Visiting East-Kalimantan with a small team from Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities Aliance exploring possibilities to collaborate with partner universities in Indonesia on research and education for sustainable urbanization and biodiversity in relation to the new capital Nusantara (IKN).
We were invited by the National Capital Authority and participated in the 1st International Conference on Forest City in Samarinda, hosted by the Deputy responsible for Biodiversity and several local Universities. Wonderful insights were shared by local scholars and my colleagues Prof Bart Barendregt, Dr Angelica Cibrian-Jaramillo, Prof Paul J.A. Kessler, Dr Rita Sousa Silva, Dr Elena Burgos Martinez. I had the honor to deliver a keynote lecture on a Landscape Approach for the development of a Bio-Cultural DiverCity and the need for Landscape Logic.
We also planted trees in a Eucalyptus production forest to incentivize ecological succession, facilitate #groundwaterrecharge, for #erosioncontrol and increase biodiversity as part of an extensive project to transform the forest into a more layered natural one.
Amazing to experience and see the biodiversity in (secondary) #tropicalrainforests like Bukit Bangkirai (Hill of Bangkirai) and Sungai Wain (lowland dipterocarp forest with the Borneo Ironwood), and the #mangroves in Balikpapan Bay where we also saw Proboscis Monkeys)
Wonderful and humbling to see the commitment and the knowledge of the #localcommunities to protect and develop these areas, like in Hutan Lindung Sei Wain and mangrove centre Graha inda with a mangrove nursery.