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)