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JP/4/Canada

Canada funds environmental awareness program in Sulawesi

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

In observance with World Environment Day, the Canadian government
launched on Tuesday a CA$4.5 million (US$3.7 million) project --
the Multi Media Machine, or M3 -- aimed at building environmental
awareness among the people of Sulawesi.

The five-year project, which will be undertaken by the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and a Manado-based NGO, the Lestari
Foundation, will use a communications campaign to provide print
and electronic media accurate and credible information about
environmental issues across the island.

M3 will initially begin in North Sulawesi before gradually
expanding to four other provinces in Sulawesi.

Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia Randolph Mank said the
project was essential as an important step to help maintain the
rich environmental conditions of the area.

"Indonesia is home to some of the world's greatest natural
resources and diversity ... and yet the natural riches of
Indonesia are among the most-threatened," Mank said at a round-
table discussion held on Tuesday at his official residence in
Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

"That is why the WWF and Yayasan Lestari initiative is so
essential to provide steps to the people who are best-placed to
implement them: The citizens, students, and the local leaders in
the Sulawesi provinces," Mank told the participants of the
discussion.

Lestari Foundation director Sri Haryanti told The Jakarta Post
the grant would further develop an existing program the group had
started in 2001.

"We believe that the media has an important role in
disseminating information and influencing policies. However, many
environmental issues are still being ignored due to the limited
information journalists have. Therefore, we will use the funds to
broaden our reach to disseminate information to media across
Sulawesi," she said. The foundation had helped establish talk
shows on local radio and television and a monthly four-page
supplement in The Manado Post.

M3 program manager, Moudy Gerungan, said that one of the
strategies they would use to raise people's awareness was to set
up three or four community radios on the islands of Wangiwangi,
Katedupa, Tomea, and Binongko in Northeast Sulawesi, to reach
people who did not watch TV or read newspapers.

The project will be funded by Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), which has a total of CAD$23 million in
development assistance earmarked for Indonesia this year.

The agency has maintained a strong geographic focus on the
large island of Sulawesi, which currently contains five of the
country's 30 provinces.

Head of CIDA Indonesia, Rosalind Coleman, said the reason why
CIDA focused on Sulawesi was because it was one of the most
ecologically rich areas in Indonesia that had not been well-
managed.

CIDA has contributed over a CAD$1 billion in development
assistance to Indonesia since 1954, including a program to create
good policies for environmentally sustainable development in the
country. (006)