Governor Irwandi Yusuf of Aceh

Governor Irwandi has a chequered past worthy of a Hollywood adventure film. He grew up in the highlands of Aceh throughout a thirty-year struggle for independence against the Indonesian central government. Irwandi, a veterinarian by trade, joined the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in 1990, participating for three years before taking up a scholarship at the University of Oregon, where he undertook a Master’s degree in Veterinary Science.

After returning to the capital, Banda Aceh, to teach at Syah Kuala University, Irwandi became a founding member of the Acehnese branch of Fauna and Flora International, lending his veterinary expertise to their conservation campaigns, particularly in regard to the endangered Sumatran elephant.

His concern for Acehnese socio-political issues led him into further contact with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). He held several different positions in GAM over the years, including as a special officer for psychological warfare in the GAM central command, as Negotiation Coordinator, and as Expert Staff on counter-intelligence in the Central Command of the Aceh National Army. He spent some time in 2001 with the Red Cross, taking the opportunity to study humanitarian law. Irwandi was arrested in 2003, and was held as a war prisoner in the Keudah Prison in Banda Aceh.

Irwandi was in his jail cell when the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake struck. The epicenter of the undersea tremor that caused the disastrous tsunami was very close to the Acehnese coastline. It is estimated that up to 170,000 lives were lost in Aceh alone. In some places the wave was 30 metres (90 feet) high.

As the waters rose inside his prison, Irwandi fled to the second floor while walls collapsed around him. His only means of salvation was to punch a hole through the asbestos ceiling, scramble onto the roof, and hang on until the tsunami abated. Of the prison population of 278, Mr. Irwandi was one of just 40 survivors.

In a traumatized and devastated province, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian central command negotiated a peace settlement, and Irwandi renounced his separatist agenda. No longer in conflict with the Indonesian government, the former rebel liaised with an international peacekeeping mission which paved the way for Aceh’s first democratic election in 30 years. It was a landslide victory for Irwandi, who won almost 40% of the popular vote.

He took office in February 2007 and is now guarded by the army that once pursued him through Sumatra’s jungles. His passion is the protection of Aceh’s magnificent rainforests, and he felt that way long before the green movement became fashionable. “My basic idea is how to save the nature, “ he says. “When I got that idea, I wasn’t even aware of the carbon credits. What I had in mind: ‘How to save the forests?’ My forest is... relatively intact. I want it to stay that way.”

His first step in going Green was to accept Dorjee Sun’s initiative and embrace the establishment of carbon trading in Aceh in order to reinvigorate the faltering economy and prevent further deforestation. In March 2007 he declared a moratorium on logging in Aceh, and now personally drives out to the villages to conduct spot inspections of former logging camps, encouraging the locals to take up sustainable new professions.

In the lead-up to the Kyoto Protocol talks in Bali, Governor Irwandi and Dorjee take a trip through the USA to meet green senators and business leaders, attempting to bring them onboard in Acehnese eco-investments and Aceh Green, a carbon-trading scheme that could turn out to be the biggest conservation deal in history.