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Journalist Interns Learn About Forestry Issues at CIFOR

Clare Rawlinson, an Australian journalist intern, will work with CIFOR’s Communications Unit, assisting with writing and media liaison, while further expanding her knowledge of forestry issues.

On January 17th, 2008, 25 Australian communications interns, who will be working as journalists and other media professionals across Indonesia, visited the CIFOR headquarters in Bogor to improve their knowledge of forestry issues, such as illegal logging, climate change, biodiversity, forest fires and livelihoods.

The large group of communication interns were led by Louise Williams, a senior Australian journalist and long term foreign correspondent in the Asia-Pacific region, and were supported by the ACIJ (Australian Centre for Independent Journalism), a non-profit organization based at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). The visit was part of a program that aims to:

• Stimulate the production of high quality journalism, especially investigative journalism;
• Conduct and support research into journalism and the media;
• Contribute to scholarly debate and research about journalism;
• Promote community discussion about the relationship of journalism to political, social and cultural democracy.

One of the 25 participants, Clare Rawlinson, will work with CIFOR’s Communications Unit, assisting with media liaison, while further expanding her knowledge of forestry issues.

Greg Clough, CIFOR’s Communications Specialist, welcomed the enthusiastic interns and provided a general overview of CIFOR, its research activities, and how it engages with the media, especially in Indonesia.

Moira Moeliono, a scientist from CIFOR’s Forests and Governance program, then gave a presentation outlining the general condition of forests in Indonesia. This presentation featured some interesting statistics, including the fact that of 190 million hectares of forests in Indonesia, only around 60 million hectares remain forested today.

Moira was followed by Dr Daniel Murdiyarso, one of Indonesia’s principal authorities on climate change. Daniel spoke about REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), as well some of CIFOR’s key initiatives, including the recent Forest Day event, held in conjunction with the UNFCCC COP 13 in Bali last December.

Finally, Agus Andrianto presented the findings from his research study of illegal logging in Indonesia, focusing primarily on Papua. Illegal logging is still a hot issue for media across Indonesia and prompted a range of perceptive questions from the Australian interns.