The Conservation Expeditions TheThe Conservation Conservation ExpeditionsExpeditions 2016-20182016-20182016-2018 John John John van vanvan WyheWyheWyhe The Conservation Expeditions 2016-2018 The Conservation John van Wyhe Expeditions 2016-2018 John van Wyhe Table of contents Dedicated to the students who made these expeditions possible. Foreword by Tommy Koh 4 Introduction 5 Acknowledgments 6 The Komodo expedition 2016 7 The Borneo Expedition 2017 46 The Krakatoa voyage 2018 95 The Sulawesi Expedition 2018 119 © John van Wyhe 2019. r2 Tembusu College, National University of Singapore. Cover photo: a pair of Black macaques on Sulawesi. The furthest animal has a hand wounded by a poacher’s snare. 3 Table of contents Dedicated to the students who made these expeditions possible. Foreword by Tommy Koh 4 Introduction 5 Acknowledgments 6 The Komodo expedition 2016 7 The Borneo Expedition 2017 46 The Krakatoa voyage 2018 95 The Sulawesi Expedition 2018 119 © John van Wyhe 2019. Tembusu College, National University of Singapore. Cover photo: a pair of Black macaques on Sulawesi. The furthest animal has a hand wounded by a poacher’s snare. 33 Introduction Foreword “Because of its peculiar and fantastic nature, its complex variety of peoples, and its fabulous richness, the archipelago is one of the most fascinating regions of the earth.” I am very happy to write this foreword. Singapore is located in the heart of Southeast Covarrubias, Island of Bali (1937), p. 1. Asia. However, very few Singaporeans know that this region has the world’s richest In August 2016 I was approached by some students of Tembusu College with an intriguing biodiversity, on land and at sea. Southeast Asia is also the home of some unique species proposal. They had an ambitious scheme. Would I help plan and accompany them on a voyage of animals, such as, the orangutan and the komodo dragon. I am therefore very pleased through Indonesia to culminate with the island of Komodo, home to the famous dragon, the that students of Tembusu College have embarked on these four expeditions to see and world’s largest lizard? experience the splendour of the natural world. The group was lead by business administration student Ong Kah Jing. They proposed to Memories are short and few Singaporeans would have heard of Krakatoa and do all the actual organizing of transport, accommodation and arrangements with tour guides and know what it is. Indonesia is situated in the so-called Ring of Fire. It has over 130 active so forth. They also conducted all the research and fundraising. After many meetings together and volcanoes. As I write, we are witnessing the aftermath of two successive earthquakes with STEER, the plans were settled. STEER is the National University of Singapore’s International Relations Office which hit Lombok in the past two weeks. programme called Study Trips for Engagement and Enrichment which funds student trips I am very glad that one student expedition went to visit Anak Krakatoa (child of overseas to facilitate familiarity and contacts with other regions. The programme, as its website Krakatoa). In 1883, Krakatoa exploded with a violence which is unthinkable. It was describes is, “designed to familiarise students with the diverse socio-cultural-economic 13,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima. environments of new and fast-evolving regions through a mix of classroom-based learning and Volcanic ash reached a height of 50 kilometres. It enveloped the world and lowered experiential site visits.” The trips “are designed to be thematic and help our undergraduates global temperature by more than 1 Degree Celsius. break existing mindsets about these emerging regions through participation in an immersive educational and cultural experience.” Most of the expeditions were also generously co-funded by I am glad that the students also went to visit Komodo Island, the heart of Borneo Tembusu College. and Manado. I am told that the coral reefs in Manado are in excellent health and sustain For the Komodo expedition I provided a suggested route and important sites to visit, a very rich marine life. I commend the students for having organised these four and during the expedition itself, told them all I knew about the places, peoples and creatures we expeditions. According to Dr John van Wyhe, the students did an excellent job planning encountered. This and the subsequent expeditions were primarily focused on examining the and organising the trips. I also salute them for their resilience and willingness to the state of nature conservation today. Along the way I constantly interacted with students immerse themselves in the places they visited. I am particularly struck by the fact that, and taught them almost continuously on subjects ranging from the history of science to architecture, anthropology, ethnology, biology and geology. This has been one of the most everywhere they went, they were willing to eat in the markets and by the