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Wehea Dayak delegation has been invited to Vancouver, Canada, from Sept. 9 to 20 to speak on environmental issues.

Ledjie Taq, the Nehas Liah Bing head in East Kalimantan and the winner of the nation’s Bintang Jasa Pratama medal and a Kalpataru Award, will speak at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and Quest University Canada.

Several indigenous groups in British Columbia have also invited Ledjie to discuss sustainable management and the protection of natural resources and cultural heritage.

In 2004 the Wehea Dayak, led by Ledjie, protected the biologically rich and culturally important Wehea Forest, home to some of the most endangered species on the planet.

“Deforestation has caused poverty for our people. We have seen our agricultural land disappear, the severity and frequency of floods have increased over the past few years and social tensions are increasing in our community,” Ledjie said in a statement.

This visit has been organized by Integrated Conservation (ICon), an NGO that has worked with the Wehea Dayak community since 2009 on forest conservation, conservation-based livelihoods and local governance.