Subsidient: Clemmie Borgstein/Wageningen University
Subsidie: S173.65
Tropical forests are diminishing at an alarming rate, and along with this comes disappearance of both culture and species. In Indonesia, this reality is prevalent, especially on the island of Borneo where rainforests face increasing anthropogenic threats. Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) offers a free education centre (known as KWPLH) aimed towards sharing environmental knowledge and principles with the general public. As part of an information exhibit on the fauna and flora of Kalimantan came a plan to build an ethnobotanical garden based on medicinal plant use from East Kalimantan. This garden offers two incentives; firstly, to reconnect people with nature. Through the medium of an engaging garden trail, the idea is to show how forests have supported Indonesians for many generations, and therefore how important it is to preserve the forests for the vast amount of provisions they offer to us humans. Secondly, the aim was to document (in the form of the garden) traditional ecological knowledge regarding medicinal plant use and the culture around it. The garden contains over 70 species of herbs, shrubs, trees, lianas and ferns. It offers insights into the mostly commonly known and used medicinal plants to the more obscure wild forest species unknown to the average person but a remnant of knowledge from the forest-dwellers. It offers an interactive, visually stimulating walk through an area of roughly 40 x 20 m, containing 9 plant beds of varying shapes and sizes, with an array of interesting medicinal plants.
