Envisioning a just and sustainable natural capital management that is rooted in local values and wisdom that has stewarded our planet for generations - by investing in people, places, and potentials.

BEKAL Pemimpin understands that to shift the mainstream practices in managing our natural capital towards fairness and sustainability, systemic changes need to happen. We also understand that there is a blindspot in our understanding of systems: a failure to recognize that our own ways of being, thinking, and doing are ultimately the primary drivers of our own systemic outcomes—through the choices we make, and through the relationships, institutions, policies, and systems that we create and enact every day. 

Therefore BEKAL Pemimpin chooses to invest in elevating the awareness and system leadership capacity of the actors at the heart of our natural capital management practices. By convening a microcosm of the system—community leaders, activists, academicians, business actors, indigenous communities, government representatives, and media—this awareness and leadership capacity transforms not only the individuals, but awakens a more holistic awareness and action-confidence at the collective level to co-create the necessary shifts for a better common future. 

OUR MISSION

1. To grow and nurture a cadre of next-generation stewards of our natural capital in all parts of the system, by strengthening the leadership capacity of local and national natural resource management practitioners across sectors to lead awareness-based systems change towards equitability and sustainability, inspired by indigenous values and wisdom in nature stewardship practices. 
2. To accelerate innovations in policy creation and natural capital management models, by supporting alumni towards self-sufficiency in the prototypes they co-create with the relevant stakeholders, and by growing an ecosystem of support to scale their impact, using equitability, sustainability, and indigenous wisdom as our guiding principles and inspiration. 
    

OUR STRATEGY AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES

We are aware that simply putting a group of people in a classroom often does not lead to lasting behavioral change, let alone systemic change. Therefore BEKAL Pemimpin built into its design three strategy pieces whose outcomes strengthen each other, creating an amplifying loop of positive outcomes over the years.

 

STRATEGY 1: UPSCALING 
Initiating and nurturing a network of systems awareness leaders through a continuous training program.

OUTCOME: A growing and vibrant network of capable young system leaders who are occupying strategic roles in natural capital management with the capacity to lead impactful collaborative cross-sector changes.

 

 

STRATEGY 2: DEEP SCALING 
Advanced mentoring of fellows’ systems-change prototypes to take root in their communities 

OUTCOME: A suite of maturing BEKAL Pemimpin prototypes, lead by local leaders, generating meaningful impact for the community or systems where they reside.

 

STRATEGY 3: ECOSYSTEM STEWARDSHIP
Facilitating relationships between fellows with other ecosystem actors to accelerate systemic impact. 

OUTCOME: Innovative natural capital management models and policy decision making process that will ultimately shift the system towards equitability and sustainability.

 

THE BEKAL PEMIMPIN EXPERIENCE

BEKAL Pemimpin combines several design choices to create a transformational experience through our learning process. Here are the core principles that set BEKAL Pemimpin apart from other leadership trainings:

Integrating conversations around marine and terrestrial issues to emphasize the interconnectedness of our fate on the planet.

Bringing diverse voices representing the microcosm of our natural capital management systemic complexity in the classroom, allowing authentic conversations to emerge across silos.

Attending to the whole person by integrating the head, heart, and hands intelligence in the learning process.

Investing early in a leader's journey by targeting emerging leaders.

Providing first-hand experience in systemic complexities by combining in-class learning with real-world exploration and independent learning in own context.

Built-in action research "lab" to prototype collaborative solutions and actualize leadership skills on real-world challenges.

 

CORE METHODOLOGY

BEKAL Pemimpin’s leadership and change-making framework evolved from the lineage of systems thinking now called “awareness-based systems change”. We draw from, and are inspired by the work of thinkers and pioneers such as Otto Scharmer, Peter Senge, and the late Donella Meadows. This school of thought and practice combines the Western tradition of rigorous pursuit of objective truth with the Eastern philosophy premised on subjective, embodied knowing and wisdom to gain a clearer, deeper, and more holistic understanding of complex systems.




INDIGENOUS WISDOM - THE ORIGINAL SYSTEMS THINKING 

As we work on systems change with grassroots and indigenous communities, we observe and recognize that many local customs and indigenous wisdoms are distilled from profound observations of nature’s patterns of behavior  and interconnections, recognizing deeply that human’s well being depends on the health of nature. For example, many indigenous taboos (e.g. Moluccan “sasi”, Kasepuhan Adat’s “Leuweung Titipan”) are forms of flow regulation to safeguard critical stocks. Likewise, myths and metaphors (“Rivers are the bloodline of our Mother Nature”) are passed down through generations to uphold patterns of relationships that promote collective wellbeing.

As BEKAL Pemimpin work with local leaders from across Indonesia, we not only educate them on conventional development paradigms and practices. We also empower them to reflect, discover, and amplify such wisdoms in their own roots that can help sustain and teach us for generations to learn what it means to live sustainable and equitably.
 

WHAT DID OUR ALUMNI SAY

OUR TEAM

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