Mission to Davao City, the PHILIPPINES

In July 2008, I was invited to attend the annual APFED meetings. This time the venue was in Davao city of Mindanao province, the Philippines. The plane from Manila took around an hour, and I was pleased to see the wonderful view of Davao from above, just before landing. It was indeed a beautiful afternoon, around 4 pm or so - my favourite time of the day.


The meetings were intensed 2-days, in which I had to delivered presentations on behalf of UNEP. It really was a good opportunity for me to again network with experts, people from the Ministries of Environment (and several Ministers), as well as NGO representatives from Asia and the Pacific region.

Somehow while I was there, some people mistakenly thought that I was a Philippino. Once they talk to me in Tagalog, I would respond, "sorry, I'm not a Philippino" - to their surprise. And later on they'd apologize, saying "but you look like a Philippino," which I would respond, "yes, and you yourself look like an Indonesian." That usually would break the ice. ;)

And then there was a representative from IUCN who said to me, "at first I thought that you were a Philippino," he added, "but after hearing your presentation, I knew at once that you are not. So which country are you from?"

Anyway, after the whole 2-days meeting, IGES had the courtesy to provide participants to join the field visits. That was in fact also an opportunity to talk to the person next to you on the tour bus about things that are not necessarily related with work. It made the connection more humane and personal, which I like better.

In front of the tour bus, left to right: Henk Verbeek (UNEP Senior Admin Officer), me, Ikuyo Kikusawa (IGES), Prof. Emil Salim and his wife, Mr. Hiroshi Nishimiya (used to be my boss at UNEP as Deputy Regional Director, currently holding position as IGES' Deputy Programme Management Office), and the representative of Ministry of Environment, Japan.


With Prof. Emil Salim, at the Eagles Conservation centre of Davao city. Prof. Salim is one of the APFED members, the only delegate from Indonesia, and we are pleased to have him on board.

A little observation on Prof. Emil Salim. He is considered as a world-renowned, awards-winning expert on environmental sustainable development. He is always active during the discussion sessions, with his point of emphasis on poverty reduction. He always puts forward the importance of the policy makers to take into account measures on poverty reduction, in front of the international audience before him. He is the former Minister of Environment, and is currently holding a position as member of the Advisory Council to the Indonesian President. I have only learned about him in my elementary school text books, and so grateful to have the chance to meet him in person at international fora like this.