15 March 2000 Public Lecture Offers Sumatran Lessons for Sustainable Future

Environmental lessons from Sumatra can help New Zealand progress towards a successfully managed sustainable future avoiding costly ecological mistakes, says visiting Canadian expert Mark Dickinson who presents a free public lecture entitled 'Saving Sumatra ' at Lincoln University on Thursday (16.3.2000).

Mr Dickinson, coordinator of the Bohorok Sustainable Development Programme in Indonesia, will highlight achievements in environmental management and education in Indonesia which have helped reverse the impact of pollution, habitat destruction and conversion, deforestation, trading in endangered species and over-population.

Through the Swiss-backed Bohorok Sustainable Development programme, Mr Dickinson and his Indonesian colleagues have organised and implemented a wide variety of activities including a school curriculum involving organic gardening, eco games and indoor environmental education ... seminars on eco architecture ... a community composting scheme ... and a solid waste management scheme including the relocation of a landfill and rehabilitation of the area.

He believes that the Sumatran experience has universal lessons. For example, the failure of the eco-tourism project in the Gunung Leuser National Park has lessons for all eco-tourism projects, including those in New Zealand.

Mr Dickinson is being brought to Lincoln University by the Lincoln University Students' Association, supported by the campus-based International Centre for Nature Conservation and the Lincoln Environmental Organisation.

The free public lecture, in the Stewart 1 Lecture Theatre on the Lincoln campus, starts at 4.00pm and concludes with supper at 5.30pm.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand