Summary of Nominee Profile
Dr. Andrew Aeria is currently President of Persatuan Pemangkin Kesedaran Sosial Kuching - PEMANGKIN (Kuching Society for Social Awareness), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) based in Kuching. Established in 2020 with the support of an alliance of civil society groups, PEMANGKIN undertakes research, training and advocacy activities to support other CSOs promote sustainable development in Sabah and Sarawak.
Andrew is also the Deputy President of Persatuan Pemeliharaan dan Pemuliharaan Alam Sekitar Sarawak (PELIHARA), a CSO based in Miri working to conserve and rehabilitate forests, strengthen social forestry policy and practices, and so improve the livelihoods of indigenous communities. PELIHARA works closely with the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme Malaysia (NTFP-EP Malaysia) to promote reforestation with native tree species and foster the development of NTFP enterprises among indigenous communities. Additionally, Andrew serves on the Board of Trustees of the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme Asia (NTFP-EP Asia) for 2023-2026.
Andrew was formerly Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, University Malaysia Sarawak. He also served as a member of the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education’s Permanent Selection Committee for Public University Vice-Chancellors (from 2018-2020) as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (2019-2020).
Summary of Organisation Profile
Persatuan Pemangkin Kesedaran Sosial Kuching (PEMANGKIN) was established in 2020 with the support of an alliance of civil society groups in Sarawak and Sabah.PEMANGKIN was set up to undertake research, training and advocacy work in support and on behalf of a network of civil society organisations that combined their efforts to improve social impact. PEMANGKIN conducts civic knowledge workshops; evidence-based research; training and advocacy. PEMANGKIN joined the RSPO in 2023 as four of our network partners are local CSOs working with indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in forested areas that have been impacted by logging and oil palm development. As an RSPO Member, we advocate for IPLCs’ rights, respect for customary forests and lands, and traditional IPLC lifestyles. We want to ensure that sustainable palm oil production respects these concerns. Together with our network partners, we work to raise awareness among local communities (both rural and urban) about the importance of democratic culture, social justice, balanced development and the need to protect our environment so as to build a sustainable future.
Summary of Nominee Profile
John Watts is the Chief Technical Advisor and co-founder of Kaleka. He holds a PhD in Environment from the Australian National University, a Master of Environmental Management from UNSW Sydney, and a Graduate Certificate in GIS and Remote Sensing. John has extensive experience in Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Sourcing, and Agri-food Systems. John's PhD thesis focused on the livelihood strategies and natural resource uses of coastal communities in Eastern Indonesia. He has published extensively on the topic of natural resource governance and agri-food systems, including small-scale oil palm farmers. He has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia, for fifteen years.
John worked for Kaleka as Chief of Strategy Officer from 2015 to 2023 before rejoining in 2025. At Kaleka, he has led the design and implementation of programs to empower and protect the rights of rural and indigenous communities as well as strengthen the voices of grassroots civil society organisations in Indonesia.
John has experience as Co-Chair of the Jurisdictional Working Group of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). John has also worked at the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and the Center for International Forestry Research.
Summary of Organisation Profile
Kaleka is an Indonesian non-profit organization established in 2014. Kaleka is a women-led organization where the Founder and Board of Trustees Chair are women, and the majority of staff and managers are women. Kaleka has 80 full-time staff and 55 part-time staff, based in our offices in Denpasar, Bali, and Bogor, West Java, as well as project sites in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and Papua (Indonesian New Guinea). Through collaborative applied research, Kaleka finds practical solutions to challenges faced by farmers in adopting regenerative agriculture and further upscale the solutions in many regions in Indonesia. Our flagship initiative in Kalimantan, the Mosaik Initiative, applies the RSPO jurisdictional approach to the certification of palm oil, one of the three global pilots for this approach. The initiative ensures forests are protected and restored, and human rights, especially indigenous and workers’ rights, are acknowledged and protected. The initiative has also created a large-scale program for payments for ecosystem services in commodity-producing landscapes. The scheme rewards indigenous and rural communities for protecting and restoring forests through livelihood interventions. Kaleka has also led the certification of indepdent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia, with 4,391 smallholders already certified with its support.
