'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.