Monday 9 July 2012

A New Chapter.


This time last month, my fellow eco warriors and I departed from Tembak for the last time, and arrived in Pontianak on the west coast of Borneo for the final few days of the 80 day DeforestACTION project. It was so sad to know that in a few days’ time we would be dispersing all over the planet – some of us returning to jobs, girlfriends and families in our own countries, some of us continuing to travel.  However, instead of concentrating on this, we through ourselves into a photo exhibition that we were putting on to show city people from Pontianak the images we had captured over the months and tell them stories about the people that we had met. The event was a huge success, and we had over a hundred people turn up, from university students to business people. We took them round the exhibition, laughing at funny stories, comparing the day-to-day lives of city dwellers to that of those living in the interior villages, and describing the challenges and solutions that we have recognized during our trip. All of the people that I showed round were captivated by the quality of the photographs and the stories behind them.

After the exhibiton, we had some live music from a local youth group- a mixture of traditional drumming and modern beats. We wound down, danced, told stories, laughed and danced some more. It was a great night.
These last few days in Pontianak also gave us the chance to start to imagine where we would go as an organization – as the new DeforestACTION - and how we would make it work, especially after we disband to all corners of the globe. The original concept of DeforestACTION was the brainchild of a bunch of individuals from a handful of different organisations and walks of life. There was Sean Tierney from Microsoft, who wanted to push Microsoft’s Partner’s in Learning programme, which involves young people. Alongside him were employees from Taking IT Global – an online social community, and the world's largest network for young people interested in positive change. Then there was Cathy Henkel, film maker, director of the documentary about our time in Borneo and owner of the Brisbane based film company, Virgo Productions. Finally, there was Willie Smits, acclaimed conservationist and visionary, who has been working and living in Indonesia. Each party had a different vision for DeforestACTION, and different things they could offer the association. 

This worked for the best part in the initial project. Together they made a global call out throughout their networks and found applicants from every corner of the globe. The educational specialists contacted class rooms from dozens of countries who we are still in contact with today through webinars and social networks. They envisioned what we would do on the ground, what the documentary would look like and what it would aim to capture. In summary, they helped to light a spark. However, it was clear from early on that with many motives, fields of expertise and other obligations and distractions, the original board never properly boiled down what DeforestACTION should and could become in the long run, after the initial project. This is where the Eco Warriors, in hand with other applicants who joined us on the 80 days, took a leading role. We have a firm understanding of how the project worked both on the ground and over technology, strong connections with local people and NGOs, and a collective goal of making this organisation, DeforestACTION, sustainable and successful long into the future.

So, we split the future model of DeforestACTION into 3 parts:

-          The first part, education about deforestation, will be carried out both on the ground and in classrooms worldwide. On a local level, emphasis will be placed on the destructiveness of palm oil monoculture, the short-lived advantages of selling land to palm oil companies, and the alternatives that have been shown in places like Tembak, where enrichment both of the forests and the infrastructure of the village has been a leading factor in their strong, united resistance in the face of these companies. Kodi Twiner and Mark Kurowski perfectly portrayed this sort of education in their vibrant performance about the benefits of rainforest which they performed in front of hundreds of children across interior Borneo. On an international level, emphasis will be put on encouraging classrooms and youth groups to learn about deforestation get involved in actions to halt the destruction, and inspire whoever possible to get more involved. 

-          The second part is fundraising, fundamental for the continuity of the project and its undertakings around the world. Much of this will be in the form of grassroots for now, so if you want to help out with this, or know anyone who would, please get in contact.

-          The final part of the organisation will focus on ground projects in Borneo.  We will be continuing work with Tembak village, along with working with Danau Sentarum National Park and Canopy Indonesia to design an eco-tourism programme, educational and training package and build up ecological knowledge of the park. We will also be reaching out and building connections with local NGOs and organisations, providing them with well-deserved publicity and informing all of you around the world about the job opportunities, projects and plans of these groups. Finally, we will be ourselves outreaching to graduates and passionate people to help continue and expand these ideas. We will send out job opportunities, eco-tourism packages and project opportunities available for all those who want to experience the rainforests of Borneo and see how we work.
I have been based in Bali with my girlfriend since then, soaking up the sunlight and Western life, and putting lots of hours into studying Bahasa Indonesia at a language school and from books and films. Paul Daley has also stayed on in Indonesia, and is currently living in Yogyakarta, also studying the language and meeting locals. We will be reconnecting in a week and returning to Borneo where we will be trying to finalise how DeforestACTION will work on the ground in the coming months and years. 

This week Dr Willie Smits and a couple of fellow Eco Warriors, Liza Heavener and Chris Gauthier, gave keynote speeches at the largest educational conference in the world (ISTE).

What DeforestACTION brings to the classroom is fresh and powerful. Schools students now have the opportunity to be involved in real life conservation work from their computers at home and in the classroom. This means we are educating a whole new generation of conscious global citizens who are passionate about creating a better world, for all people and all life on our planet.

Click here to check out what some of the educators thought about this amazing new concept in education.

As always, if you want to keep up with what’s going on, go to www.DeforestACTION.com, and please get in touch with Liza Heavener at Liza@DeforestACTION.com if you need any more information or if you or anyone you know would like to be involved in the future.  Anyway, here’s some more pictures.



After returning to Tembak village for the first time, we symbolically presented the village with 40 fruit trees – one for each household, not only to say thank you, but also to engage with the whole village one last time, The fruit trees will provide the village with seeds to plant further trees, along with fruit and shade for the road.
Constantly helping to water the trees - the temperature was so hot that day that the seedlings needed constant care until dusk started to settle in. Thankfully, the village was hit by a huge storm that night, giving all the trees a promising drench.

The community seed nursery, ready to take on seedlings from the forest. It was amazing to see it fully packed out with polybags, and I am looking forward to seeing how it is working when I return later this month

One of many Sungkai seedlings, planted by Action Agents, film crew and Eco Warriors earlier in the month, is doing well, with new shoots. Sungkai are a pioneer species, grows quickly, and provides great timber for building materials.

The orangutan enclosure, which will be used to house orangutans in the future. This enclosure will only be used for the animals whilst they sleep, and during the day they will be taken to the60 hectare forest for forest training, with the hope that they will be given the skills they need to one day be released for good in a safe release site.

Water! After a lot of effort from the animal rescue team, a water tank was set up next to the orangutan enclosure to provide animals under our care in the future with water at all times.

If you remember, Tembak village were planting a community vegetable garden when we first arrived. This photo was in one of my earlier blogs.

3 weeks later, this is what the vegetable garden looked like. Cucumber, tomato, runner bean, cassava, and many other plants reach 7 feet into the sky. They perfectly display how fertile the soil and productive the climate can be along the equator.

Setting up for our photo exhibition. We put up around 30 photos from various Eco Warriors, and hundreds of people attended the event to hear and see the stories we had to tell.

Brochures about DeforestACTION were handed out at the end to spread the word about the project and tell others about what we had done.

Liza Heavener and Paul Daley standing at the reception of the exhibition. I’m sure Paul wouldn’t want me to point out his sweat marks so I won’t mention them.

A youth drumming group from Pontianak drop some amazing beats as we celebrate and lament the end of our 80 days.

Finally, here is a tribute to Borneo that Paul Daley made. I have been so lucky to spend so much time in this incredible place. Sampai Jumpa Lagi.