Gunung Walat, Sukabumi – The International Summer Course on Sustainable Tropical Agriculture Production Which is Special Reference on Plantation and Agroforestry took place on 14-16 September 2013 in Gunung Walat University Forest, Sukabumi.

The Gunung Walat University Forest as a forum for exchanging knowledge in the forestry sector was one of the destinations for people from various countries to know more about flora and fauna in Indonesia. Some of them were visitors from five universities in Japan.

This activity was followed by Ibaraki University, Nihon University, Tsukuba University, Tokyo University of Agriculture Technology, and Ryukyus University. The theme of “International Summer Course, Sustainable Tropical Agriculture Production Which Special Reference on Plantation and Agroforestry” was expected to produce mutual understanding between the two countries in terms of managing forest conservation and forest products as a whole.

“We see at the Japanese students, I think their first impressions are very satisfying in how can they see that we can maintain the environment well and they can learn a lot from us” said Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Faiz Syuaib, when met at the location of the activity.

He, who was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture of IPB, said that in this activities the participants were invited to surround the natural conditions in Gunung Walat, such as seeing the practice of tapping pine resin, observing flora-fauna, and the most interesting thing was observing to Karst Cave.

“I am sure that going to the cave is the first experience for many of us and Japanese students. This is an unforgettable experience for them. Most of them came to Indonesia as their first time” he said.

The same thing was also expressed by a representative of a student from Tsukuba University, named Tajima Atsushi, who claimed that this was his first came to Indonesia and was very impressed with the conditions in the Gunung Walat University Forest.

“This is the first the time I go to Indonesia. We finally have the opportunity to see this forest development for 25 years and we see a lot of changes here in how to build relationships with the community and how to look after the forest. Today we go to the cave and we are very happy with this experience” he concluded.

[gwuf]

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