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Soldier, teacher, king win environmental awards
An Army sergeant, a tribal king, a biology teacher and a university rector are among recipients of the 2010 Kalpataru Awards honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to the country's conservation efforts
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n Army sergeant, a tribal king, a biology teacher and a university rector are among recipients of the 2010 Kalpataru Awards honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to the country's conservation efforts.
Ujang Solikhin, an Army sergeant based in Cimahi, West Java, received the award at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday along with 182 other recipients of the Kalpataru and other environmental awards in a ceremony led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Ujang won in the Environmental Pioneer category for promoting the use of organic waste to produce charcoal briquettes as an alternative to kerosene in his neighborhood. By doing so, he solved both garbage and fuel problems in the area.
He said he invented the briquette-making technique through research supported by the local environmental agency in the early 2000s.
"I was a corporal back then. Due to my waste treatment activities, I was nickname 'General Garbage'. However, they promoted me to sergeant in 2009.
"I'm proud because basically I had only a slim chance to be promoted. And now, even though I'm still only a sergeant, I often get invited to speak at many events," Ujang said, adding that TV shows inspired him to delve into waste treatment.
Ujang was one of five Kalpataru winners in the Environmental Pioneer category. Another was Mateus Bere Bau, the king of Kewar village in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara province, who has over the past 35 years encouraged his people to plant trees on their barren, hilly land, part of which has been transformed into a 1,600-hectare forest.
A biology teacher at state high school SMAN2 Probolinggo in East Java, Endang Sulistyowati, received the Kalpataru Award in the Environmental Patron category, along with Semarang State University rector Sudijono Sastroatmodjo.
Endang won for her achievement in encouraging 2,500 students and locals to participate in her "Action for the Environment Movement", which included planting 23,000 mangrove trees in a 5-hectare area.
Sudijono, meanwhile, was awarded for making his institution a "Conservation University", by involving students in the "Planting 1,000 Trees Movement" and "One New Student, One Tree" movement, among others.
There were a total of 12 Kalpataru Award recipients, divided into four categories, the others being the Environmental Servant and the Environmental Savior categories.
Yudhoyono also honored 140 out of more than 500 regencies and municipalities across the country with Adipura Awards for cleanliness.
Surprisingly, although many of the residents have been persistently complaining about badly polluted rivers and garbage strewn on the streets, Jakarta's five municipalities were again recipients of the Adipura Awards in the Metropolitan City category, along with Palembang, Surabaya, Tangerang and Bekasi.
Pekanbaru, Malang, Yogyakarta and Balikpapan were awarded with the 2010 Adipura in the Large City category, while Banda Aceh, Manado, Tanjungpinang, Ternate and Bengkulu were among the 41 Adipura winners in the Medium City category.
West Java's Indramayu, East Java's Pacitan, South Sumatra's Muara Enim and West Nusa Tenggara's Sumbawa Besar were among 86 winners of the Small Town category.
The 2010 Adiwiyata Mandiri Awards honored 25 schools for their environmental programs.
