Bali-based NGO takes to beaches and schools in environmental drive
Bali-based NGO takes to beaches and schools in environmental drive
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Children often surprise people with their
innocent curiosity. Environmentalists, however, see this
curiosity as the perfect opportunity to teach them about the
importance of protecting the environment.
And it was children's curiosity that inspired Wisnu
Foundation, a Bali-based nongovernmental organization (NGO)
focusing on environmental protection, not to abandon their
environmental campaigns amid the public's cold response toward
such campaigns these days.
Equipped with adequate information on the environment, some
posters, stickers and brochures, the foundation's activists
present the environmental problems facing Bali to elementary
school students.
Among the problems addressed in the classrooms are the need to
preserve protected animals, the serious waste problems affecting
the island's coastal areas and the effect these problems have on
people.
After the presentations, the activists involve the students in
a discussion to answer any questions they may have.
The foundation's programs to raise the environmental awareness
of children does not stop at classroom presentations.
With the support of several hotels on the holiday island, the
foundation has developed other environmental activities, such as
a clean-the-beach program involving students and hotel employees.
After cleaning the beach, the students are then given a chance to
explore outside and inside the hotel.
The foundation's executive director, Yuyun Ilham, said the
foundation believed that such programs would eventually raise
children's environmental awareness.
"The more exposure the children get to environmental topics,
the more their awareness will be raised," she told The Jakarta
Post. "Then, through the children, we hope parents and teachers
will also become better informed."
The hotels which support the program have the same
environmental concerns as the foundation.
"The hoteliers want tourist area to be pretty; not just the
area of their hotels, but also the surrounding areas...," Yuyun
said.
The foundation's active involvement in environmental campaigns
garnered it the Environmental Company Award, sponsored by
TravelNews Asia magazine, during the World Tourism Market held in
London in November. The foundation was nominated by the
magazine's correspondent in Bali for its many environmental
programs.
Known as a paradise island for its beautiful landscape, Bali
is, however, not free from environmental problems.
Yuyun said that the most serious environmental problem on the
island was the lack of proper planning and control in the use of
land and development.
Government agencies play their part in the problems as the
island's planners. For example, when environmental problems
result from mega-projects such as beach reclamation, these
agencies blame each other but none of them decide whether the
project should be halted or allowed to continue.
"And intervention from the central government in Jakarta is
still very strong. Most of the mega-projects are approved by
Jakarta, while the local government and the local community has
to suffer because of the problems emerging from the projects,"
Yuyun said.
The foundation has also set up community recycling centers for
the disposal of recyclable materials in order to prevent people
from burning their trash.
Yuyun said that they introduced the program because of the
limited land available in Bali, making it impossible to create
more dump sites.
"Besides, burning trash sometimes produces carcinogenic
pollutants. For instance, burning plastic can produce dioxin,
which is a carcinogenic agent. The effect cannot be seen in the
short term, but in the long term it can cause nerve damage or
mental and physical retardation," Yuyun said.
Apart from setting up community recycling centers, the
foundation also developed recycling systems within hotels on the
island in 1995.
In establishing this program, the foundation not only
cooperated with hotels, but also worked closely with local waste
collectors.
Waste collectors who buy the hotels' garbage to feed their
pigs used to dump the unused garbage wherever they found the
space, even close to the hotels.
But with the foundations recycling system, the waste
collectors only get the garbage they need and the hotels properly
dispose of the remaining waste.
The foundation also reports the amount of waste generated by
each participating hotel every month.
"Our report can be used to change the hotels' policies, such
as using plastic or glass bottles," Yuyun said.
Some of the hotels' waste is separated, with some of the
garbage being used to make compost while food scraps are recycled
into organic pig food.
At present, nine hotels are participating in the foundation's
program: the Bali Inter-Continental Resort, the Four Seasons
Resort Bali, The Ritz-Carlton Bali, the Bali Hyatt, the Sheraton
Nusa Indah & Sheraton Laguna, The Holiday Inn, The Oberoi Bali
and The Hard Rock Beach Club.
However, compared to the around 60 star-rated hotels in Bali,
the number of participating hotels is still quite low.
"But we are making progress by raising awareness... and along
with Bapedal (Environmental Impact Management Agency), we will
introduce an environmental rating system for hotels in Bali, and
eventually in all of Indonesia, to encourage them to implement
environmental management in their daily operations," Yuyun said.