Gunung Walat, Sukabumi – Indonesian Center for Forestry Education and Training (Pusdiklat Kehutanan RI, an institution within Indonesian Forestry Ministry) has conducted one of its activitities of SECEM (School of Environmental Conservation and Ecotourism) in GWUF at 22 September – 25 September 2010.
The activities of SECEM was officially opened by Director of GWUF (Mr. Budi Prihanto, who is often referred to as “Sunan Gunung Walat”), followed by speech (presentation) concerning the management of the GWUF.
Within the agenda of SECEM, there were training on military aspects and discipline (the terrain of GWUF provide appropriate medium for this), interpersonal cooperation, and forest management.
Participants of SECEM came from various agencies within Directorate General of Nature Conservation and Forest Protection (Indonesian Ministry of Forestry) from all over Indonesia, as many as 30 persons (they are officers of those agencies). The participants were accompanied by officials from Indonesian Center for Forestry Education and Training, namely Ir. Suprayitno, Drs. Jarisman Purba, and Soesiyanto.
According to Ir. Suprayitno, GWUF was chosen as the site for this activity because this forest is easily accessed, has appropriate facilities, has good management, and constitutes a model for forest management.
Military training was given by 4 members of Indonesian Army (from Infantry Batallion 315/ Garuda ,Bogor) which were led by First Lieutenant Effendi. The topics of the military training were among other things, gymnastics, fighting technique, jungle survival, terrestrial navigation, etc. Jungle survival included among other things the technique on how to identify poisonous plants and edible plants. According to First Lieutenant Effendi, the objectives of the training were to improve the discipline, cooperation ability, sense of belonging toward particular corps, and respect toward forest, among the participants.
“These activities of SECEM in GWUF are expected to give the participants, additional insight and knowledge concerning management of conservation area for maintaining biodiversity, and for management of natural forest resources, particularly in relation with forest, ecotourism, and forest protection”, said the instructor from Indonesian Center for Forestry Education and Training (Ir. Suprayitno), who was in charge of this activity.
It is planned that this training of SECEM will be conducted each year in September. It is very likely that this activity will be conducted again in GWUF in the next years.
[hap]
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