Ujung Kulon Expedition 2023
The idea of this project began to develop when we went on a previous expedition to Ujung Kulon National Park. We found out that there was a lot of waste, most of it was plastic and many other kinds of trash that came to the land by the ocean. It was very worrying for us since there were no settlements there but there was a lot of waste. This land is home to many endangered habitats, but their home is being attacked by human waste.
We formed a working group, had preparatory meetings, and debriefed participants within the SWA Discovery framework. This progress takes almost 3 months. The initiatives kicked off by going to the Ujung Kulon National Park on February 22nd. We sailed to Cidaon and cleaned up the beach to Cikuya, then sailed to Peucang Island to clean up the forest to the Karang Copong. Lastly, in Taman Jaya village we're collecting data from coastal communities on the peninsula to carry out sustainable programs.
We found out that the litter originally came from other places and landed there by the waves of the ocean. In this No Man's Land, the natural habitat there is being invaded by waste; one of those might be our waste. We realized that these litters are 'unstoppable'. It's unstoppable if we don't start changing our habits in our environment. We hope the habitats in our National Parks are safe from waste.
