BOS

BOS

BOS is a NGO (non government organization) non profit organization in central Kalimantan aimed to help orangutans. BOS stands for Borneo’s Orangutan Survival. BOS was first founded by Dr Willie Smits in 1991. In 1991 Dr Willie Smits was walking in a market in Balikpapan (East of Kalimantan) when he saw a little sad female baby orangutan in a cage. Later on he found her on the rubbish heap and he took her home, and took care of her, until she was healthy again. A few days later he was given another baby male orangutan, and he got more and more orangutans. So he now had a foundation called “Balikpapan Orangutan Society”. But later on in 1994 it was renamed to Borneo Orangutan Survival. BOS is in Jl. Tjilik Riwut km 29 in central Kalimantan. BOS is a foundation to help all orangutans. BOS takes baby orangutans that were kept illegally as pets in people’s houses, and that were mistreated. BOS takes these baby orangutans to help them, they make them healthy and care for them, and then they little by little introduce them to the wild. And even try to help them break bad habits that they might have learned with the people they lived, like for example eating and drinking human unhealthy food and drinks. Later on as the baby Orangutans grow up, they are more and more in the wild with the other orangutans, and then when they are old enough they move them to a little island only for orangutans, which is not allowed to be cut down, and there they come and watch them once in a while and bring them food. Not only do they take orangutans from people, but they also rescue them from poachers, or from a newly cut down forests, since many forests in central Kalimantan are being cut down for palm oil reasons. People even kill the mother orangutan, and even more male orangutans, just to get the baby orangutan, to sell it. Sometimes if people are honest, if they see a orangutan in a wide empty space which was once a forest, they might call BOS, and BOS will come and take that orangutan to the foundation to help them recover and re introduce them to the wild.

By: Dorotea M.G

REFERENCES;

Borneo Orangutan Survival (Wikipedia) Orangutan movies from BOS

How ordinary people can help the world

These are the main three things ordinary people can do do to help the environment;

SAVE ENERGY: Saving energy is one of the best things ordinary people can do to help the world. Saving energy includes saving electricity, saving water and even saving gas or fuel. Some electricity requires burning coal which creates smoke and creates global warming, if you use too much electricity that means that it creates a lot of smoke that harms the world. If you leave a room, turn of the lights, so that you don’t have to use electricity. Also something that consumes a lot of electricity is an air conditioning, television, blender, microwave, electric oven, washing machine, drier, heating system, refrigerator, freezers etc. If you are using an AC (air conditioning) don’t turn the temperature low like on 17, just turn like on 25, it saves a lot of energy, or if you leave your room, turn the TV off, don’t leave it on for the whole day, a refrigerator and freezer might be necessary, but if it has no food, turn it off.  Try use the least electricity you can, if you leave your house, turn off the fans, the lights, the air conditioning, anything that uses electricity and you wont need.

DON’T THROW GARBAGE ON THE FLOOR: Garbage is a big pollutant to the world, because it is mostly plastic that can not deteriate, and it takes up to 500 years to deteriate, but things like wood, or leaves, deteriate really fast and is even a healthy compost for the earth, while things like plastic, metal, glass, batteries, paint, oil and many more are toxic to the earth, and take hundreds of years to deteriate, and it meanwhile poisons  the earth, the plants and the water. That’s why it is important to throw the garbage in garbage cans, so that it can be taken away and recycled to be re used, and not be throwed away to be waste. it may be easy and even a habit to throw garbage when and where you want to. But do you ever think of the consequences, like what happens to the garbage. You may think, what can a little wrapper do? So you just throw it where you are over your shoulder, but actually one wrapper can really make a difference. If there is a pile of garbage somewhere in the street, you think that it’s ok to just throw a wrapper, but every piece of garbage came from somewhere, some one who thought that that little piece of garbage would do nothing, and the pile just gets bigger. So throw the garbage where it belongs, in the garbage can, because one wrapper does make a difference

USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Do you like traffic? Do you know why traffic happens? Traffic happens because of to many cars, all wanting to get somewhere. But the problem is that mostly every car has only one person in it, some don’t but most do. But what if instead of 10 cars with 10 people, there is only one bus with 10 people? it saves space, and instead of 10 machines creating pollution, there is only one machine making pollution, and it does the same job, the people get where they want to go. Although buses might not be very nice to ride, because it might be too crowded or might take along time before you reach your destination, but it is effective. If you care about the world you would make as least pollution as possible. Or it doesn’t have to be a bus, it can be a subway train, or if you still don’t like crowded places, you can ride in a car with your friend who is going to the same place. And yet there is still another way to get somewhere without creating any pollution at all. If your destination isn’t far away, why don’t you just ride a bicycle, or you can even walk, not only do you not create pollution, or waste fuel, but you also get healthy, so why don’t you try it? 

