In collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – Institute for Hydrology Education of Delft, the Netherlands, SEAMEO BIOTROP trained 23 Indonesian professionals on Wetland Management Planning on 14-19 February 2011 at its headquarter in Bogor, Indonesia. The participants were from various government and non government institutions who were mostly working on or have conducted researches on wetland areas.
The 6-day training was aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of the participants on formulating and implementing management plans, particularly for wetlands, using various tools. These tools included problem (cause and effect) analysis, stakeholders’ participation analysis, muti-criteria analysis, and objective setting.
During the opening program, BIOTROP Director Dr. Bambang Purwantara, in his welcome address, explained that the training workshop was designed to address the need to improve skills of researchers, decision makers, and environment mangers in developing, writing and implementing a wetland management plan. He emphasized the relevance of the training considering the important functions and services that wetland ecosystems provide such as purifying water, retaining nutrients, and as buffers. On the other hand, Dr. Hubert Gijzen, Director of UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, delivered the opening remarks and gave a presentation entitled “Water in the city of the future-a Vision of Water for Healthy People and Healthy Environment”
Through learning by doing approach, the participants engaged in classroom discussions, individual and group exercises, and field work to accomplish the training objectives. The participants carried out a field interview with the local people in Muara Angke as input to drafting a wetland management plan. They also experienced mangrove planting activity while in the said community.
The training was a prelude to the 6-month online course that will start on the third week of March 2011. During this online course, the participants will be guided on how to formulate a good wetland management plan. The participants are expected to draft wetland management plans based on the areas they are working on or would like to work on either individually or in collaboration with their co-participants.
A team composed of Mr. Edwin Hes from the Department of Environmental Resources of IHE Delft, Ms. Lakshmi Charli from the United Nations Industrial Development Organizations (UNIDO), and Mr. Slamet Widodo from BIOTROP Training and Information Centre facilitated the training activities. This team will also be the one to supervise the participants during the online course. Other training speakers invited were: Mr. Marman, Komunitas Kepanduan Kepedulian Lingkungan ; and Mr. Prigi Arisandi, Head of Ecological Observation and Wetland Conservation (ECOTON). The BIOTROP Training and Information Centre coordinated the training.