roadside. I am productive and effective teaching experiences I have ever witnessed and I am convinced the sure they have learned many lessons from these expeditions. I hope that they will students were changed by the expeditions and will carry the experience for the rest of their become good stewards of our natural heritage, on land and at sea. lives. I would like to praise their leader. Dr van Wyhe is a world authority on Darwin During the Komodo expedition the students and I saw and learned previously and Wallace. He loves nature and the environment. He is knowledgeable, brave and unimaginable things, at least to us. We travelled through Java, Lombok, Bali, Flores, Rinca and adventurous. The students couldn’t have asked for a better guide and mentor. Komodo. Kah Jing and his team created an award-winning documentary about the voyage, ‘The Lastly, I would like to thank NUS and Tembusu College for supporting these Conservation Conversation’. (Now on YouTube.) Inspired by that experience, I decided to propose to students of the College another expedition, and then another. expeditions. Such trips complement book learning. By visiting our neighbouring The following are my personal journals written during each day of the expeditions- often countries, they learn first-hand, about the geography, history, culture and nature of this at the very same time as the events described. They are therefore only one person’s wonderful and diverse region. We should continue to encourage our students to go on perspective and convey my own impressions and experiences. Some sections may seem a little such expeditions. rough, but I have chosen to leave them as they were written to preserve the sense of immediacy which they record. They were often hurriedly written at the end of an exhausting day. The entries Professor Tommy Koh were posted to my private Facebook account and are now reproduced here (somewhat revised) to make this record more widely available. All of the photographs are my own except those Rector, Tembusu College marked with an *. For reasons of confidentiality, I have, in most cases, omitted the names of August 2018 individual students. John van Wyhe York, July 2018 4 4 5 Introduction Foreword “Because of its peculiar and fantastic nature, its complex variety of peoples, and its fabulous richness, the archipelago is one of the most fascinating regions of the earth.” I am very happy to write this foreword. Singapore is located in the heart of Southeast Covarrubias, Island of Bali (1937), p. 1. Asia. However, very few Singaporeans know that this region has the world’s richest In August 2016 I was approached by some students of Tembusu College with an intriguing biodiversity, on land and at sea. Southeast Asia is also the home of some unique species proposal. They had an ambitious scheme. Would I help plan and accompany them on a voyage of animals, such as, the orangutan and the komodo dragon. I am therefore very pleased through Indonesia to culminate with the island of Komodo, home to the famous dragon, the that students of Tembusu College have embarked on these four expeditions to see and world’s largest lizard? experience the splendour of the natural world. The group was lead by business administration student Ong Kah Jing. They proposed to Memories are short and few Singaporeans would have heard of Krakatoa and do all the actual organizing of transport, accommodation and arrangements with tour guides and know what it is. Indonesia is situated in the so-called Ring of Fire. It has over 130 active so forth. They also conducted all the research and fundraising. After many meetings together and volcanoes. As I write, we are witnessing the aftermath of two successive earthquakes with STEER, the plans were settled. STEER is the National University of Singapore’s International Relations Office which hit Lombok in the past two weeks. programme called Study Trips for Engagement and Enrichment which funds student trips I am very glad that one student expedition went to visit Anak Krakatoa (child of overseas to facilitate familiarity and contacts with other regions. The programme, as its website Krakatoa). In 1883, Krakatoa exploded with a violence which is unthinkable. It was describes is, “designed to familiarise students with the diverse socio-cultural-economic 13,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima. environments of new and fast-evolving regions through a mix of classroom-based learning and Volcanic ash reached a height of 50 kilometres. It enveloped the world and lowered experiential site visits.” The trips “are designed to be thematic and help our undergraduates global temperature by more than 1 Degree Celsius. break existing mindsets about these emerging regions through participation in an immersive educational and cultural experience.” Most of the expeditions were also generously co-funded by I am glad that the students also went to visit Komodo Island, the heart of Borneo Tembusu College.