Students key to preserving environment: Ex-minister

Indonesia is now facing depletion of natural resources and threats of environmental disasters, grim facts the country’s younger generations should learn to cope with, a former minister says.

Disasters caused by environmental damage are expected to rise unless young people are given necessary knowledge of the environment, former environmental minister Sonny Keraf said at a seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday

“The root problem is human behavior. People are very greedy in consuming products from natural resources,” Keraf told about 500 teachers at a the two-day seminar.

The former minister said it was time for schools to raise awareness. “If students gain environmental knowledge, we could still hope for a better environment in the future, regardless of the jobs the younger generations will take up later.”

This, he added, should result in a different paradigm in managing the remaining natural resources by balancing economy and environment.

Teaching on the environment should be fun, with teachers lecturing during field trips rather than in the classroom.

“It would not be effective if teaching on the environment still focuses on the classroom.”

Students could be taught to reduce energy consumption by not purchasing products using high amounts of electricity, as well having simple ways to manage waste.

He said teachers could require students to plant trees in the school area. Indonesia has become a net oil importer despite previous reserves.

The country also was losing 1 billion tress per year due to illegal logging and illicit expansion of oil palm plantations and mining. Environmental disasters such as floods and landslides have risen which activists say reflects environmental damage.

But teaching method are not the only challenge for teachers to raise the student’s awareness on the environment.

In some regions, even teachers seem to be entangled in conflicts of interest over highly policized environmental issues.

Headmaster and primary school teacher, SD Negeri Pulau Ku’u in South Kalimantan, Appelandi said his school did no specific teaching on environmental issue, but added “we tell student about the importance of a good environment.”

Appelandi said that opening land for oil palm plantations and mining companies would help boost the economic growth of his village in Pulau Ku’u, about 200 kilometers from capital of South Kalimantan.

“For us, palm oil is an icon for Pulau Ku’u. The commodity grows well in the area and we believe it would not damage the environment since we have no flood disasters,” he said, playing down activists’ warnings of possible negative impacts of industries on the environment.

Appelandi, who stayed in a luxurious hotel in Jakarta for five-days with another 24 teachers from Kalimantan, admitted to receiving full financial sponsorship from a coal mining company operating in their area to attend the Jakarta seminar.

Headmaster of the junior high school SMP 3 in Tamiang Layang in the Central Kalimantan, Bernadi said that the school had implemented environmental lesson for the students. “We teach students to replant idle areas to help protect the environment,” said Bernadi, who also received sponsorship to attend.

Director of ProVisi Education, a private company dealing with training for teachers, Rommy Cahyadi expressed pessimism that the schools would develop innovative ways to boost awareness of students on environmental protection.

“Our teachers are very busy to meet curriculum needs; they would not have time for innovative ways to teach on the environment,” he said.