Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) works with local communities, local governments, and industry partners to maintain shared land ecosystems, as shown by the following partnerships and community service programmes in 2025.

The clearest case is the UNHAS Educational Forest at Bengo-Bengo, Maros, a Special Purpose Forest Area (Kawasan Hutan dengan Tujuan Khusus, KHDTK), which UNHAS manages together with the surrounding forest-farming communities. Under a community-based social forestry partnership scheme, local residents use non-timber forest products from the Educational Forest, which improves their welfare while giving them a stake in protecting it. For example, local people use the results of research in the KHDTK to tap sap from sugar palms and produce palm sugar, as described in the Long-Term Management Plan of the UNHAS Educational Forest 2023–2042 (p. 44).

UNHAS is working with partners to develop these forest products further. On 9 June 2025, the Faculty of Forestry held a joint discussion with the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP) Indonesia, which supports community farmer groups in South Sulawesi, in the Educational Forest on cooperation to develop non-timber forest products in the face of climate change. The Faculty presented the liquid palm sugar and honey products already being developed in the forest, including a liquid palm sugar production house set up on site, and further options such as pine resin tapping, forest honey bee cultivation, and educational ecotourism. On 27 July 2025, a Faculty of Forestry team worked with the Moncongjai Forest Farmers Group in the Educational Forest on environmentally friendly harvesting of trigona honey, hive construction, and product diversification, as part of a programme promoting the sustainable use of non-timber forest products.

To build community involvement in biodiversity, on 29 May 2025 the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Research Centre of the UNHAS Institute for Research and Community Service launched, with the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan KEHATI), the Biodiversity Warriors community, the first in Eastern Indonesia, which involves young people in exploring, documenting, and promoting local biodiversity through fieldwork, digital content, and plant catalogues.

Ecosystem maintenance also extends to land managed by residents. On 20 June 2025, a Faculty of Public Health community service team, supported by the UNHAS Institute for Research and Community Service, worked with residents of Wanio Village, Panca Lautang District, Sidenreng Rappang Regency, to grow vegetables and family medicinal plants in home gardens, promoting the sustainable use of village land. On 3 March 2025, the Institute also signed a contract with the South Sulawesi Food Crops, Horticulture and Plantation Agency to carry out a survey, investigation, and design study for the sustainable optimisation of swamp land for farmers.

This stewardship extends to the transition between land and coast. Through ASSAMATURU, a programme run with PT Semen Tonasa during the 114th wave of the Thematic Student Community Service Programme (Kuliah Kerja Nyata Tematik, KKN-T) in 2025, UNHAS students, lecturers, and the coastal community of Biringkassi Hamlet, Pangkep Regency, tended and planted mangroves using the Ecological Mangrove Rehabilitation approach to restore the mangrove green belt, reduce coastal erosion, and recover critical coastal habitat.

Overall, these activities show UNHAS building partnerships among local governments, the private sector, and local communities to maintain shared land ecosystems, in line with SDG 15 (Life on Land).