Bacan Queen Joins PROFAUNA in Educating Students about Parrot Protection

Protection of Forest & Fauna (PROFAUNA) North Maluku Representatives has been actively conducting education visits to schools in Ternate, from elementary schools to high schools. During the visits, PROFAUNA's activists discuss issues related to parrot protection in North Maluku. Among the visits was the one at SMP Islam 1 Ternate on Thursday (2/2).

PROFAUNA's visit to the schools was special because Ma Eka, the Queen of Bacan, came along as the educator. Around 40 students were very excited knowing PROFAUNA and the Queen of Bacan were coming to their school.

Not only about parrot protection, the discussion also took up about how Islam (as the major religion in Ternate) is very concerned about animals. The topic was delivered by PROFAUNA's activist, Bahar Hamanur, in an engaging manner.

"Why aren't we allowed to keep parrots at home?" asked Jainuri, one of the students, at the end of PROFAUNA's presentation.

Bahar Hamanur, who happens to be a birdwatching ecotourism guide, explained that by keeping parrots at home as pets means we support parrot poaching because the traded parots are all captured from the wild.

"If poachers keep capturing parrots, eventually they wil become extinct," said Bahar.

"It will be a huge disadvantage for us because we will lose the potential to develop birdwatching ecotourism. Ecotourism could bring economic profit for local people," added Ekawaty Ka'aba, the coordinator of  PROFAUNA North Maluku.

The Queen chipped in by elaborating further that parrot protection effort takes active participation from everybody, including the youngsters as the country's future generation.