In 1996, Indonesia's 'crazy' tree planter who was mocked for his mission planted 11,000 trees and turned barren hills into a green paradise

When traversing the hills of Wonogiri in Central Java, today’s visitors might take the dense areas of greenery in stride. The springs nourish nearby villages, the farms have sufficient water for numerous harvests, and the slopes covered with trees conceal the bare ground that used to be visible before. However, very few would think of the fact that many changes took place thanks to the commitment of one man who dedicated many years to tree-planting efforts despite the lack of encouragement from the people around him.Now well-known as an environmentally conscious individual, Sadiman began his mission with a straightforward realisation. As a person who noticed the depletion of the local forest due to the constant farming and the disappearance of streams that provided water for many villages, he came up with his own way to fight that trend. His solution was not a governmental initiative or a large-scale project of some kind; it was decades of planting one tree after another and getting mocked by his neighbours who did not understand the sense of growing useless plants.How deforestation triggered Wonogiri's drought and water crisis The Wonogiri area has been known for many years to be ...