The Raja Ampat archipelago, a region with perhaps the highest marine biodiversity in the world "a surfers paradise" a destination proposed as a world heritage site for its unique ecosystem. But today Raja Ampat is under extreme pressure, where nickel mining is turning the sea.

Wakumoro - Oase on Muna

Such a small spring on karst area on a beautiful small island. Is it important to the livelihood ?

World's Indigenous People Day 2008
August 9, 2008

In the other hand – different with the general situation – there are still hope, especially in the ancestral forests that are still being managed by the indegenous people. Forest for them means not only the number of standing stock, but it is related with their religion, wisdoms and many king of socio-cultural aspects.

Just for One Ivory
Video sent by gekkostudio

We tame it and killed for it's one ivory that left. See more on www.gekkovoices.com

Bengkulu Elephant Under Siege
Video sent by gekkostudio

The forests of Sumatera have been the natural habitat of elephants, spread from Aceh in the north to Lampung in the South. But today, the lustrous human activities such as land clearing for big scale plantations, settlements, and agricultural, the elephant’s habitat has vanished.

Only few people know that in Bengkulu Province, we can still meet groups of wild elephant. They spread in the forests area of Seblat, Air Ipuh, Air Dikit, and Air Berau. Like in other places, the populations of hill elephants in Bengkulu are also threatened. There are only 120-14 elephants, half of them are in the Seblat forest area.

Seblat, located in North Bengkulu, is on the border of Kerinci Seblat National Park. The forest is rich with flora and fauna.

see more on www.gekkovoices.com

Aku Mau Pulang "Tragedi Lumpur Lapindo"
Video sent by gekkostudio

Tragedi lumpur Lapindo adalah bencana ekologis terbesar yang pernah terjadi di Indonesia. Sejak bencana itu terjadi pada 29 Mei 2006 hingga hari ini tidak ada upaya nyata untuk menghentikan semburan lumpur ini. Warga korban luapan lumpur panas yang mengungsi di Pasar Baru Porong mencapai 14.768 jiwa. Meskipun sebagian kecil dari mereka telah mendapat bantuan kompensasi dari pihak Lapindo, warga terlanjur kehilangan mata pencaharian, tempat bernaung, segenap harta benda serta hidup dan kebersamaan yang telah terbangung.
Telah banyak warga yang mengalami gangguan fisik, sebanyak 49.639 jiwa menjalani rawat jalan, 1.130 orang menjalani rawat inap tersebar di berbagai pos kesehatan dan rumah sakit. Penderita gangguan jiwa telah puluhan orang diakibatkan tinggal di lokasi pengungsian. Anak-anak terganggu dalam aktivitas belajar mengajar, 33 gedung sekolah negeri dan swasta, mulai tingkat TK hingga SMA telah terendam lumpur.
Kerugian akibat Lumpur mencapai Rp 33 Triliun, serta tidak terhitung angka kerugian akibat bencana lingkungan dan sosial yang terjadi. Dan angka-angka akan terus bertambah sepanjang lumpur tetap mengalir ….… entah sampai kapan, hanya ada satu yang pasti …warga Porong yang desanya telah terendam lumpur, tidak akan pernah pulang kembali kerumahnya....

Untuk lebih jelas tentang peristiwa ini silahkan lihat di Jatam (www.jatam.org), Walhi (www.walhi.or.id), dan Gekko Studio (www.gekkovoices.com).

Countdown to Nil - Mud Disaster at Porong Sidoarjo Indonesia
Video sent by gekkostudio

Mud Lapindo tragedy is the biggest ecological disaster has ever happened in Indonesia. Since the first time the mud is blasted on 28 May 2006, till today there are no real efforts to discontinue the blast. The number of people must be evacuated to Pasar Baru Porong reached up to 14.768 peoples. Though some of them have got compensation from Lapindo, their lives have come too far unintentionally and they have lost most of their lives, including their jobs, shelters, properties and materials, and togetherness.

Lots of evacuee experiencing physical problems. 49.639 of them are outpatients while 1.130 people must be taken care in several health centers or hospitals. Monomaniacs also found as the result of distress while living in the evacuation. 33 school buildings including public and private schools are covered by mud and affected to children’s learning activity.

The loss of this tragedy reached up to Rp 33 trillion, while the number of environment and social loss effects is innumerable. The number is increasing as the mud kept running – until when? Who knows? One thing for sure, Porong’s community whom their houses are covered by mud, will never return to their homes.

