This time last month,
my fellow eco warriors and I departed from Tembak for the last time, and arrived
in Pontianak on the west coast of Borneo for the final few days of the 80 day
DeforestACTION project. It was so sad to know that in a few days’ time we would
be dispersing all over the planet – some of us returning to jobs, girlfriends
and families in our own countries, some of us continuing to travel. However, instead of concentrating on this, we
through ourselves into a photo exhibition that we were putting on to show city
people from Pontianak the images we had captured over the months and tell them
stories about the people that we had met. The event was a huge success, and we
had over a hundred people turn up, from university students to business people.
We took them round the exhibition, laughing at funny stories, comparing the
day-to-day lives of city dwellers to that of those living in the interior
villages, and describing the challenges and solutions that we have recognized
during our trip. All of the people that I showed round were captivated by the
quality of the photographs and the stories behind them.
After the exhibiton,
we had some live music from a local youth group- a mixture of traditional
drumming and modern beats. We wound down, danced, told stories, laughed and
danced some more. It was a great night.
These last few days in
Pontianak also gave us the chance to start to imagine where we would go as an
organization – as the new DeforestACTION - and how we would make it work,
especially after we disband to all corners of the globe. The original concept
of DeforestACTION was the brainchild of a bunch of individuals from a handful
of different organisations and walks of life. There was Sean Tierney from
Microsoft, who wanted to push Microsoft’s Partner’s in Learning programme,
which involves young people. Alongside him were employees from Taking IT Global
– an online social community, and the world's largest network for young people interested in positive change. Then there was Cathy Henkel, film maker, director of
the documentary about our time in Borneo and owner of the Brisbane based film
company, Virgo Productions. Finally, there was Willie Smits, acclaimed
conservationist and visionary, who has been working and living in Indonesia.
Each party had a different vision for DeforestACTION, and different things they
could offer the association.
This worked for the best part in the initial
project. Together they made a global call out throughout their networks and
found applicants from every corner of the globe. The educational specialists
contacted class rooms from dozens of countries who we are still in contact with
today through webinars and social networks. They envisioned what we would do on
the ground, what the documentary would look like and what it would aim to
capture. In summary, they helped to light a spark. However, it was clear from
early on that with many motives, fields of expertise and other obligations and
distractions, the original board never properly boiled down what DeforestACTION
should and could become in the long run, after the initial project. This is
where the Eco Warriors, in hand with other applicants who joined us on the 80
days, took a leading role. We have a firm understanding of how the project
worked both on the ground and over technology, strong connections with local
people and NGOs, and a collective goal of making this organisation,
DeforestACTION, sustainable and successful long into the future.
So, we split the
future model of DeforestACTION into 3 parts:
-
The first
part, education about deforestation, will be carried out both on the ground and
in classrooms worldwide. On a local level, emphasis will be placed on the
destructiveness of palm oil monoculture, the short-lived advantages of selling
land to palm oil companies, and the alternatives that have been shown in places
like Tembak, where enrichment both of the forests and the infrastructure of the
village has been a leading factor in their strong, united resistance in the
face of these companies. Kodi Twiner and Mark Kurowski perfectly portrayed this
sort of education in their vibrant performance about the benefits of rainforest
which they performed in front of hundreds of children across interior Borneo. On
an international level, emphasis will be put on encouraging classrooms and
youth groups to learn about deforestation get involved in actions to halt the
destruction, and inspire whoever possible to get more involved.
-
The second
part is fundraising, fundamental for the continuity of the project and its
undertakings around the world. Much of this will be in the form of grassroots
for now, so if you want to help out with this, or know anyone who would, please
get in contact.
-
The final part
of the organisation will focus on ground projects in Borneo. We will be continuing work with Tembak
village, along with
working with Danau Sentarum National Park and Canopy Indonesia to design an eco-tourism programme, educational
and training package and build up ecological knowledge of the park. We will
also be reaching out and building connections with local NGOs and
organisations, providing them with well-deserved publicity and informing all of
you around the world about the job opportunities, projects and plans of these
groups. Finally, we will be ourselves outreaching to graduates and passionate
people to help continue and expand these ideas. We will send out job
opportunities, eco-tourism packages and project opportunities available for all
those who want to experience the rainforests of Borneo and see how we work.
I have been based in
Bali with my girlfriend since then, soaking up the sunlight and Western life,
and putting lots of hours into studying Bahasa Indonesia at a language school
and from books and films. Paul Daley has also stayed on in Indonesia, and is
currently living in Yogyakarta, also studying the language and meeting locals.
We will be reconnecting in a week and returning to Borneo where we will be
trying to finalise how DeforestACTION will work on the ground in the coming
months and years.
This week Dr Willie Smits and a couple of fellow Eco Warriors, Liza Heavener and Chris Gauthier, gave keynote speeches at the largest educational conference in the world (ISTE).
What DeforestACTION brings to the classroom is fresh and powerful. Schools students now have the opportunity to be involved in real life conservation work from their computers at home and in the classroom. This means we are educating a whole new generation of conscious global citizens who are passionate about creating a better world, for all people and all life on our planet.
Click here to check out what some of the educators thought about this amazing new concept in education.
As always, if you want
to keep up with what’s going on, go to www.DeforestACTION.com, and please get in touch with Liza Heavener at Liza@DeforestACTION.com if you need any more information or if you or anyone
you know would like to be involved in the future. Anyway, here’s some more pictures.
After returning to
Tembak village for the first time, we symbolically presented the village with
40 fruit trees – one for each household, not only to say thank you, but also to
engage with the whole village one last time, The fruit trees will provide the
village with seeds to plant further trees, along with fruit and shade for the
road.
Constantly helping to water the trees - the temperature was so hot that day that the seedlings needed constant care until dusk started to settle in. Thankfully, the village was hit by a huge storm that night, giving all the trees a promising drench.
The community seed
nursery, ready to take on seedlings from the forest. It was amazing to see it
fully packed out with polybags, and I am looking forward to seeing how it is
working when I return later this month
One of many Sungkai
seedlings, planted by Action Agents, film crew and Eco Warriors earlier in the
month, is doing well, with new shoots. Sungkai are a pioneer species, grows
quickly, and provides great timber for building materials.
The orangutan enclosure,
which will be used to house orangutans in the future. This enclosure will only
be used for the animals whilst they sleep, and during the day they will be
taken to the60 hectare forest for forest training, with the hope that they will
be given the skills they need to one day be released for good in a safe release
site.
Water! After a lot of
effort from the animal rescue team, a water tank was set up next to the
orangutan enclosure to provide animals under our care in the future with water
at all times.
If you remember,
Tembak village were planting a community vegetable garden when we first
arrived. This photo was in one of my earlier blogs.
3 weeks later, this is
what the vegetable garden looked like. Cucumber, tomato, runner bean, cassava,
and many other plants reach 7 feet into the sky. They perfectly display how
fertile the soil and productive the climate can be along the equator.
Setting up for our
photo exhibition. We put up around 30 photos from various Eco Warriors, and
hundreds of people attended the event to hear and see the stories we had to
tell.
Brochures about
DeforestACTION were handed out at the end to spread the word about the
project and tell others about what we had done.
Liza Heavener and Paul
Daley standing at the reception of the exhibition. I’m sure Paul wouldn’t want
me to point out his sweat marks so I won’t mention them.
A youth drumming group
from Pontianak drop some amazing beats as we celebrate and lament the end of
our 80 days.
Finally, here
is a tribute to Borneo that Paul Daley made. I have been so lucky to spend so
much time in this incredible place. Sampai Jumpa Lagi.