AFTERNOON DISCUSSION ON NONHUMAN PRIMATE AND CONSERVATION
AFTERNOON DISCUSSION ON NONHUMAN PRIMATE AND CONSERVATION
On Friday, February 22, 2019 in the courtroom of the Primate Animal Study Center, a Half-day Seminar was held entitled “Healthcare to Heal Planet and the Nonhuman Primate Management for the 21st Century”. Two experts who were present as speakers on that day were Jeff Wyatt, DVM, MPH, DACLAM and Andrew Winterborn, DVM, DACLAM. Dr. Wyatt is Professor and Head of Comparative Medicine, University of Rochester, New York USA, and Environmental Justice Advocate at Rochester’s Seneca Park Zoo while Dr. Winterborn is the Responsible Veterinarian at Queens University, Ontario, Canada. The two experts are active in an organization called Health in Harmony which is an NGO in the United States that organizes natural conservation and revitalization programs with integrated approaches in several countries, including Indonesia.
Jeff Wyatt in his presentation entitled Healthcare to Heal the Planet, told of his activities in Kalimantan to overcome poverty, improve the health and well-being of people around the forest, precisely in the village of Sukadana, a village near Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan. It is hoped that the increase in people’s welfare will save the forest and have an impact on preserving orangutans, because their habitat is not damaged by illegal logging.
At the presentation he told how forest loss caused adverse effects such as: reduced water supply, increased diseases such as malaria and diarrhea, air pollution and global warming. People who live around the forest must be given knowledge about how to protect the forests and biodiversity that are inside. People are willing if there are economic activities that can support their daily lives.
Since 2007, through the local NGO Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), the community was introduced to organic farming, sheep farming is also a community health program. The result is that the community no longer penetrates the forest and even contributes to replanting the forest, including durian trees, a favorite fruit of orangutans, increasing the well-being of the people has a good impact on improving health with reduced disease, infant and toddler deaths. So this program will provide results in the form of improving the welfare of the people around the forest, improving their health, replanting illegal logging areas and saving the preservation of the orangutans of Borneo.
In the second presentation, Andrew Winterborn delivered the topic “Captive Management of Nonhuman Primate” in the form of exposure to the principles of animal welfare in primate animal breeding and the importance of environmental enrichment programs to meet the basic needs of animals. 5 freedom principle and 5 Opportunity are the main principles in the management of maintenance and use of primate animals. He focused on aspects of the use of various equipment and facilities to improve animal welfare and refinement of blood collection procedures to make them less invasive and reduce animal distress.
Participants consisting of lecturers, researchers and students from IPB, University of Indonesia and Pakuan University showed enthusiasm during the event.
