The Best Idea for the Peatlands
Student Competition

Calling all students from Dutch and Indonesian universities!

Do you want to get valuable hands-on experience and boost your intercultural and interdisciplinary skills whilst developing solid proposal that can support local livelihoods and rehabilitate peatland-based oil palm-plantation areas?

SustainPalm , in collaboration with @InHolland, @Nuffic SEA and @UNTAN, are inviting you for the ‘Best Idea of the Peatlands’ student competition!

This competition consists of a series of (optional) preparatory workshops and guidance from experts to support you and your team to turn your ideas into a Sustainable Business Model Canvas for income generating activities or sustainable crop cultivation (other than oil palm) for smallholder farming families or entrepreneurs in peat areas and surroundings in Indonesia.

Pitch your innovative ideas to a diverse jury panel and have a chance to win exciting prizes!

Registration closes on May 1st. Once registrations have closed, you will be notified if your application has been successful.

Registration

If you register as an individual, you will be paired with other students from Dutch and/or Indonesian universities who want to focus on the same Living Lab location.

Register For Individual Students

If you register as a team you may have different study backgrounds but the team should be from one and the same university. We require just one registration per team

Register For Student Teams
  • Format and assignment
  • Prizes and benefits
  • Background
  • Competition Timeline

Format :
  • Groups of students collaborate to develop a business model concept for peat areas, aimed at securing long-term social, financial and environmental services of the landscape and increased bio-diversity.
  1. Student groups may vary in size, according to student/team preference. We expect teams from 2-6 students;  and aim at 4-5 groups per Living Lab.  
  2. Student groups may be from one university, or from different universities. We welcome students from various  disciplines.  
  3. Student groups may be international, meaning that students at Indonesian and Dutch universities may  collaborate. 
    • The Challenge Organizers will facilitate a list in which students can indicate they want to work in an  Indonesian-Dutch team. Organizers will be the matchmakers. 
  4. Each student team is provided with an Indonesian and a Dutch coach, which are both knowledgeable about the  relevant Living Lab. Both will assist the students with the project.
  5. The working language is English. 
  • On the one day final event the SBMCs are pitched by the students in 2-4 minutes digitally/online to a jury.
  • Project partners and coaches will share as much information as possible with student teams. Clearly, on some  commodities more data is available than on other.
  1. There will be a Google Drive made available for each student team where information can be stored.
  • The jury will have a week to determine the best ideas:
  1. Environmentally most promising idea (leading to the highest bio-diversity and carbon stock gains).
  2. Socially most promising idea (a worked out idea which seems very promising to the local communities).
  3. Most feasible SBMCs (an idea that is worked out well, and looks most feasible). 

  • The Challenge will involve a series of guest lectures (workshops) that are organized in the lead up to the final product.  These activities are optional but aim to introduce the issues at stake in the relevant landscapes and provide students  with hands-on skills relevant for their assignment.

  • This Challenge is open for students from all knowledge institutions in the Netherlands and Indonesia. Hence, the  Challenge and any additional workshops will be conducted online. Students are encouraged to meet with their  coaches in person when possible and jointly develop proper SBMCs.

Assignment :

Develop a Sustainable Business Model Canvas for income-generating activities and sustainable crop cultivation—beyond  just oil palm—for smallholder farming families and entrepreneurs operating in Indonesia’s peatland areas. These should  improve bio-diversity and maintain or increase carbon stocks. 

Students can explore cases and products from the ComPeat and SustainPalm inventory of relevant peat-based products.  Examples include:

  • Coffee Liberica 
  • Mushrooms and/or vegetables 
  • Rotan 
  • Sago 
  • Medicinal plants 
  • Other NTFPs or species that have proven to produce well on peat, do not require drainage and have a high economic  potential as well ensure food security. 

Examples of alternative income generating activities for smallholder farming families or entrepreneurs include:

  • Fish production within peat areas  
  • Selling oil palm for carbon offset
  • Tourism 

A more extensive list of options can be found in Annex 1 in the ‘Best Idea for the Peatlands’ PDF. 

The business model should present a realistic, logical and substantiated pathway to an alternative land-use system in peat and surroundings that secures long-term social, financial and environmental services from the land. Some components which need to be developed are:

Sources which explores key concepts that can serve as the framework for the Sustainable Business Model Canvas are:

  • Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Papadakos, P., Bernarda, G., Papadakos, T., & Smith, A. (2014). Value proposition design.  John Wiley & Sons. 
  • Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and  Challengers. Wiley, New Jersey. 

Both books are available in Bahasa Indonesia as well as in English.

The Challenge consists of the following elements:

1. Kick off meeting

2. Preparatory workshop(s) which will be online session and recorded. This allows students the opportunity to ask questions immediately  when the session is being given. 

  • Workshop 1: Background & Design thinking session, explanation of the three relevant Living Labs by project  staff (VHL, IPB, ULM, UNTAN) + Design Thinking (by Erik Lalau, InHolland). 
  • Workshop 2: Sustainable Business Model Canvas & Value Proposition development (by Leonoor Akkermans, Van Hall Larenstein).
  • Workshop 3: An inspiring case from the field (Arconesia explaining their SBMC).
  • Workshop 4: Trial run for presenting your final Sustainable Business Model Canvas. Some external experts can  provide feedback (different from jury, possibly other coaches).

Students can rewatch the session at a later moment as well. Obviously the opportunity to immediately ask clarification  is than not possible.

