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UNAIR NEWS – Moh. Wahyu Syafi’ul Mubarok, Physics Student, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), (UNAIR), was lucky enough to be included in 14 people who have the chance to get scholarship of environmental journalism training in Indonesia.

Climate Tracker Scholarship by Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is in the form of environmental journalism training held on June 28-July 1 at Hotel Grand Inna, Medan.

The scholarship is open to all and not limited to age. Surprisingly, among the other 14 scholarship recipients, Wahyu was the youngest.

Prior to obtaining the scholarship, the scholarship recipients sent fulfilled the requirements, by submitting articles about the environment that has been published on printed media and environment-based online.

Among the 700 manuscripts received by the committee, 14 authors were selected to for the scholarship. Wahyu is one of them. He wrote an article entitled “Deforestation, Investment, and Biodiversity Loss”.

“The topic was inspired from my curiosity on Asymmetric film . Finally I seek information on how complicated and rotten politics of forest politics in Indonesia, ” said Wahyu.

The scholarship recipients are those with background as journalists or environmentalists. From well-known media correspondents in Indonesia, workers in orangutan conservation, to environmental journalists in the region. They come from various regions in Indonesia from Medan, Lampung, Jakarta, Samarinda, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Ternate, to Tapanuli.

“I never thought that with physics as the background, nothing to do with environment, I would be accepted. And, I am the youngest, “said Wahyu, then laughed.

During the training, Wahyu got a lot of experience from environmental speakers. He learned a lot about biodiversity, especially in Indonesia. And, environmental news techniques in mass media.

There were five speakers,  Chris Wright (founder and managing director of climate tracker); Dr. Ir. Hotmail Sianturi (head of natural resourcers and conservation center Gunung Leuser National Park); Nabiha Shahab (writer for Cifor’s forest news); Aditya Heru Wardana (executive director of Indonesian environmental journalist, editor at CNN); and Fahmi Hakim (biodiversity expert, lecturer at faculty forestry IPB). In the class, the average learning system was by doing and discussion.

“From the speakers, I learned a lot about the urgency and challenges of the resilience of biodiversity and environmental journalists themselves. And, I know more about the political, economic, and social aspects of the environment. For example, the politics of oil palm to deforestation under the pretext of industry, “said Wahyu.

Wahyu got many experiences after the training such as meeting and learning from professional journalists and environmentalists, to learn from a new Tempo correspondent in Canada covering ONE HEALTH international conference.

“In essence, I understand more about biodiversity  owned by Indonesia, through environmental journalism,” said Wahyu.

The scholarships were awarded for the purpose of providing environmental journalism training for developing countries, those with a wealth of biodiversity such as Indonesia. Medan was chosen as a training location considering that Sumatra island has the highest biodiversity in Indonesia, even the world.

“I believe, if the opportunity was given and mentored by professional journalists, a young journalist would have given birth to a good work of journalism,” Wahyu quoted Chris Wright, one of the speakers who motivated him. (*)

Author: Binti Q. Masruroh

Editor: Feri Fenoria Rifai