In the midst of booming developments e-commerce and fintech, one of the participants National Movement for 1000 Digital Startups Semarang, Mifachtur Robani or commonly known as Ben and his colleagues initiated the startup with a social goal called Protect the Forest.
“Protect the Forest is a crowdfunding platform which aims to raise funds for the movement to reforest forests and empower farmers,” explained Mifachtur Robani who is the Chief Marketing Officer of Protect Forests.
Ben and his team care not about their background or the problems they experience. Initially Ben traveled to several beaches in Semarang and saw firsthand the many environmental problems that were happening around him.
“Many houses are affected by seawater abrasion. The problem is clearly visible and the impact is visible. But many do not care about this. There are a handful of people who care and want to fix this but don’t have the resources to do it, that’s why we want to help them by making Protect the Forest,” said Ben.
Focusing on relying on the official site at protecthutan.org, Protect the Forest has taken action in repairing four forests in the areas of Semarang and Temanggung, Central Java. The process of how it works is quite simple. Protect the Forest collects funds from donors who care about forest sustainability, then uses these funds to fund the capital movement for a forest reforestation campaign with local farmers in the targeted areas.
Although departing with social goals, this does not prevent Protect the Forest from experiencing various obstacles in developing platform who carries the slogan Care, Solution, Together this.
“The biggest obstacle we experience is the trust of potential donors. Because we are the system crowdfunding and the products that we produce cannot be directly felt, it takes a long process and time to see the results of this movement,” explained Ben further.
This did not stop Ben along with his colleagues. Protect the Forest also focuses on educating the public about problems, disasters, natural tragedies and the importance of planting and reforesting Indonesia as a long-term solution for future generations. The education is packaged attractively in various official social media accounts belonging to Protect the Forest.
“The hope is that Protect Forests can go global soon, at least it can be present in other cities in Indonesia, especially considering that Protect Forests is the only platform for crowdfunding forest greening. We also hope to meet industry players startup others who have the same vision and mission as us,” concluded Ben.
Protect the Forest, Tumbas.in, and Young Trash, are the three digital startups from Semarang that have passed the incubation stage National Movement for 1000 Digital Startups. The three of them were also named the best startups in the stages Bootcamp for the city of Semarang.
Bootcamp is a program of providing material on product development, design, and marketing through the delivery of materials, mentoring, and work in teams to complete the product. Bootcamp Semarang, which is supported by Bank Bukopin as Official Banking Partner was held on 7-9 April 2017 at Impala Space, Kota Lama, Semarang.