customers contributing in “One Bag One Tree” program will be able to monitor their trees using Google Earth application, in which the trees will be named after their respective donors. In this initiative, WWF-Indonesia monitors the trees growth and uploads the images every 6 month to ensure the customers obtain their tree status update.