⁍ A new study led by Stanford University analysed the health centre serving 120,000 people on the Indonesian part of Borneo island.

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⁍ It linked the health programme to a 70% fall in deforestation compared with other national parks, equivalent to protecting more than 27 sq km (10 sq miles) of forest.

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⁍ The largest drop-offs in logging occurred next to villages that used the clinic the most, the study said.

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⁍ Health In Harmony was named winner of a U.N. Global Climate Action Award on Tuesday for its work to reverse deforestation.

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– Deforestation is bad for the environment, but it’s also bad for people’s health, according to a new study out of Stanford University. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at a health center set up by US-based nonprofit Health In Harmony and a local nonprofit adjacent to Borneo’s Gunung Palung National Park. The study found a 70% drop in deforestation between 2009 and 2019 across 10 national parks in the area, equivalent to protecting more than 10 square miles of forest. “We also found that the more engaged the villagers were in terms of how many times they visited the clinic or participated in conservation programs … the more impact we saw,” Susanne Sokolow, a scientist at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The study found the biggest drop-offs in deforestation occurred next to villages that used the clinic the most. The study was based on satellite images and patient records from the health center, which opened in 2007 in West Kalimantan and provides affordable health care to 120,000 people. The clinic accepted alternative payments, such as tree seedlings, handicrafts, manure, and labor, from patients in an effort to help them pay for their health care. Monica Nirmala, executive director of the clinic, says the data supports two important conclusions: “Human health is integral to the conservation of nature and vice versa, and we need to listen to the guidance of rainforest communities who know best how to live in balance with their forests.” Health In Harmony won a UN Global Climate Action Award on Tuesday.