'Mountain boys' take to sea for marine conservation

'Mountain boys' take to sea for marine conservation

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Twenty-one-year-old Budi Santoso looks the part of a student
actively involved in a trekking and climbing club: long hair,
khaki-colored shirt, cargo pants and a wide-knowledge of trails
and mountain peaks.

But on Monday Budi and 35 other students, each representing
the outdoor activity club of the 36 state-owned and private
universities in Greater Jakarta, left for Pari island in the
Thousand Islands regency to get acquainted with life in the sea.

"The sea and its environment was never a focus of our club's
activities, although 70 percent of our maritime country is sea,"
Budi, a fourth-year student at Djuanda University in Bogor, told
The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The six-day trip is being organized by the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

During the trip, the students will learn about the need to
protect marine ecosystems, the buffering sea grass zone and
coastal areas, as well as the economic, social and cultural
activities of residents on the island.

The students will write a paper based on their research on the
island, using LIPI facilities, and present it at the end of the
six days. The best paper will be published online on LIPI's
website.

Trip organizer Wahyuddin Latunreng, who heads the scientific
awareness division at LIPI, said students were perfect agents for
environmental conservation, especially for distressed marine
ecosystems and coastal areas.

"Marine conservation had long been overlooked. It is time for
the students to learn for themselves that the sea holds many
secrets of life down deep," he told the Post.

Budi said the paradigm of the student outdoor activities club
had changed over the past few years.

"In the past, we were just known as students who climbed
mountains, went into the forest for adventure. But now we are
eager to play a role in environmental protection and
conservation," he said.