Experience South Africa's wildlife

JAKARTA: Three Indonesian students will be taking part in the Cathay Pacific-sponsored Lapalala Wilderness Experience between July 14 and July 23 in which they will attend a one-week ecological course.

The program aims to expand the youths' horizons and raise awareness of man's impact on the environment.

Ida Sylviana, the company's marketing communication executive, told The Jakarta Post that the three students, two from Jakarta and one from Tangerang, were selected from 100 applicants who were required to submit a two-page essay in English with a topic relevant to environmental issues as well as suggesting possible solutions.

The Lapalala Wilderness area is a vast 26,400-hectare haven for thousands of birds, animals, reptiles and species of wildlife in the Waterberg mountains of the northern province of South Africa. It is also the first private sanctuary in South Africa for the black rhinoceros, a species so threatened that their numbers in Africa have plunged from 65,000 to fewer than 2,500 in the past 30 years. (14)