The OuTrop education team was formally established in 2002, under the direction of Angela Benton- Browne. Since its inception, it has been working with the CIMTROP education team and other Indonesian education NGO's, on both adult and children's education awareness programmes.

The OuTrop Education team has developed a travelling workshop which visits local villages in the region. Themes such as the rarity and global significance of Peatlands are covered, along with topics on a more grass roots level including the special status of the Sebangau ecosystem and its endangered inhabitants - the Orang-utan. Education materials focus on the functions, importance and fragility of peat swamp forest ecosystems and highlighting the relationship between humans and their environment.

The team spend a week moving throughout the school within each village involving the children in role plays, demonstrations, writing poems, creating awareness posters and other activities. The work the children produce is displayed through the week. The workshop culminates in a quiz and a show created and presented by the children for the rest of the village. This involves recitals of songs and poems they have written, displays of art and finally the Quiz, which shows their understanding of the issues that they have come into contact with. The finale is the 'Puppet show', using puppets (orang-utans, gibbons, hornbills, trees and others) and set provided by the team. The children create their own story about the lives of the puppets in today's rainforest, the problems that they face and how they themselves see that these problems can be tackled.

The workshops prompt discussions with both adults and children about how such issues directly affect their lives, and how they in turn influence them. For example, the fires prevention workshops considers current efforts for fire prevention and other long term solutions such as land rehabilitation and closure of large unused drainage canals. The fire prevention workshop is carried out in conjunction with a local NGO - YCI.

To get a fuller idea of the community based education programme that our Education team are involved, click here.

The Education programme has produced a paper on their fire awareness programme that appeared in the Journal of Tropical Peatlands. To read the paper click here.