Sunday, May 21, 2023, we held an EduForest Weekend Study Camping to introduce young people to the West Bali forest area, specifically in the Yehembang Kauh Village Learning Forest.
We prepared for this event one day before. Together with all parties involved, assisted by several volunteers, they tried one more tracking route for the next day. We also set up six tents for overnight use. It was a cold night.
Penggalang scout participants from across schools
Ten scout teams came one by one before 08.00 WITA, one hour before the event started. Some of us haven’t even had breakfast yet. Our enthusiasm in the morning won over hunger. “Hello!” shouted a driver from one of the buses that delivered the scout team.
One hundred sixty scout members from Jembrana Regency attended this event. Also present at the event was the Head of the Jembrana Kwarcab Scout Movement, Secretary of the Jembrana Kwarcab Scout Movement, Head of UPTD KPH West Bali, Yehembang Kauh Village Worker, and Chair of KTH Giri Amertha. After singing the Indonesia Raya song and giving remarks, each party gave plant seeds to each scout team as a symbol of the opening of the day’s program.
Together with the coaches from each team, we took the scouts along the tracking paths in the forest and practiced plant nurseries. These two activities were chosen based on their interests, but both have the same mission: identifying and learning about endemic trees.
A female scoutmaster seemed to be preparing something. She already had a plan to choose one of the activities. Her name is Andewi (24), and she is a young teacher who has been teaching for one year as a teacher at SMP Negeri 2 Negara.
“From the school, because they said there were scout activities to participate in this event from IDEP. Then they were told to send two teams, Boys Scout and Girls Scout. I am Scoutmaster for the girl guide,” she said.
Following the tracking path in the forest
The number of Andewi team members is the same as the others, consisting of 16 people, divided into eight boys and eight girls. They left at 07.10 WITA together with their entourage. All SMP Negeri 2 Negara students are encouraged to arrive at 06.30 WITA to ensure everything is on time. Discipline training has been done since early, as she is doing now.
She was one of the coaches who chose to join the tracking path with participants from other schools.
“The tracking experience is fun. Maybe because all scouts are used to living in the city and often come to the forest, they like learning how unknown plants can know. It turned out that the scouts also enjoyed exploring the forest earlier, and many said that the route was not that far. So I think the tracking distance is still lacking, “explained Andewi.
Vetiver planting activity
Her choice is different from Komang Abei Putradarma (14), a grade VIII student from SMP Negeri 3 Negara, who chooses to practice plant seeding. For him, these activities can be held frequently so that his friends of the same generation can get to know the forest better and be interested in helping to preserve the environment.
“If I choose to join the nursery. The nursery activity was fun because we were taught from the start how to add fertilizer and the limits on how much we could use it. After we filled it, the fertilizer was immediately taken to the southern forest for planting media.”
The event is expected to bridge the knowledge transfer from parents to the younger generation, which was disconnected and made them closer to the forest.
Article & Photo: Nicolaus Sulistyo © IDEP Foundation
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