The closest national parks to the Jakarta
- Environmental education in the Malasari Village -
About the Gunung Halimun Salak National Park
Gunung Halimun Salak National Park (GHSNP) is located at the West Java. And it’s one of the closest national parks to the capital city of Jakarta. The rich nature nurturing the rare wildlife lives including Javan hawk-eagle and silvery gibbons and the neighboring woodland to the populated areas that live together with the Sundanese traditional culture remain in this park.
GHSNP is within the 100km distance from the capital sphere, and many residents live inside the park. The coexistence of the environmental protection and the livelihood is the big operational challenge for the park, and the government and NGO are working on various initiatives. The Malasari Village where this project is implemented has 80% of the area designated as the national park, hence it seriously aims for securing the sustainable means for livelihood while preserving the nature in the region. Given that, the ecotourism project involving the entire village started three years ago, and the programs to experience the nature of the region and the life with the neighboring woodland have been developed.
We plan to use the existing ecotourism project and develop the environmental education tools based on the Malasari Village to educate the young generation in the Jakarta Area on the importance of the nature in the national parks as well as the traditional livelihood in Satoyama.
Our Past Three Months
• We have trained 25 young local residents on ecotourism programs to be the resident/tour guides. In the training, they learned how to interpret the nature of the virgin forest trekking routes as well as the farm works and traditional culture in the Satoyama.
• We have implemented short field trip as the pilot environmental education program. The participants were 20 junior high school / high school students from the Jakarta Area. It was the first time for participating students to learn about wild animals and they were very excited to see gibbons in a 30mdistance. They also watched the wild birds and plants in the program. We were fortunate enough to encounter a gibbon in a 30m-distance on that very day, which excited all students very much. They also watched the wild birds and learned how to interpret plants in the program. This wild experience that they could not have in their daily lives in a city seemed to profoundly move their heart.
Our Next Three Months
This pilot program taught us the need to develop a booklet mainly to describe the animals/plants, and we are currently working on the draft booklet. Also, JEEF and CI Indonesia are working together to find a way to provide young generations with the high-quality nature experience program. As CI Indonesia has implemented the “eco-ranger program” for young generations at the national park in another region in the past, they are bringing the concept to this project so as to develop the young people in the capital sphere into the environmentally conscious “eco-rangers”. This initiative is currently underway.
Don't miss the report of our future activities in the website.
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