Environmental awareness a step in right direction

By Hugh Attwater

JAKARTA (JP): The people of Pager Jurang, a ceramic cottage industry village in Central Java, are more aware of the biodiversity surrounding them than two months ago. This is because for two weeks in October, a production team descended upon them to make an educational and entertaining documentary about environmental biodiversity and the human relationship with it.

The 45-minute-long film, initiated by the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Kehati), involved the collaboration, consultation and importantly, the hospitality of the whole village. Indeed, nearly all of the film's characters are villagers, including 10-year-old Marsha S. Adhiyuta, the film's star.

But it's not just the people of Pager Jurang who will benefit. The film, Desaku Bernyanyi, which also stars renowned actress Nurul Arifin, is to be aired on five terrestrial channels on Sunday, Nov. 7 at 10 a.m., reaching all corners of Indonesia. As well as using the medium most accessible to Indonesian society, 70 percent of which lives in village communities, the film also employs techniques that will make it appealing to everyone.

For example, after talking about life in her village and showing its natural surroundings, Marsha sings popular songs about the environment -- both traditional and modern -- to which people can easily relate. There are also touching moments, such as when she comes across a young wild cat, but instead of taking it home as a pet, she takes pleasure in letting it remain free.

In another scene, Marsha's grandfather recites to her a poem about the beauty of nature and its importance to the village.

With all elements of society -- young and old, male and female -- playing a role in the film, it is intended for family viewing. Catching the audience's attention by way of entertainment, the educational message in the film is relayed in an easy-to-digest form.

"Through the film, we hope to raise awareness in every family, so that people come to love their environment," says Prof.Dr. Emil Salim, the former environment minister and chairman of Kehati who also plays the part of an environmentalist visiting a friend in the village.

In addition to this documentary, Kehati has been busy using other media to stimulate public awareness. They produced public service announcements earlier this year, hold regular radio talk shows, promote national "environment days" and circulate posters and leaflets explaining biodiversity.

Biodiversity is an alien concept to many rural Indonesians. While they may possess an extensive knowledge of the natural resources with which they most frequently come into contact, an understanding of the workings and fragility of ecosystems is less common. Awareness of the importance of biodiversity, in this sense, is the first step toward preventing its depletion, as only by understanding the causes of environmental problems can they be properly addressed.

Initiatives aimed at raising public awareness such as Desaku Bernyanyi encourage (rather than force) people to look after their environment by showing (rather than telling) that it is in their interest to do so.

Similarly, visitors to Indonesia can and should be made aware that they have a role to play in protecting the environment. In the past, tourism has generally been associated with negative environmental and cultural impact; large hotels eating up valuable resources while spitting out tourist waste, careless scuba divers breaking corals with their fins, discarded plastic water bottles, and, of course, the notorious transformation of peaceful Kuta village into pompous Kuta Beach in Bali.

Ironically, by even coming to "exotic" Indonesia, tourists are inadvertently destroying many of the things they arrive to see. The recent World Ecotourism Conference in Sabah, Malaysia highlighted the need for "responsible" travel, which conserves the natural environment and has a minimal negative impact on local culture. Encouragingly, there has been a rise in the number of ecotourism ventures in Indonesia during the 1990s as environmental awareness has risen.

Consequently, the tourist now has a choice of destination and activity that ranges from the decidedly irresponsible to pure ecotourism. He or she can stay enclosed in their five-star resort with the occasional speed boat trip for a spot of spear gun fishing, or alternatively, spend two weeks in an "ecolodge" while helping environmental organizations carry out their research.

One such example is Operation Wallacea in Sulawesi, whereby guests pay to assist in collecting valuable data while trekking through rainforests or diving in pristine waters. Having had a wonderful holiday, they take home with them a greater awareness of the natural environment and a certain feel-good factor, while leaving behind a positive impact on the culture and environment that benefits from their help.

For the less adventurous, simply by being aware that their presence can be damaging to the areas they visit and by being mindful of more responsible behavior can help. It doesn't take much effort to walk another twenty meters to refill a bottle of drinking water, or to ask the boat man not to drop the anchor on that table coral.

As the largest industry in the world (tourism expenditures were US$425 billion in 1997), tourism has the potential to play a major role in promoting environmental conservation and regenerating damaged ecosystems in tourist destinations. By catering to the needs of an environmentally aware tourist population, locals employed in the industry can learn about conservation techniques and ecofriendly practices. Inversely, by raising the awareness of less responsible tourists, they can encourage more ecofriendly practices on the part of the visitor.

The message is that everyone -- villagers, city folk and tourists -- must first understand that simple measures can be taken on an individual basis that can help conserve the environment and have minimal impact on traditional culture. Only then can collective, cooperative awareness truly become part of our culture.