See more on www.jatam.org, www.walhi.or.id, and www.gekkovoices.com.

My Forest Tears
Video sent by gekkostudio

Ethnomusicology about forest in Indonesia

The Poem is

Here at one time
orangutans played joyfully
eating fruits and leaves of the trees
swinging between the branches
generation upon generation for thousands of years

Here at one time
the Meranti, Ulin, and Kamper trees
stood sacredly in great forests
wild orchids bloomed and faded
in-synch with the rhythms of the universe

Here at one time
the Dayak with their blowpipes
hunted deer for their dinner
oo… the plentiful fruit and fish
abundant healing leaves

Here at one time
the sun shone brightly
pouring its light on the dense rain forest
chlorophyll turned CO2 to O2
creating fresh, clean air

Nowadays
no rain forest remain
gone are the Dayak and their culture
gone are the orangutans, only a sad story
with its historical garbage is left behind

Nowadays
millions of hectares of dry barren land
the dried roots of the trees remain
and huge holes of acid run-off water
left behind after the coal was sucked dry

Nowadays
the red sun shines
watching officials, businessmen,
and foreign investors greedily cut down the trees
planted and nurtured over thousands of years

Oh, my people … my people
nowadays …
angry Mother Earth sends floods
thousands of innocents lose belongings and lives
while the sinners play golf with their mistresses

Aach … my forest laments
its eyes are swollen
its mouth gasps for breath

Oh ….
you will see when the islands are drowning
the deserts expanding
disasters grow more violent … disasters grow more violent

See more on www.gekkovoices.com

Suara dari Ibu Bumi:
Klik Video ‘Hutanku Meratap’ dan Berikan Perhatian Anda kepada Kondisi Hutan Indonesia

Bogor, 22 April 2008. Sebagai paru-paru dunia, hutan tropika Indonesia telah berkurang dalam laju yang mencemaskan, disebabkan oleh konversi, penebangan liar dan eksploitasi yang berlebihan. Tidak ada lagi tempat bagi masyarakat hutan untuk tinggal ketika hutan mereka berubah menjadi tambang, ribuan orang meratap ketika rumah mereka hanyut oleh banjir, dan hutan menjadi sepi ketika tidak lagi suara burung yang bernyanyi dan tiada lagi orang utan meloncat dari satu pohon ke pohon lain.

Sebelum semuanya benar-benar musnah, dan hanya menjadi cerita bagi generasi berikut, luangkan waktu anda 7.36 menit pada hari bumi dan anda akan menjadi seorang saksimata kehancuran hutan Indonesia. Saksikan ‘HUTANKU MERATAP’ di www.gekkovoices.com yang kami dedikasikan untuk membawakan suara dari Ibu Bumi.

Diproduksi oleh Gekko Studio, bekerjasama dengan Rizaldi Siagian dan Slamet Widodo, --- keduanya adalah seniman yang telah mendedikasikan karyanya untuk menulis puisi dan membungkusnya dalam musik tradisional dayak, --- kami membawakan ‘HUTANKU MERATAP’ untuk mendapat perhatian anda. Jika anda telah selesai menyaksikan video ini dan anda memiliki mimpi yang sama dengan kami, bagikanlah kepada teman-teman anda sekalian. Bersama kita dapat menyelamatkan salah satu hutan tropis dunia.

Masa depan planet ini berada di tangan anda.

Salam,
Gekko Studio

Voice from the Mother Earth:
Click ‘the Forest Lament’ Video and Put your Attention on Indonesia’s Forest Condition

Bogor, April 22, 2008. As the lungs of the world, the Indonesia tropical forests are being lost at an alarming rate, largely due to land convertion, illegal logging and massive exploitation. The Indigenous people have no place to go when they find their forest changing into mining, thousands of people plight when their houses are lost by the flood, and forest are becoming silent because no more bird are singing and no more orangutan jumping from the big tree to another tree.

Before it is totally gone, and will be only the story for our next generation, just spend your 7.36 minutes during the Earth Day and you will be the eyewitness of Indonesia’s Forest Destruction. Watch ‘THE FOREST LAMENT’ at www.gekkovoices.com which we dedicated to bring the voices of Mother Earth.

