ProFauna Campaigns Wildlife Protection for Women

The wildlife and forest protection organization, ProFauna Indonesia, holds unique campaigns in big cities in Indonesia to increase the awareness of the public, especially for women, to care for wildlife. In the "Being Beautiful without Killing Wildlife" campaign, ProFauna invites the women not to buy jewelry or souvenirs made from wildlife body parts. The wildlife part which is usually used to make jewelry or souvenirs is the sea turtle shell.

According to ProFauna's surveys, the locations selling the jewelry and souvenirs made from sea turtle shell include Bali, Yogyakarta, Banyuwangi, Pangandaran, and Jakarta. The illegal sea turtle shell jewelry and souvenirs are usually in the forms of bracelet, necklace, hand fan, jewelry box, and earrings. The biggest consumers of these products are women.

The campaigns are held in the crowd center of the big cities that sell the souvenirs made from wildlife body parts. In the campaigns, ProFauna activists consisting of beautiful ladies stretch a banner saying "Being Beautiful without Killing Wildlife". ProFauna Indonesia Chairman, Rosek Nursahid, stated, "It is cruel to beautify yourself by killing wildlife because wearing sea turtle shell jewelry is the same with killing the sea turtle".

One of the campaigns which was held in Malang City on 26 April 2012, ProFauna activists gained big attention from the public and media. Not to mention that the activists are some beautiful ladies inviting the public to care for wildlife protection in Indonesia.

The trade of sea turtle shell souvenirs and jewelry violates the Indonesian law. According to the Wildlife Act number 5 year 1990 concerning the Conservation of the Natural Resources and the Ecosystem, offenders are liable to a maximum of five year prison term and a maximum of 100 millions Indonesia Rupiah fine. In the campaigns, ProFauna also invites the public not to buy the protected and rare wildlife like parrots, eagles, primates, etc. By not buying the protected wildlife, it will help stopping the illegal wildlife trade because more than 95% of the traded wildlife are wild caught instead of captive bred.

With the population of Indonesian women which is more than 127 millions, women roles in wildlife protection is important. Furthermore, Indonesian women are the care takers of the children and families. Therefore, ProFauna considers that Indonesian women play important role in educating the children to care for wildlife protection in the country.