Mongabay: “Faces of the Land: Delight and Despair”

“Indonesia is a rich country.” This is often said when describing Indonesia as a country with fertile land. The archipelago has tens of thousands of islands, abundant natural resources from land to sea. The world’s third largest tropical forest, the country with the second largest biodiversity in the world. How to maintain it? How to manage it? What are the conditions of its environment?

In this exhibition entitled “Faces of the Land: Delight and Despair”, Mongabay displays two faces of the natural conditions in the archipelago. The first face shows that exploitation of natural resources causes various problems. Environmental damage occurs such as forests being converted into timber plantations, large-scale palm oil plantations, and mining of coal, nickel, gold and others. Agrarian and natural resource conflicts occur everywhere. People’s living space is being seized. Not to mention that fossil-dependent energy, such as coal, also creates many problems. Pollution of land, air, and water – rivers to the ocean – occurs as a result of these various activities.

Hope is not lost amidst the country’s environment being hit by various problems. There are still many good, inspiring and hopeful practices that we can find in this country. This picture is also framed in this exhibition, regarding the wisdom of indigenous peoples in protecting the forest, as well as the place where they depend on for their livelihood. There are environmentally friendly agricultural/plantation systems and products. There is the fulfillment of community energy from non-destructive sources. There are also community efforts to protect and manage the coast and sea with local wisdom. The panorama of forests, mountains, lakes and the beauty of the underwater world can be preserved when nature is used wisely and sustainably. There is always a small hope amidst a pile of problems.