Blog #112: Fellows grant to Green Empowerment

A Fellows grant has been awarded to Koto Kishida, working with Green Empowerment, as the Malaysia Program Officer in Malaysian Borneo.  In this role, Koto will work directly with communities as well as with local partner NGOs PACOS, FS, and Tonibung to develop a minimum of five cottage industry and biogas projects.  For examples, the communities in Ulu Papar still predominantly rely on firewood for cooking.  Tiku is one of the few indigenous villages that keep big livestock (buffalo and pig), thus making it an ideal candidate to receive biogas digesters.  In Kampung Batu Putih, the community members own small palm oil plantations and are interested in utilizing biomass from these plantations.  This presents an opportunity to develop a biogas project that can then be used as a model for other small communities in Malaysian Borneo that own palm oil plantations.