Dr. Herlina Hartanto
Executive Director, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN)
Indonesia
Herlina Hartanto Executive Director, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) © Devan King
Areas of Expertise
Tropical forests, Forest protection, Community conservation
Biography
Herlina Hartanto is the Executive Director of Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN), The Nature Conservancy’s Indonesian affiliate, and a global expert on community-based approaches to tropical forest conservation. She joined TNC in 2010 as the Terrestrial Program Learning and Application Senior Manager. Less than a year later, Herlina led the Community Forest and Protected Area teams before officially becoming the Community and Protected Area Senior Manager in May 2012. She was elevated to Executive Director of YKAN in June 2020.
In her previous role as YKAN Terrestrial Program Director, she led work to conserve forest ecosystems through sustained engagement with a coalition of local communities, companies, and local and national governments. Under Dr. Hartanto’s leadership, 80 percent of villages participating in YKAN’s Communities Inspiring Action for Change program (known in Indonesia by its Bahasa acronym, SIGAP) have measurably reduced deforestation levels in their dedicated conservation areas. Nine participating villages have succeeded in securing legal management rights over their forests.
In addition to community-centered approaches to forest conservation, Dr. Hartanto’s wealth of experience includes developing strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation; and designing, managing and evaluating multilateral-funded conservation projects.
Herlina’s wealth of experience in conservation also includes designing, managing, and evaluating bilateral- and multilateral-funded projects. She earned a PhD from Monash University, Australia, where she focused on the political ecology of customary forest institutions in Central Sumatra, Indonesia.