  • An additional Workshop by an Indonesian government official and possibly LNV attaché might be organized by  IPB. This workshop will illustrate how peatland development is dealt with in a policy environment and provide  students the opportunity to discuss with government officials. The focus is not directly on the SBMC.

3. Time for teams to collaborate (online/offline, at their own location). 

4. Check ins with coaches being present weekly on demand to assist groups. Students can visit their local coaches in person.

  1. Coaches participate in the relevant Living Labs. 
  2. Each team has an Indonesian and a Dutch coach to ask input and feedback from. 
  3. There will be students in the field in Ketapang from the 14th of April onward. These may function as a key source for groups or become participants as well. 
  4. If relevant students which have participated in the Living Labs will be introduced as a reference.

5. Pitching of business models and SBMC: via a digital/online presentation to the jury (2-4 minutes for pitch; 10 minutes  for questions). In case there are more than 12 participating teams, there will be a preselection of 12 teams for the final  event based on performance during Workshop 4. Prior to the pitching event (see competition timeline), students are requested to  submit their business proposal in written format, so the jury can evaluate the proposals more extensively before  deciding on the winning teams. 

6. Event in which the winners are announced by the jury, including motivation why their SBMC won. 

Teams will pitch their proposal to a diverse jury (three or four candidates). Suggested jury members are :

  • PT Arconesia (entrepreneur)
  • Tropenbos Indonesia (NGOs/project implementors)
  • Chairperson of Indonesian Horticultural Professional Certification Body (TBC; private sector, with large professional network). 

Objectives:

  • Engaging various stakeholders in this challenge to foster innovative public-private-producer partnerships (4P) that  empower farmer organizations and smallholders, drive market solutions, and create lasting impact (even beyond the  SustainPalm project duration)  
  • Develop and assess sustainable business model concepts which increase bio-diversity and carbon stocks and provide  an alternative to oil palms in the peatlands. 
  • Create visibility for SustainPalm and the programme more broadly: workshops recordings might be published on  SustainPalm website. 
  • Fostering Action Research by implementing applied research and delivering tangible products for SustainPalm, local  entrepreneurs and local communities.  
  • Developing students’ entrepreneurial skills and apply theory into practice, bringing forward their unique innovative  ideas.

  • Cash prizes for the winning teams (Total available prize money is 2,250 euro) :
  • A prize for the best Environmentally friendly SBMC (750 euro).  
  • A prize for the best Economic (beneficial for the community) SBMC (750 euro).  
  • A prize for the most feasible idea (750 euro).
  • Preparation for Internship or Thesis research and possibility to gain Personal Development credits (conditions are provided by the student’s university).
  • The winning SBMC will be presented during the SustainPalm closing event in the first week of September 2025, attended by a diverse international audience. Students will be introduced to relevant parties that may uptake their ideas. Most likely the presentation will be online. 
  • The winning business model will stand a chance to be implemented as a pilot project, supported with seed funding and in co-coordination with a local partner (e.g. Sanggar Bumi Lestari, Solidaridad, Tropenbos Indonesia), benefitting smallholder farmer families in Indonesia and the peatlands.
  • Honourable mention on academic and SustainPalm social media.
  • Networking opportunities and experience working in a real life international development setting.
  • Certificate for participations for all  the participants.

The global demand for sustainable agricultural practices is growing, and palm oil production is no exception. Indonesia, the  world’s largest producer of palm oil with an estimated production of 46.82 million metrics tons in 2023, and the Netherlands, a key export destination within the EU, have a shared interest in ensuring that palm oil is produced sustainably.  

Oil palm crop production faces many challenges, including the loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions  through drainage of peatlands for plantation development. The Best Idea for the Peatlands Challenge strives to engage  students in contributing to the sustainability of peatland-based oil palm plantation landscapes and secure long-term social,  financial and environmental services from these. Improving bio-diversity and maintaining or improving carbon stocks must be key objectives. 

The Challenge invites students to collaborate interdisciplinary and intensively within a limited timeframe to develop a  business model for income generating activities or sustainable crop cultivation (other than oil palm) for smallholder farming  families or entrepreneurs in peat areas and surroundings in Indonesia. The Challenge allows students to contribute to real live  projects. 

Students in this challenge will get valuable hands-on experience and boost their intercultural and interdisciplinary working  and communication skills whilst receiving support and guidance from their university and other project partners. This can help  them to turn their ideas into a solid proposal that supports local livelihoods and rehabilitates peatland-based oil palm  plantation areas. 

This Challenge will directly support SustainPalm WP3’s Objective 2: “Develop sustainable land-use systems and business  models for peat areas.” It focuses on fostering sustainable business opportunities on peatlands, empowering communities  to manage their peat forests responsibly. The targeted peatlands include SustainPalm’s working areas—South Kalimantan  and Siak, Riau province—as well as the ComPeat project area in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. By connecting partners from  both SustainPalm and ComPeat Living Labs, the Challenge seeks to go beyond the Living Labs framework, paving the way for  dynamic Communities of Practice.

Download "The best idea for the peatlands Challenge" brief

If you register as an individual, you will be paired with other students from Dutch and/or Indonesian universities who want to focus on the same Living Lab location.

Register For Individual Students

If you register as a team you may have different study backgrounds but the team should be from one and the same university. We require just one registration per team

Register For Student Teams

Brief Description of Living Lab

Brief Description of the Living Lab and the challenge in Ketapang
Brief Description of the Living Lab and the challenge in Siak
Brief Description of the Living Lab and the challenge in South Kalimantan

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact : 

Idsert Jelsma  – Email   idsert.jelsma@hvhl.nl