INDONESIA, Kawangkoan Village, North Sulawesi - July 2005
Elementary school reconstruction and school furniture in exchange for the establishment of a 75-acre permanent no-take forest reserve
Click photo to enlarge
Kawangkoan is a large village in the Minahasa highlands of North Sulawesi consisting of 1,206 households engaged mainly as farmers and coconut plantation laborers. As with the majority of public schools in Indonesia, Kawangkoan's elementary school is severely dilapidated and no funding is available for renovations. The village government will create at least 75 acres of permanent no-take rainforest in exchange for Seacology funding the rehabilitation of their elementary school.
UPDATE January 2006 - While discussions about the no-take zone areas were delayed during a new village government election and transition, in early December the village passed a law to protect the rainforest.
UPDATE January 2007 - A change in village leadership during summer 2006 postponed the project so that the new leaders could have time to review the plans. All documentation was sent to Seacology in November 2006 and the project is scheduled to begin in late 2006 or early 2007.
UPDATE March 2007 - Construction to renovate the two school buildings was completed by March 2007 and the village set plans to map the no-take area. The North Sulawesi Governor and Mayor have endorsed the project publicly in conjunction with the Governor’s program to “re-green” North Sulawesi. Plans for mid-2007 include completing the sanitation and water system portion of the construction and establishing the reserve borders and a system for collecting forest data in the no-take area.
UPDATE December 2007 - The project leader was hired by another organization in mid-2007 and was not available at the site for much of that time. He is now back at the village and committed to completing the project with the village. Previous 2007 plans to map the no-take area, complete the sanitation and water system portion of the construction, establish the reserve border, and create a system for collecting forest data in the no-take reserve, are now scheduled to be conducted in early 2008.
UPDATE June 2008 - As of May 2008 all components of the project were complete with the exception of purchasing the last set of school books.
UPDATE January 2009 - As of November 2008 the conservation area mapping process continued after a village boundary challenge surfaced. In spite of the challenge, community tree plantings continued within the previously established boundaries. Seacology is currently waiting for the official final report, due in mid 2009.
UPDATE June 2009 - As of April 2009 the forest conservation is still ongoing and the latest activity was another tree planting by the students in an area close to their school. Progress is continuing on finding the remainder of the forest border located in the hills next to the big river. The delivery of books is still postponed. The headmaster suggests delivering the books when the school year starts in June 2009. If delivery problems persist the community has discussed with the village board the possibility of providing reading books for the library because these will last longer and will not affect school curriculum. Recently, because of its Forest Conservation Program, Kawangkoan village was nominated for the Adipura Award in the category of Kecamatan Sehat (Healthy District) in a national event of Indonesia.
UPDATE November 2009 - As of November 2009 the community has finalized buying the first set of books and expects to have finished the process by December. The reforestation program is continuing with more tree seedlings being brought in and the campaign program for conservation activities running on a regular basis with all channels of media in the village.
