VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

World Environment Day is commemorated every June 5 to increase global awareness on the need to take positive environmental action for nature protection and the planet Earth. The commemoration began when UN General Assembly during Stockholm Conference in 1972 designed 5 of June as World Environment Day. All human being is expected to be part of global act in voicing protection for earth, sustainable use of natural resources, and eco-friendly lifestyle. Then, how is the active role of Indonesian government in supporting the Day this year?

Twenty-four years after the day designation, Indonesia held Environment and Forestry Week, a part of routine agenda from the government through its Environment and Forestry Ministry to commemorate the World Environment Day. Until now, the event has been held for 23 times. The Environment and Forestry Week will be held at Jakarta Convention Centre, on July 11-13 2019. During the event, there will be various environment management product and services being showcased. One hundred participants join the event and they are from ministries, related non-ministerial government bodies, friend countries, regional governments of Indonesia, state-owned enterprises, private companies, NGO on environment and energy, and higher education. There will be exhibition on environment management performance, seminar, talk show, and many more.

Theme for this year’s Environment and Forestry Week is Clean Environment Free from Waste. Why? It’s to support waste reduction campaign. During Ramadan month, there had been many education events for the people on waste management and reduction. The events targeted many markets to convey the message on reducing plastic bag, using reusable bottles, and others. Meanwhile, for the homecoming people, there had been campaign on the same matter across some toll road rest areas.

All that moves are necessary because the global worry on waste, especially the plastic ones, has strong basis. Data from worldenvironmentday.global showed, everyone on this planet bought 1 million plastic bottle and 50% of them are single-use types. Everyone also used 500 billion plastic bags, and plastic is 10% of the total waste we produce. Not only that, plastic pollution has been threatening the nature. Many plastics washed into the sea can kill millions of seabirds and thousands sea mammals every single year.

With all that threats against the planet, its nature, and even us, increasing awareness and keep promoting environment preservation should go beyond a mere plan. They need real action which is done together. It can begin from ourselves, but it’ll be far better if done together.