Dr. Hotlin Ompusunggu

Hotlin Ompusunggu Hotlin is a license dentist and the Co-Founder of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), a nongovernmental organization in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. ASRI integrates conservation and healthcare through community-based projects, with a mission to break the cycle between poverty and illegal logging. A dentist is not a typical background for environmental activism, but Hotlin went into dentistry interested in community development and with a view of health and health care that encompasses the bigger picture. She has learned that to be a healthy human being you also need a healthy environment. The health of all nature is crucial to the health of all humans. Hotlin has experience in rural clinics in Indonesia, she was the clinical director for the Musi river community and seeing patients from a service boat. She also managed medical and dental teams serving Tsunami victims in Aceh in 2005. Hotlin believes that "not only can we have human health and a healthy environment, but that they are fundamentally interlinked. We cannot separate one from the other.” Poverty and poor health are important drivers of deforestation, with communities often logging to pay for basic yet vital things such as healthcare. At ASRI, Hotlin has worked to change this. ASRI's planetary health model applies innovative solutions, including healthcare incentives, to reduce the need for people to exploit the forest while improving access to healthcare for village communities. Hotlin is exploring ideas for applying the success of the ASRI approach to other communities in Indonesia and worldwide, wherever biodiversity is endangered and where human health is likewise threatened.