Siti Aminah wins honor for environmental work

Siti Aminah wins honor for environmental work

By Renata Arianingtyas

JAKARTA (JP): Siti Aminah, the 27-year-old who won a Global
500 Roll of Honor award for the environment, had considered
joining the millions of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia in
search of higher wages and instead she stayed at home.

She planted mangroves in Semangat Baru, a hamlet in Labuan
Mapin village, Alas, on Sumbawa island, West Nusa Tenggara. Each
morning, she sets out on foot, wading through mud, to plant
saplings on an eroded beach.

Occasionally, she makes a three-hour sailing trip to Panjang
Island to walk through the woods, climb trees and sometimes sleep
there amid poisonous snakes all for the sake of finding and
collecting good mangrove saplings.

She used to do it alone. Then a former playmate, Sumiati,
joined her. And now, more and more people, even those who once
ridiculed her, are joining her campaign to save the beach from
erosion.

"She's got to be mad. Her friends have all married or are
working abroad, she's getting old searching for mangrove saplings
in the forest and planting them on the beach," was how some
villagers had talked about the 1990 graduate from a local school
for social workers.

Siti said she had become absorbed by her mission and that she
did not even have time to help her mother cook.

"The only thing that motivated us was our wish to save the
forests. That's why we continued working, even though people
sneered at us," she said.

The fruits of her labor have begun to show. The mangrove
forests are growing thicker, and the population of fish is
increasing. Eighteen thousand mangroves have been planted along a
seven kilometer strip covering 106 hectares.

"It is easier for people to catch shrimp, sea snails and crabs
because their numbers have grown," she said. "They are the
impacts felt by locals. Besides, the beach is now more protected
from the sea erosion."

Not only have the residents of Semangat Baru stopped mocking
her and her colleagues in the National Solidarity Foundation,
they have become her ally.

They were obviously proud of Siti Aminah when she flew to
Seoul to receive a Global 500 Roll of Honor award from the
executive director of the United Nations' Environmental Program,
Elizabeth Dowdeswell, on June 5, World Environment Day.

In Seoul, she stood proudly alongside 20 other environmental
campaigners, including Jane Goodall of Britain, Jan van der Leun
of the Netherlands, Lilian Corra of Argentina and Carolina
Travesi of Mexico.

Siti became one of 654 individuals and organizations to have
received the honor since it was established in 1987. Among them
are Sir David Attenborough of England, former Norway premier Gro
Harlem Bruntland, Anil Anggarwal of India and Jimmy Carter of the
United States. Indonesians who have received the award include
green consumer campaigner Erna Witoelar, environmental professor
Otto Soemarwoto and singer Ully Sigar Rusady.

Proud

When asked how she felt about the award, Aminah said: "I'm
proud, but I'm not yet satisfied with whatever I've accomplished.

"This award is not for me only, but for all of my friends at
the foundation, especially Sumiati, who is now married," said
Aminah, who is still single.

Aminah won another award Sunday; from the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) during an exhibition on the
environment at the Jakarta Convention Hall.

The award was presented by the State Minister of Environment's
secretary-general, Soedarsono, who said that Aminah and her group
had "become knights of the country's environment".

The UNDP is particularly pleased with Aminah's and the
foundation's rehabilitation of at least seven kilometers of
coastal mangrove forest in Sumbawa.

Aminah was born in 1970 in Labuhan Mapin, Sumbawa, into a
Bugis family who had migrated from South Sulawesi. Aminah grew up
in a community with strong Islamic values. Her family tilled the
land, but one by one her family members left to work in
plantations in Malaysia.

Her brother Sahabuddin, her younger sister Anita and her
father have all gone to work in Malaysia. Aminah grew up to be an
independent woman.

She was coming home from school one day when she noticed that
three houses and the marketplace in her village had been swamped
by the sea. She realized that over the past two decades, the
mangrove forest in her village had disappeared because of illegal
logging and sea erosion.

Aminah, the second of four children, began to act. At first,
she wanted to build a wall to protect the beach, but it would
have been too expensive.

She then established the foundation, and worked hard to raise
local's awareness about the environment. She incorporated
children into their program, collaborating with a local school.

The foundation then attracted funding from the Netherlands,
Dana Mitra Lingkungan, Environmental Management Development for
Indonesia and other sources.