IFSA LC UNHAS Goes to Fields

Come Upon The Call From The Hill and The Street

IFSA LC UNHAS was invited to present about climate change and clean up the street to make the city clean. The decision of accepting the proposal and invitation was finalized after a discussion on how we should be representing ourselves at the events. The first event that is about climate change dissemination came from Savages Ecosystem’s proposal for being the speaker for youths in Benteng Gajah Village, Maros. The second event, cleaning up debris on the street from Fort Rotterdam to Losari Beach came from the Environment Ambassador Community of South Sulawesi Term 2022/2024 to celebrate National Debrish Custody Day 2023.

Insider View Discussion

It took a day of discussion to accept both letters (23 February 2023). The first proposal was not clear about why IFSA LC UNHAS was the invited speaker and how the event will go. The second invitation also missed the time when the activity will be started. But, before enquiring about the missing points. We had an internal discussion to decide on the most suitable decision.

We deliberated the first proposal and why we should present the issue there. We found that this organization is just established and had tried to have two themes at the same event: climate change discussion and digital promotion of sweet potatoes. Keeping in mind the social forestry perspective, we all agreed that empowering communities, especially youth, is a good investment to keep the resilience of our forest. Both the organization that proposed to us and the youth community in Benteng Gajah village are all youths with just a little age gap with IFSA LC UNHAS. Aside from appreciating their work to bring positive inputs to society, we also decided on making the workshop more interactive as we noticed “sweet potato” also plays a part as a keyword of the workshop. We agreed on accepting the proposal and presenting on the topic: ” climate change as a natural phenomenon in the world and how agroforestry can keep reducing the effect of climate change and bring benefits to society”.

We continued our discussion on the second invitation. Recently, our LC has been getting more attention. We were the organizing committee and host of the recently concluded IFSA interim and departmental meetings. Understanding the privilege, we agreed to accept the invitation. We see that taking debris around the city is not only about cleaning it up. But also, influencing people to do so. Giving hand to this activity also means the plastic debris around the city streets that usually unite in plant roots are in the right place and at the same time, it gives a good chance for the plants to grow well. We also had the same project with the environment ambassador from North Luwu of taking marine debris, so this activity also tried to strengthen collaboration between IFSA LC UNHAS and Environment Ambassadors in Indonesia.

The Microphone is On and The Street is Ready to be Fresh On

Our discussion finally reached positive answers for both letters and happily, we sent the confirmation to both parties. On 25 February 2023, we started our activity for the Celebration of the National Debris Custody Day 2023 at 7.30 AM (UTC+8). Once we arrived, the Organizing Committee decided to postpone it until there were enough participants to start work. The Organizing Committee then signaled to start the work at 8.15 AM (UTC+8). We started cleaning the area in Fort Rotterdam -> Peace Gong -> Kayu Bangkoa Harbor -> Losari Beach. In total, we walked for 1,6 km and lost count of how many trash bags we filled up. We finished our work at 11.00 AM on Loasi Beach. The OC then told us to put our signature on the big banner they had prepared for 15 minutes and then we took pictures together.

Above, After The Event: Dita Dwiyanti, Reski Sahbina, Ikrar Qolby, and Rachel Aulia.

Below, During The Event: Left, Dita Dwiyanti and Other Participants; Right, Ikrar Qolby and Dicky Wahyudi (East Luwu Environment Ambassador 2023).

Taking a break from the activities of cleaning up the debris for 30 minutes. We started preparing for our trip to Benteng Gajah Village, which took 1 hour from Universitas Hasanuddin to Benteng Gajah Village which is located at Tompobulu Sub-Regency, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi. We arrived at 12.50 PM (UTC+8), just a second before the opening of the workshop, which took 15 minutes. After the opening, IFSA LC UNHAS President, Mirella Christy Rehatalanit gave a presentation about the ecological perspective on climate change, how humans catalyze its influence, and how agroforestry systems can benefit local communities facing climate change.

Mirella CR (IFSA LC UNHAS) presenting about Climate Change. Photographed by Agung Dewa Putra (Member of Public and Information of IFSA LC UNHAS).

Mirella explained that climate change is a naturally occurring earth phenomenon. She then gave examples of the theory of fuel and fossil in relation to why Arabic countries have a lot of earth gas below their land and why Greenland is covered with many blocks of ice. Human activities that create phenomena such as land use land changes, food waste, chloro-fluoro butane particles that are affecting the atmosphere, unsustainable farming practices, and pollutants from vehicles catalyze the process of climate change by making the air temperature become warmer. The Agroforestry concept itself brings benefits to society in relation to sustainable farming practices. Sweet potato plants are plants that can be easily planted below trees. Based on informal communication with the participants which consisted of 2 girls and 6 boys, they felt that their perception of climate change and the agricultural system had changed. Before the presentation, climate change for them is limited to the ice melt and pollutants in the city. The positive shifting idea made us feel successful in the presentation.

Celebrating Our Work

We celebrated our work by giving a toss to each other. We learned that every situation always has its positives and that we must appreciate them. A day discussion that resulted in our decision to accept the letters and come upon the hill and the street was one of our great decisions. As forestry students, sharing knowledge about what we got is something that is so precious. Being a role model for our peers is also something that makes us so proud. Looking at the clean street and hearing the positive feedback from the youths was no more than the best experience ever in IFSA.

Author: Wening Ila Idzatilangi