Belantara Foundation Present at the Tropical Forestry and Environment Research Festival to Commemorate the National Technology Awakening Day

(08/13/2019) The National Technology Awakening Day is commemorated every August 10th. This year, to commemorate the event, The Forestry and Environmental Research, Development and Innovation Agency (FOERDIA) of the Ministry of Environment held a Tropical Forestry and Environment Research Festival at the Serpong Science and Technology Research Center (Puspiptek). 

Besides as a Media Dialogue and one of the Agency's strategic efforts to introduce and promote its innovation in science and technology, the Festival also served to encourage the mass media, both print, electronic or online, to further optimize their role in disseminating information on science, technology and innovation to wider audiences.

Its hoped the event's theme—Powering Knowledge and Science for Forest, Environment, and People—can strengthen science and technology as a social force for forests, the environment, and society.

In the event session, four new paradigm agendas for the Research, Development, and Innovation Agency, and also the Serpong Laboratory Information System (Silapong) were launched.

The agendas are to follow-up initiatives on the high dynamics of environmental and forestry issues and the currently limited resources. And the current role of science and technology of just producing and reproducing knowledge that is no longer sufficient; it also must be able to co-produce knowledge, such as promoting, campaigning, building entrepreneurship, expanding work networks, and enter the virtual work areas. As an example is the creation of an environmental information system laboratory to accelerate the flow of information and public services.

The event then continued with a media dialogue session. This session discussed the technologies of processing mercury, teak, palm oil, and its derivatives, and involved inventors, both researchers and knowledge production actors as guest speakers.

This event also has five side events with the theme: (1) Lead and Mercury Around Us; (2) Science and Technology and Innovations in Processing Forest Products; (3) The Role of Science and Technology and Environmental and Forestry Innovations; (4) Sustainable Tropical Peat Management and Collaborative Action in Indonesia and Wetland International; (5) Implementing REDD+, Lessons Learned.