Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

My name is Dia Marganita. I'm 19 years old college student at Oceanography Department in Universitas Diponegoro Semarang. I was born in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. As the youngest of 4, I grew up mostly with the influence of my brothers. I came up as someone who likes sports, books, computer, also has fond to animals and nature. I dream to be an environmental activist one day. I realized that our environment condition has decrease rapidly for the past decade. Of course it wasn't for nothing but human activities. Global warming, ocean acidification, forest burning, plastic waste all over the world, and many more. Unfortunately, our act to restore the environment hasn't been in balance with the damage we have caused.

Some college students in Marine Science Major at Universitas Diponegoro Semarang realized that and want to make a campaign about how trash, mostly the anorganic ones, can affect the creatures that live on the ocean. So we came up with the idea of educate people around us about this issue. We make this as an event that our senior asked for us. They want us to make an event that also give information about our major (because lots of people doesn't know much about it). Like what we do, learn, and will be in the future. But still, educate about the trash issue is still our priority.

The event was held in Simpang Lima, Semarang on CFD (Car Free Day): Sunday, 26 November 2017. We picked Simpang Lima on CFD because it always crowded with people who likes to jogging, cycling, and other exercises from Semarang and nearby. We also want to raise their awareness through this event. This event is called as HOLYSEA which stands for Harmony of Our Lovely Sea. It has a tag that saying "Bersih Daratku, Biru Lautku" which means if the land is clean, so do the ocean as it will appears as its true color which is blue. This event was a collaboration between Marine Science Major batch 2017 and public relations division HMIK (Himpunan Mahasiswa Ilmu Kelautan / Marine Science Student Assemblage).

The event started with a flashmob by all the crews in front of the main stage in Jl. Pahlawan around 6 AM. The flashmob was intended to attract the attention of the people who were passing around us. Then, a band from our community, Echosounder, opened the event with a few songs for around 10 minutes. After that, the parade started with signing petition by local communities. Next, the parade went around Simpang Lima while doing oration about the issue. We also took the trash along the way and divided it into plastic and paper (because both are the most likely trash you will find at CFD). The trash that has been collected was given to Sampah Muda. Sampah Muda is an agent that help manage recycle trash in Semarang. Thereafter, the talkshow begun at the main stage. The talkshow talked about our major and the importance of keeping the environment clean for the life below water. It also talked about some UKM-F (Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa - Fakultas / Student Activity Unit - Faculty) that attended this HOLYSEA event. They are KeSEMaT, Marine Diving Club, FARMASEA, and SEAWEED. KeSEMaT is an UKM-F that engaged in mangrove conservation, Marine Diving Club (MDC) in scientific diving, FARMASEA in pharmacology and marine biotechnology, and SEAWEED in study on seaweed. All of these UKM-F also takes part on marine life conservation. Then, another band, Sampan Suar, played their songs for around 15 minutes. There were also coloring competition and storytelling for the kids not so far from the main stage. The event closed with a short speech from the leader of Marine Science Major batch 2017.

Maybe this event only went for two and a half hours, but it taught us many things. Like how to cooperate, coordinate, and collaborate. The size of cooperation for this event was pretty huge. The total number of people that cooperate to make this event happened is 300+ crews, with 280+ students from Marine Science Major batch 2017 plus the seniors from HMIK. This number of people need a right coordination, therefore this event can go well. And we also get experience from collaborating with seniors, bands, and agent like Sampah Muda. With this event, we hope people can be more aware with environment issue as we actually depends on it. Start with just a simple act. Later, it will make an enormous impact. And we're not the only one who lives here, there's a lot of other creatures that live side by side with us as well.

Although this event started as a homework from our senior, I want to put this in Apprentice Ecologist Projects program because I'd like to share this story, experience, and especially my concern about environmental issues. This program has build hope in me because I can see how much young people can care about the environment like I do. I know that there's a lot of people who don't care about environment but there's also a lot of people who care about it. "Do what you can", I learn that even though you only did a small thing, it can and will give a substansial effect in the future. Last but not least: step aside that ego and start thinking about eco.