Smits champions conservation<\/p>\n
Bambang M, Contributor, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Although saving the environment in Indonesia has often entailed
\npotential danger, Willie Smits, a Dutchman who has been living in
\nIndonesia for more than two decades, has always been enthusiastic
\nin this effort.<\/p>\n
His latest move is the establishment of animal rescue centers
\n(PPS) in several regions in this country.<\/p>\n
One of the important functions of PPS is to provide shelter to
\nprotected animals that the forestry ministry's Natural Resources
\nConservation Agency, or BKSDA, has confiscated from illegal
\ntraders and keepers. At PPS, they will be retrained before being
\nreleased into the wild.<\/p>\n
In the past, crackdowns on illegal trading of protected
\nanimals as mandated by Law No. 5\/1990 on conservation were
\nineffective, largely because the government did not have a proper
\nplace to keep seized animals.<\/p>\n
These failures caused great concern to Smits. He did not want
\nIndonesia to top the list of countries losing protected species.<\/p>\n
In 1999 Smits was named director of The Gibbon Foundation, an
\ninstitution that is concerned with wildlife in Indonesia. As
\ndirector, Smits began to change the institute's policy and geared
\nit toward the conservation of animals. One of his initiatives was
\nthe setting up of PPS.<\/p>\n
The project began in earnest in 2002 and today there are nine
\nPPS centers, namely in Yogyakarta, Bogor, Sukabumi, Malang, East,
\nWest and Central Kalimantan, Manado and Jakarta. Three more will
\nbe set up in Bali, Medan and Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
\"We have spent about Rp 45 billion,\" said Smits, a tropical
\nforest expert who graduated from Wageningen Agricultural
\nUniversity in Holland.<\/p>\n
Now, the BKSDA in many provinces have begun to actively
\nconfiscate protected animals from illegal traders and keepers.<\/p>\n
\"Only if we can stop illegal trading of protected animals, can
\nwe hope to save these animals from extinction,\" said Smits, who
\nis married to Syennie, and has three children.<\/p>\n
Smits introduced a method for the proliferation of meranti
\ntrees through mikorisa fungi symbiosis. Thanks to his skills, in
\nthe 1980s the then forestry minister Soedjarwo asked him to stay
\nin Indonesia to apply this method.<\/p>\n
Smits has also developed a reforestation method using local
\ntrees and supported by teaching over 1,000 Indonesians a
\nknowledge of forest management and nature conservation. In
\nrecognition of his services in nature conservation, the
\ngovernment of Indonesia conferred on him in 1998 a development
\nmedal of merit, making him the only foreigner to ever receive the
\naward.<\/p>\n
He has also received many other international citations, such
\nas the Knight Rider from the Dutch government, the Rider Digest
\nAward, the Blue Planet Award, the Hero of Today Award.<\/p>\n
However, Smits, now 46, says conservationists have had little
\nsuccess.<\/p>\n
\"Our environment has been undergoing rapid degradation and
\nnone of us can ever say we have been successful in this regard.
\nWe all are yet to be successful,\" he said in Yogyakarta last
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
Formerly an expert staff member of the forestry ministry (1993
\n- 1998), Smits is also an orangutan expert and savior. TIME. Com
\nof October 26, 1998 referred to him as \"The Orangutan Man of
\nIndonesia.\" Want proof? Just take an orangutan to him and he can
\nquickly tell you how old the primate is, how he has been caught
\nand where it came from.<\/p>\n
Aside from learning from publications on primates and
\nobserving the animal's behavior in the forest, Smits said he
\nlearned a lot about orangutans by observing his children when
\nthey learned to speak.<\/p>\n
\"We had to understand what the children wanted even though
\nthey could not speak yet. That's why I can now understand the
\nwishes of an orangutan and also its story when it feels sad,\"
\nsaid Smits, a fan of Ebiet G. Ade.<\/p>\n
Smits began to love nature and animals when he was small. When
\nhe was six, he began to love birds. At 12, he took part in a
\ncampaign to set free hawks and owls.<\/p>\n
He began to be interested in saving orangutans when he met a
\ndying orangutan at Klandasan Market, Balikpapan, in 1989. \"I was
\nvery sad,\" he reminisced. Still he did not wish to buy it. At
\nnight, he returned to the market only to find the animal dumped
\nin the garbage. He took it home. Unfortunately, one of the local
\ntraders saw him and shouted that he pay for the animal. Smits did
\nnot heed the calls and ran home with the primate.<\/p>\n
He was lucky as he saved this primate, later called Uce. His
\nsuccess in raising Uce spread to many places. Later state-owned
\nforestry company Inhutani gave him an orangutan. At first, he
\nthought of taking the two primates to the orangutan
\nrehabilitation center in Tanjung Puting, Central Kalimantan and
\nBahorok, North Sumatra. After studying information concerning the
\ncenters, he abandoned the idea because he did not believe in the
\nrehabilitation processes employed by the centers.<\/p>\n
Finally, he decided to set up his own rehabilitation center
\nbut found that no conservation institution was interested in his
\nidea. He turned to the international school in Balikpapan, the
\nschool where he sent his children. For three years, the students
\nenthusiastically carried out fund-raising activities.<\/p>\n
With the help of the students, he set up the Balikpapan
\nOrangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation. BOS is in charge of the
\nWanariset Orangutan Reintroduction Center in Samboja, East
\nKalimantan, and its branch in Nyarumenteng, Central Kalimantan.
\nBOS is now the world's largest primate conservation institution.<\/p>\n
Since it was founded in 1991, BOS has saved a number of
\norangutans and reintroduced many to the wild. One of the success
\nstories is that of Uce, which has given birth to baby orangutans
\ntwice since her reintroduction to the wild. The BBC has made a
\nfilm called Orangutan Rescue, which is a documentation of his
\nefforts to save orangutans. CNN Earth Matters has documented his
\nhard work to save orangutans from forest fires in a film titled
\nFlames of Extinction.<\/p>\n
But not everybody is happy with what he does. In 1999, he and
\nhis family received a death threat. Yet, he was not deterred. He
\nsimply moved his family to Jakarta in 1999 and continued his
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Even his PPS has led to many allegations that he is nurturing
\nan ulterior motive.<\/p>\n
\"Just look at everything that I have done. It's all
\ntransparent. I don't care as I don't work for myself or other
\npeople. I work for nature,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Hopefully he will become a naturalized Indonesian soon. He has
\ndecided to apply for citizenship as he is married to an
\nIndonesian and has raised his children here.<\/p>\n
Still, he hates to be called Mr. Smits.<\/p>\n
\"I've been staying in this country for more than two decades
\nnow but I'm still regarded as an alien,\" said Smits, who has
\nmastered more than five languages and can recite from memory
\nIndonesia's five-point principle of Pancasila and the national
\nanthem, Indonesia Raya.<\/p>",
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