Written by Desi Natalia (BNF’s Communications Officer)
T
he first Global Issues Network (GIN) Kalimantan was a success! Borneo Nature Foundation hosted the youth conference together with the Bina Cita Utama School in Palangka Raya.
The three-day conference consisted of a mixture of workshops, field trips, cultural experiences and evening celebrations. Many Palangka Raya based organisations shared their knowledge and expertise in the interactive workshops, including Borneo Nature Foundation, Borneo Productions International, Yayasan Permakultur Kalimantan, Ranu Welum Media, EarthHour Palangka Raya and Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. We also welcomed NGOs from outside the city, with Mongabay Indonesia, Indonesia Nature Film Society and Wildlife Asia joining conference activities.
Borneo Nature Foundation led the one-day forest experience and the ’Protect & Preserve’ workshop class. During the forest experience, kids learnt about phenology, navigation, camera trapping, butterfly traps, and biodiversity. The forest location was near Rungan Sari resort, which is a good example of peatland forest and its biodiversity. Many local students from Palangka Raya participated in this experience and they had the opportunity to learn more about their own forests. All of the children enjoyed their first experience of having lunch in the forest.
In the Protect & Preserve workshop, we were sharing our conservation and research work in the forests of Sabangau and the Rungan landscape. Other workshop presenters were Mongabay Indonesia and Kids Cut Conflict Palm Oil (KCC PO). The children learnt about how to start a campaign to help protect nature. They were tasked with making a campaign poster about environmental issues such as water pollution, forest fires, endangered wildlife and global warming.
Other workshop classes were save and sustain, how kids can, documenting our world, journey of song, food for life, life rights, reduce and reuse, and art revolution. For experiences, there were ‘Orangutan Experience’ at BOS Nyaru Mentang Rehabilitation Centre and the ‘Dayak Experience’ in the nearby Sei Gohong village and Tangkiling Hill.
Our hope is for all the conference participants, from Kalimantan, Java, Bali, Singapore, Korea and Australia, to return to their schools and share the new skills, knowledge and ideas that they developed at GIN Kalimantan. The global issues that we are facing may seem overwhelming, but if we all #StartWithOneThing then we can make a difference.
