Forest Campaign | 07 February 2011
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ProFauna Encourages Young Generation to
Love Wildlife and Forests
One of ProFauna Indonesia's main works is to increase the awareness of the public, especially the young generation, on the conservation of wildlife and the habitats, the tropical rain forests which are rich in biodiversity. In promoting forest conservation efforts to the youth, ProFauna holds regular program called "A Day in the Jungle".
ProFauna believes by taking the students to the real jungle and giving experiential learning to them instead of the conventional teaching in class rooms, they are hoped to get to know more about forests and wildlife and eventually involved in the conservation efforts. In this program, ProFauna invites and takes high school students in East Java to follow series of educational activities about forest and wildlife conservation in the nearest "jungle" or one of the remaining tropical rain forests in the Java Island, in Cangar Forest, situated between Mojokerto and Batu cities, East Java.
Cangar forest which is part of preserved forestry areas by the government called R Soerjo Grand Forest Park (locally abbreviated and known as Tahura R Soerjo), is the natural and main habitats of some endemic and endangered species: Javan langurs (Trachypithecus auratus) and the Javan hawk-eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi). The national park is 27,868.30 hectares and located between 1,000 and 3,339 meters above sea level. ProFauna latest survey in Cangar forest about the langurs or silver leaf-monkey shows that there were about 80 individuals belonged to 11 groups, while the total population of the Javan langurs in Tahura R Soerjo is still unknown.
Chairman of ProFauna Indonesia, Rosek Nursahid, stated, "Introduction of biodiversity directly held in the forests is very important for the young generation because in the future, they will play important role in saving the remaining tropical rain forests in Indonesia which is decreasing." In the first "A Day in the Jungle" held last 3rd February 2011, dozens of high schools delegated their students to participate in the event in which most of the participants went to the forest for the first time. All students were excited to follow the activities and many expressed their interests to support wildlife and forest conservation.
ProFauna Indonesia thanks the following organizations that have supported ProFauna's program of forest and and Javan langur conservation in Tahura R Soerjo:
- International Primate Protection League (IPPL)
- Technical Implementation Unit of R Soerjo Grand Forest Park (UPT Tahura R Soerjo)
- Petungsewu Wildlife Education Center (P-WEC)