Produced by Gekko Studio, collaborating with Rizaldi Siagian and Slamet Widodo, ---both of them are Indonesian artists who have dedicated their talent for writing this poetry and wrapping it into dayak’s traditional music rhythm, --- We bring the ‘THE FOREST LAMENT’ to get your attention. If you already watched this video, and you are the same dream with us, just share it to your friends. Together we can save one of the last tropical forest in the world.

The planet future is on your hand.

With regard,
Gekko Studio

Sembuluh Voices - Stories from the Palm Oil Lake
Video sent by Films4
www.films4.org/forests

Borderlines
Video sent by gekkostudio

Borderlines: Vietnam's Booming Furniture Industry and
Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region

Vietnam has become a hub for processing huge quantities of unlawfully-logged timber from across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a major new report reveals. Much of the illegally-imported wood is made into furniture for export to consumer markets in Europe and the US. Undercover investigations by the UK-based Environmental Investiagtions Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region, particularly in neightbouring Laos.

See more on
- http://www.illegal-logging.info/item_single.php?item=document&item_id=609&approach_id=1
- http://www.illegal-logging.info/uploads/Borderlines.pdf

Dayak Punan - Our Forest, Our Life
Video sent by gekkostudio

Saving the Indigenous Forests from the Extinction Series

At present, Indonesian forests are in very dangerous situation due to massive exploitation that has been happened in the past couple of years. Every year, areas as big as 3 times of island of Bali are beeing destructed.
In the other hand – different with the general situation – there are still hope, especially in the ancestral forests that are still being managed by the indegenous people. Forest for them means not only the number of standing stock, but it is related with their religion, wisdoms and many king of socio-cultural aspects.
Dayak Punan community in Malinau (Kalimantan island) depend on their forest for collecting eaglewood (gaharu), Seko people in North Luwu (Sulawesi) get benefit from non timber forest products such as resin and rattan for fullfilling their livelihood, Knasaimos tribe in South Sorong (Papua) consider the forests as their own mother.
Initiative to defend the forest, are facing huge challenges. The indigenous people still worry if their forest will be converted into large scale plantation, forest concession or mining exploitation.

A Film by J.E.E.F. (Japan Environmental Education Forum), Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), and Telapak. Supported by GISPRI and Produced by Gekko Studio

Seko - the Last Paradise in the Hearth of Sulawesi
Video sent by gekkostudio

Saving the Indigenous Forests from the Extinction Series

At present, Indonesian forests are in very dangerous situation due to massive exploitation that has been happened in the past couple of years. Every year, areas as big as 3 times of island of Bali are beeing destructed.
In the other hand – different with the general situation – there are still hope, especially in the ancestral forests that are still being managed by the indegenous people. Forest for them means not only the number of standing stock, but it is related with their religion, wisdoms and many king of socio-cultural aspects.
Dayak Punan community in Malinau (Kalimantan island) depend on their forest for collecting eaglewood (gaharu), Seko people in North Luwu (Sulawesi) get benefit from non timber forest products such as resin and rattan for fullfilling their livelihood, Knasaimos tribe in South Sorong (Papua) consider the forests as their own mother.
Initiative to defend the forest, are facing huge challenges. The indigenous people still worry if their forest will be converted into large scale plantation, forest concession or mining exploitation.

A Film by J.E.E.F. (Japan Environmental Education Forum), Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), and Telapak. Supported by GISPRI and Produced by Gekko Studio

The Indigenous People of KNASAIMOS
Video sent by gekkostudio

Saving the Indigenous Forests from the Extinction Series

At present, Indonesian forests are in very dangerous situation due to massive exploitation that has been happened in the past couple of years. Every year, areas as big as 3 times of island of Bali are beeing destructed.
In the other hand – different with the general situation – there are still hope, especially in the ancestral forests that are still being managed by the indegenous people. Forest for them means not only the number of standing stock, but it is related with their religion, wisdoms and many king of socio-cultural aspects.
Dayak Punan community in Malinau (Kalimantan island) depend on their forest for collecting eaglewood (gaharu), Seko people in North Luwu (Sulawesi) get benefit from non timber forest products such as resin and rattan for fullfilling their livelihood, Knasaimos tribe in South Sorong (Papua) consider the forests as their own mother. Initiative to defend the forest, are facing huge challenges. The indigenous people still worry if their forest will be converted into large scale plantation, forest concession or mining exploitation.

A Film by J.E.E.F. (Japan Environmental Education Forum), Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), and Telapak. Supported by GISPRI and Produced by Gekko Studio