Ian Dutton: A voice for Indonesia<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The departing Indonesia country director for U.S. non-
\ngovernmental organization The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Ian Myles
\nDutton, wants to be a positive voice for Indonesia in Washington,
\nwhere he will take up his new position as director for a
\nconservation measures group.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia doesn't have many good people speak about it
\noutside of Indonesia. You know, most of the news is negative
\nnews, and in Washington I'm hoping that I can be a voice for
\nIndonesia, for the environment, because people generally don't
\nget that perspective otherwise,\" Dutton said in an interview
\nrecently.<\/p>\n
A great man in his own right and eloquent about his views and
\nbeliefs, he said he had become attached to Indonesia, where he
\nhas worked for a total of 10 years doing conservation work, first
\nwith the government and in the last three years with TNC.<\/p>\n
\"I have to say this; Indonesia has been very good to me. It's
\nbeen really wonderful for me to come to a country like Indonesia
\nwhere everything you do has more significance of value than
\nsomething you might do in a country like Australia,\" said the 47-
\nyear-old native of Tasmania.<\/p>\n
\"It's hard to describe that difference. In Australia, I used
\nto work many years ago for the Great Barrier Reef Authority, and
\nyou know if you do something with the barrier reef, it was okay,
\nbut it was already well protected, it was already a good system.<\/p>\n
\"Whereas when you come to Indonesia, you do a small thing in a
\nplace like Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi) and it has a big impact,
\nso it's really rewarding in Indonesia to do the work I've been
\ndoing. It's been wonderful to me to learn how to be effective
\nhere and just to see the benefits to the people and the places.\"<\/p>\n
A former environmental planning lecturer at the University of
\nNew England in New South Wales, Australia, Dutton was no stranger
\nto Indonesia, having helped with training and research here with
\nthe Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO)
\nBIOTROP, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Tropical Biology
\nin Bogor, West Java, and various governmental institutions in the
\nmid 1980s.<\/p>\n
But his first lasting attachment with Indonesia came at the
\ninvitation of the Indonesian government to spend a year at
\nDiponegoro University in Semarang, helping to develop a national
\ncurriculum on marine science in the early 1990s. It was there
\nthat he got in touch with the TNC and learned more about its work
\nin Indonesia.<\/p>\n
TNC is the largest environmental NGO in the United States, and
\nit and the World Wildlife Fund are the two largest environmental
\norganizations in the world.<\/p>\n
Based in Virginia, TNC works in the United States, various
\ncountries in the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as seven
\ncountries in the Asia Pacific, including Indonesia.<\/p>\n
When his year at Diponegoro ended, Dutton returned to
\nAustralia, but apparently Indonesia was not finished with him.<\/p>\n
\"I kept getting asked to come back,\" he said, adding that he
\nfinally returned in early 1996 to Makassar to develop coastal
\nmanagement programs in South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Southeast
\nSulawesi, Maluku and Papua.<\/p>\n
At the end of that time, Dutton gave up his job at the
\nUniversity of New England to become chief of party for USAID's
\ncoastal project in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"So I did that for five years, and then joined TNC in 2001 so
\nit's kind of a natural progression in some ways.\"<\/p>\n
TNC was first invited by the Indonesian government in 1991 to
\nhelp manage and strengthen its national parks program.<\/p>\n
Since then TNC has established 10 offices in Java, Kalimantan,
\nSulawesi, Bali, Komodo Island, Wakatobi and Sorong, and employs
\n190 staff, of which 181 are locals.<\/p>\n
The group's work here is fully funded by donors outside of
\nIndonesia. When working with foreign donors, Dutton tries to
\nstress to them the importance of Indonesia for the preservation
\nof biodiversity on earth.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia is the most important country in the world for
\nbiodiversity. If you look at the terrestrial biodiversity -- the
\nplants and animals -- it ranks number three for highest diversity
\nafter Brazil and Columbia.\"<\/p>\n
\"But if you look at the marine side, it's number one, and it's
\ndaylights to the next country. It is the most important country
\nby a mile for marine life, so when you put the two of them
\ntogether, marine and terrestrial, Indonesia is clearly the most
\nimportant country in the world for biodiversity.\"<\/p>\n
The job, however, was not easy, as there has been so much bad
\npublicity for Indonesia over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
\"Most people outside Indonesia have a very negative impression
\nof Indonesia. It's very hard to convince someone outside of
\nIndonesia to give money for anything in Indonesia. They see the
\ncorruption, they see the terrorism, they see these negative
\nthings,\" Dutton said.<\/p>\n
TNC's work in Indonesia includes a national program to help
\nthe government develop environmental policy, training and
\ncapacity building, a marine program based in Bali for the
\nconservation of coral reefs and fish, a program focused on East
\nKalimantan and the conservation of coral reefs, orangutans and
\nlowland rainforest.<\/p>\n
There is also a program in Sulawesi. \"We're now working with
\nevery province in Sulawesi to build up a conservation plan for
\nall of Sulawesi. We're trying to develop a map that shows where
\nabouts in Sulawesi are the critical areas to conservation.\"<\/p>\n
A new program just started in Papua where the TNC is working
\nto conserve the Raja Empat coral reefs, as well as cooperating
\nwith British oil and gas company BP to protect the largest
\nmangrove forest in the world at Bintuni Bay.<\/p>\n
At the end of a decade of working in Indonesia, Dutton said
\nthat \"the thing I'm most proud of I guess overall, and TNC is
\njust a part of that, is to look at how the capacity of key people
\nhas grown, through the work I've been doing with them, helping
\nbuild their capacity\".<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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