The University of Lampung (UNILA) and Mongabay Indonesia are signing Memorandum of Understanding, Thursday (27/9/2108). This event also continued with launching of the badak.id website, and the workshop on “The Importance of Social Media and Photojurnalism to Save The Sumatran Rhinoceros”.
The event was held at the Ruang Sidang, 2nd floor of the Rectorate Building, UNILA and attended by 150 participants from UNILA Board of Management, Director of Mongabay Indonesia, Head of the Forestry Service Lampung Province, Head of the Balai Bukit Barisan Selatan, Head of the Taman Nasioanal Way Kambas, Head of the Balai Konservasi dan Sumber Daya Alam (BKSDA) for Bengkulu-Lampung, Executive Director of the Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), and lecturers and students from universities in Lampung.
Director of Mongabay Indonesia, Dr. Rizki Rinanto Sigit, M.M. said that the population of rhinos in the world is only around 100. One of them is in Lampung. This figure showed that the population is almost extinct. Therefore, with this collaboration, he hopes that UNILA can help to save rhinos through many academic programs.
Rector of UNILA, Prof. Dr. Ir. Hasriadi Mat Akin, M.P., in his speech said that one of the causes of the extinction of rhinos is because they are solitaire and their fertile times are rare. This makes it difficult for rhinos to breed. UNILA welcomes this collaboration for the objectives improving research and internationalization.
“Hopefully, lecturers and students in UNILA can contribute to publishing international journals about rhinos,” he added. He also hopes that UNILA can find other ways that rhinos can breed and the moment of Andatu birth’s in TNWK can happen again”.
The launching of website badak.id website is also an effort to preserve rhinos, where the academicians of UNILA can share the results of their research on the website. In addition, through this workshop agenda, it is expected that it can provide new information and understanding for academics to find out about rhinoceros conservation through social media and journalism.[Humas]
