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After the past two years focusing on the completion of her master’s degree on Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University in the UK, Indonesia’s influential environmental activist, Yuyun Ismawati, now 47, can’t wait to roll up her sleeves again and get back into the world of environmental activism.

For the past at least 12 years, the founder of, and now advisor to, the Bali-based Bali Fokus has initiated various waste management programs promoting positive attitudes toward waste.

Below are excerpts of the views of the recipient of the 2009 Goldman Prize for environmental activism, as recently shared with Bali Daily’s Agnes Winarti through email correspondence.

Question: Since the time you founded BaliFokus in 2000, in terms of waste management in Bali, what has been improving so far and what has been getting worse?

I’ve seen better awareness on waste management at household and community levels. I’m delighted to see a growing number of NGOs, community groups, small-medium enterprises dealing with recycling and waste management, not only in Bali but also in other cities.

The problems remain in the political will and the management at the city, regional and national levels. When the policymakers and authorities don’t have a strong vision and political will, most likely the waste-management related services will remain poor. I don’t think the waste-collection rate in Bali cities is improving. Last year, the collection rate was about 60 percent.

In your activism, you encourage people to sort waste at home/right from the source. How is this practice feasible, while behavioral change is difficult?

In the community-based waste management in one of the urban poor areas of Denpasar, we held some activities ranging from waste separation, household composting to craft small businesses with micro-loans for women. It is not easy to change people’s behavior. But I learned that even the poor, if we help them maintain the momentum and keep the system up and running well, they too are willing to pay for a waste collection service. From our monitoring, about 75 percent of the community-based groups who implement this program are able to maintain the system for more than three years. Some of them expand to wider neighborhood areas, while some others expand to become social enterprises.

Based on Hindu Balinese Tri Hita Karana principles, Balinese have always been regarded as having great respect for nature, as well as living beings and gods. A simple example of respecting nature is by not littering. Nonetheless, why does garbage remain a huge problem here?

Balinese still see the modern world’s waste like the old time’s waste, mostly organic. They do not realize that stuff we use and consume every day now is mostly disposable and designed for obsolescence so the manufacturing of the products and the wheels of production can still be up and running for a long time without considering the finite resources. Most of them still cannot reflect on their good relationship with gods into good relationships with the immediate environment around the temple.

The toxic and hazardous waste. How to manage it? How effective is the implementation of the MoU between BaliFokus and hospitals in Denpasar?

On toxic and hazardous wastes, we were just promoting awareness in 2007 when there were some incidents of medical waste stranded on the beach and scattered in the bushes along the beach. During the monsoon season between December and April, just within half an hour I collected seven syringes and some of them still had needles. Since then, we started working with the Environment Agency, Denpasar Health Agency and Bali province. An initial survey involving 14 hospitals in Denpasar and Badung discovered most hospitals have an unclear policy and implementation of waste management and hazardous chemicals, such as mercury-containing devices.

Most of them are willing to cooperate with us to improve their performance. We started working with seven of them and later another three hospitals joined the program. The 10 pilot hospitals developed action plans to phase out mercury-containing devices, especially thermometers, sphygmomanometers, dental amalgam and to improve their waste management. We are promoting non-mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers, and introducing non-incineration medical waste treatment.

The program now is introduced to Yogyakarta and Central Java. We have received great responses from both provincial governments and hundreds of hospitals in both provinces. Soon, we will introduce this program in Jakarta and look for more political support from the Health Ministry and the Environment Ministry to change the policy in this field.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/bali-daily/

http://balifokus.asia/balifokus/

Kelly Slater puts surfboard up for auction to help Bali environmental nonprofit

After a recent surf trip to Bali, Kelly Slater is helping environmental beach clean-up efforts on the island. The 11-time World Champion has donated a brand new surfboard for auction, and has offered to match the funds for what the board sells for.

Quiksilver Indonesia is accepting bids for the autographed surfboard, which is currently for sale on eBay.

“However I can get engaged to help out to at least educate and spread the word to help motivate the people who know how to do the right thing to start creating some change here, I’m happy to do that,” said Slater in a press release. “Giving a board is something simple but giving some time is something I’d feel really good about. The board is a start and if it’s going to raise some funds, I’ll match the funds with whatever the board raises. I’ll match that myself.”

The funds collected from the sale of Slater’s surfboard and his monetary donation will be given to the ROLE Foundation, a local environmental non-profit organization who has taken the lead in undertaking coastal environmental projects attempting to slow down and ultimately reverse the destructive pollution that is ravaging Bali.

Michael O’Leary from the ROLE Foundation was extremely gratified when he heard the news, saying “We are over the moon and very thankful to Kelly for his kind donation, putting up a surfboard for auction and his offer to match the proceeds. These funds will be extremely useful to us in implementing our projects. We are so grateful for the Champs support and the awareness it brings, as Bali is in dire straights and it needs action Now!”

Quiksilver and Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia joined forces back in 2008 in a concerted effort to tackle the disturbing issue of trash on Bali’s beaches, ever-increasing water pollution, and saving the endangered sea turtles. Since then they have expended in excess of $200,000 USD each year funding programs in the attempt to clean up the beaches and water supplies, as well as setting up the Kuta Beach Sea Turtle Conservation.

Slater went on to add, “Bali’s ocean, beaches, waterways and reefs are under massively destructive pollution attacks from on estimated 5,000 tons of solid waste illegally dumped daily with little to no liquid waste management infrastructure. All this waste eventually finds its way into the waterways and down to the ocean that surrounds Bali, destroying her reefs and killing her marine life. Some companies like Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia and Quiksilver have initiated helpful and effective CSR programs, but more businesses here need to follow their lead or all hope is lost, forever. It’s time to give back and help this once pristine island.”

In addition to these efforts, coming up on July 6th of this year Quiksilver and Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia are hosting their 2nd annual Big Bali Eco Weekend on Kuta Beach. According to Quiksilver Marketing Executive for SEA Holly Monkman, “This will be our best opportunity to talk directly to Bali’s top local government officials including Governor of Bali – I Made Mangku Pastika, Minister of Tourism and the Creative Economy Indonesia – Mari Elka Pangestu and Minister of Environment Indonesia – Balthasar Kambuaya. As well as tourism and industry leaders. We’ll have Quiksilver surfing legends Mark Richards, Tom Carroll, and Martin Potter and others here to help share our concerns and to stir up a action in this fight for a clean Bali.”

“Our goal this year is to raise enough funds to buy sand grids to add to the back of our three beach tractors and to continue to educate the local community and local businesses in how to care for and preserve the precious natural resources of this special island. We all need to work together for positive change,” she concluded.

According to ROLE, some 5,000 tons of solid waste are dumped illegally each day in Bali.

“These funds will be extremely useful to us in implementing our projects,” said Role’s Michael O’Leary. “We are so grateful for the champ’s support and the awareness it brings, as Bali is in dire straights and it needs action now.”

Resources:

http://the-quiksilver-initiative.com/Foundation

http://rolefoundation.org