In this episode of Earth Central, we speak with Reza Asmi, Executive Director of Wild Asia, to explore SPIRAL Connect — a bottom-up model transforming palm oil supply chains by empowering independent smallholders and progressive mills across Southeast Asia.

Reza shares the evolution of Wild Asia’s mission: from early conservation work in Malaysian forests to pioneering certified smallholder groups under RSPO standards. Today, their SPIRAL Connect initiative is redefining how sustainability works on the ground — integrating regenerative practices, fermentation-based farming, and real-time traceability into everyday palm oil production.

With a footprint now reaching over 32,000 hectares, SPIRAL Connect demonstrates how investing in soil health, biodiversity, and farmer livelihoods can reduce costs, improve yields, and lower carbon footprints — making palm oil both more inclusive and resilient. Reza also shares how open-source training and farmer-to-farmer learning are helping scale this approach from Malaysia to Thailand, Indonesia, and even Peru.

The conversation highlights how SPIRAL differs from traditional top-down certification schemes. Instead, it builds value-chain relationships that align farmer incentives with downstream buyer commitments. Reza emphasizes the need to engage procurement departments — not just sustainability teams — to drive real transformation.

We also discuss the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the readiness of SPIRAL’s smallholders for compliance, and the limitations of current traceability efforts. Reza offers a grounded, nuanced view on what’s needed next: better tools, two-way data flows, and stronger partnerships that go beyond compliance to foster long-term regeneration.

Key themes:

• Regenerative palm oil rooted in biodiversity and soil health

• Farmer-led innovation using fermentation and natural farming

• Scaling traceability and compliance with EUDR

• Unlocking real value through procurement and buyer alignment

• Building a global network of farmer champions and knowledge hubs

SPIRAL Connect is not a certification — it’s a movement. One that centers smallholders, strengthens value chains, and brings measurable gains in carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods.

In this episode of Earth Central, we speak with Hikaru Wakil Hayakawa, co-founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals—one of the world’s largest youth-led climate organizations. Hikaru shares how a small group of high school students with a mission to translate climate information evolved into a global movement spanning 134 countries and over 16,000 volunteers.

We explore how Climate Cardinals tackles the overlooked but critical issue of language accessibility in the climate movement, empowering youth and communities by making climate science, risk data, and emergency information available in local languages. Hikaru also discusses the intersection of climate justice, open data, AI, and indigenous knowledge—and why breaking information silos is essential for a truly inclusive and effective response to climate change.

Whether you’re in the nonprofit world, building sustainability tech, or working with corporate ESG data, this is a conversation full of insight on what it really means to make climate action accessible, inclusive, and global.

In this episode of Earth Central, host Alex sits down with Alex Logan to discuss the evolving landscape of environmental data and the growing importance of accessibility in the climate and conservation space. As environmental monitoring technologies continue to generate vast amounts of data—particularly through remote sensing—the challenge is no longer availability, but usability. Logan sheds light on the often-overlooked hurdles that researchers, technologists, and organizations face when trying to turn raw data into actionable insights.The conversation highlights three key obstacles: identifying the most relevant datasets, navigating the technical complexity of geospatial formats, and managing licensing or pricing constraints that can limit access. New tools and platforms are emerging to bridge these gaps by simplifying integration and reducing the burden on science and engineering teams. These solutions are helping to accelerate the development of applications that rely on nature data, as illustrated through collaborative use cases such as carbon project planning and ecosystem monitoring.The discussion also explores the importance of community-driven efforts to share knowledge and resources in this rapidly growing field. Logan introduces initiatives that aim to provide ethical, legal, and technical guidance for sharing environmental and Indigenous data responsibly. As interest in biodiversity, land use, and soil data intensifies, the conversation underscores the need for shared standards and infrastructure to support more effective decision-making. This episode offers a thoughtful look into how collaboration and data accessibility are shaping the future of environmental action.