Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) and the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase Indonesia's environmental and economic resilience by developing mobile-led mitigations for a range of climate change issues.
The MoU will see IOH and the GSMA conduct mangrove conservation programs and efforts to increase the productivity of shrimp and crab farmers using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in North Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The partnership will be run through the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Hub, which was created in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The MOU signing took place at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2023.
The IOH and GSMA programs will be carried out in North Kalimantan Province through two main activities. The first is Marine and Coastal Participatory Mapping which uses geospatial technology to improve regional planning and policy-making, especially for seaweed agricultural land. The second activity is the Digitalization of Environmentally Friendly Shrimp Farming using IoT-based monitoring tools to increase productivity. Both activities are stimulated by the deforestation of mangrove forests due to the inappropriate expansion of seaweed and shrimp farming that threatens the environmental ecosystem.
President Director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Vikram Sinha
Indonesia continues to play an important role in promoting the control of world climate change. The priority issues discussed at the Climate Sustainability Working Group (CSWG) as part of the G20 series form the basis of our cooperation with the GSMA. We believe that this concrete action utilizing digital technology will increase the environmental and economic resilience of the surrounding communities in North Kalimantan. This sustainable program will also positively impact Indonesia's nature conservation while improving the nation's economy in the future.
Chief Regulatory Officer at GSMA and President Mobile for Development Foundation, John Giusti
The GSMA is reinforcing its commitment to addressing global climate challenges by supporting concrete programs that leverage digital innovation to tackle climate impacts. We undertake this work alongside our broader support of the mobile industry’s efforts to achieve Net Zero. The collaboration between Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and GSMA Mobile Innovation Hub, is a great example of how mobile can play a vital role in connecting vulnerable communities to digital solutions that enable them to improve climate resilience. Mangrove forest conservation is a global need across many coastal communities, and pilot programs such as this bring invaluable learnings that can be applied and scaled.