what I like in Central Kalimantan

By: Dorotea

What I like about living in central Kalimantan is the rainforest, the natural environment, weather and also the food. The food in central Kalimantan is very tasty and original. I like the rainforest because it is beautiful and a pleasant feeling to be surrounded by tall green trees, and the humid atmosphere, and also in central Kalimantan the air is fresh without pollution, and the sound of the birds in the trees. And it rains mostly everyday, which keeps the trees growing. Another thing I like about Kalimantan are the clouds, because the clouds in central Kalimantan have a specific nice and interesting shape, which is beautiful with the orange sunrise and sunset. The rivers in central Kalimantan are brown, but that is because of the pit earth, but otherwise the water is clean and has no pollution in it. Central Kalimantan is a beautiful place.

The problems in Central Kalimantan

By: Dorotea

Although the rain forest in central Kalimantan is beautiful and fresh, it is endangered because it is slowly being cut down little by little for palm oil plantations and building. And not only is the rainforest being damaged or even destroyed, but also the animals that live in it are dying and becoming extinct. There is also less oxygen for Indonesia and the world, since trees make oxygen and take in carbon Dioxide, and the rain forest is a big area of trees which will make the world suffer a lot if the rain forest would be removed, besides it is hard to re grow trees, especially the old trees, which lived sometimes over 100 years. People should really stop and think before they do something stupid that cannot be changed. The government should really focus more on the rain forest and make a rule about cutting down or burning the forest, and also make punishments if the rule is disobeyed. Villagers and any other people should guard the forest and protect the forest and the animals in it. Central Kalimantan is important and should be protected.

The Burning Rain Forest

burning in central kalimantan

BURNING IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN

By: Dorotea M.G

In Central Kalimantan there are many rain forests, but they are being cut down and burned. Common poor villagers work for land owners, they clear the land mostly to plant palm oil or just clear the land for building.  Burning is very bad for many reasons; it’s bad for health, it contaminates the air and most of all it creates global warming. Although burning is bad and most people including the people who own the land know that, they still do it. Although there are other ways to discard the left over wood, they still just burn it. They burn because the land owners do not want to spend too much money, because it costs a lot more to hire a truck to take all the wood away, and by just burning it, it costs very little to just pay a little money to the workers who cut down the trees to burn it all. These villagers burn although most of them do not want to because they know what it is doing to the world, but they have no choice because that is the only way that they can feed them selves and their families.

Burning does not only affect Central Kalimantan, but it also affects Indonesia and the rest of the world. Nearby countries such as Singapore and Malaysia complained because of the smoke in 2006. The people there had asthmas and trouble breathing, and even some airports were shut down because of such smoke. And all because of Central Kalimantan’s and Indonesia’s burning.

Information from The Burning Season (film) June 2008 Cathy Henkel (Director)

central kalimantan

Central Kalimantan

 By: Dorotea

Central Kalimantan is the center of the biggest island in Indonesia and the third biggest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea. Kalimantan has four provinces West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. Kalimantan makes up most of Borneo which is the same island but Kalimantan is only in Indonesia whilst Borneo is Indonesia and Malaysia which includes Sarawak and Sabah and Brunei Darussalam. Kalimantan covers 73% of Borneo. In central Kalimantan the capital city of the province is Palangka Raya. Palangka Raya is also the biggest city in central Kalimantan.

 The native people of central Kalimantan are the Dayak people. Most of them people who lived in the jungles all their lives, and they had survived through out all these years in the jungle and they have many traditions and cultures which make Kalimantan special. In Kalimantan just like in many other places they are cutting down the rainforest because of palm oil plantation and clearing land for building and that is destroying Kalimantan’s habitat and animals that live in the rainforest such as orangutans. But fortunately in jalan Tjilik Riwut km.29 there is a foundation to rescue orangutans from forests that had been cut down. They help baby orangutans grow up and then let them out in the wild in a reserved jungle area. The name of the foundation is BOS.

Central Kalimantan is mostly rural and is a nice place to live with the beautiful rainforest and nice weather which is mostly rainy. So let’s save what there is left of the rainforest for our grandchildren and also us. Because not only is the rainforest beautiful and a home to many animals, but it is also very important to Indonesia and the rest of the world. Because it gives us oxygen and clears away carbon dioxide which humans and animals do not need. Central Kalimantan may not be known, but it is a very important place for humans, animals and the world.

References; The ecology of Kalimantan  (Book) by Kathy Mackinnnon -1997- UK- Published by Eric Oey first edition

What is Climate Change Comic

By Dorotea