We are pleased to announce that we have chosen Rio Ahmad as Director of Blue Forests, effective immediately. Rio’s appointment as new Director was being conducted in Member Meeting that held on 28-29 March 2018 in Makassar. The meeting was also a momentum of shared reflection through an Accountability Report that summarizes our activities, program performances, partnership, financial condition, and future agendas.
For the last three years (2015 – 2018), under the leadership of Yusran Nurdin Massa, our former Director, Blue Forests have been grown rapidly. Not only affected to the quantities of staffs, volunteers, partnerships, and donors but also the working areas (Papua, Aru Islands, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Demak, Sumbawa, Jambi, and Riau), which is lead to the raising amount of the assisted communities. Those works are also supported by the administration system that keeps developing.
Even though we are still a developing NGO, but we do not “really want to become bigger”. Most importantly, we are thriving to become more efficient and effective as an organization that sticks to the “local to local to global” paradigm – eventually returning to the grassroots and fighting the socio-economic-environmental resilience.
Rio’s Bio
Rio previously served as our Restoration and Conservation Manager in 2015 – 2018. He pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Hasanuddin University, Makassar. After graduated, Rio has successfully demonstrated his ecology and project management skill in various socio-environmental programs. In Mangrove Action Project (MAP) Indonesia, he worked as Environmental Field Staff and Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) Specialist for the Restoring Coastal Livelihood Program.
Then, Rio performed as a Project Officer for Coastal Ecosystem Resilience program, which included 78.02 ha of rehabilitation of abandoned aquaculture in Tanakeke Island through community based participatory. Specifically in Papua landscape, he was involved at USAID IFACS focused on capacity building for Multi-stakeholder Mangrove Management Working Group (KKMD) and co-wrote the Integrated Mangrove and Lowland Swamp Forest Management Plan for 250,000 ha Mimika forest system. He is now playing an important role as Program Coordinator in implementing the USAID LESTARI work plan at Lorentz Lowland Landscape.
Not just in his experiences in project management, but also his professionalism and demeanor have proven that Rio is capable to lead Blue Forests for the next five years.
Masya Allah, a very high appreciation for the previous Blue Forests’ stewardship under the leadership of Yusran Nurdin. This position and I are just the small part of the talented people at Blue Forests. I believe that Blue Forests will continue to grow and improve the networking in the management of watershed and coastal areas based on the resilience foundation built by our founders.