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Rainforest hero to receive Honorary Doctorate
A rainforest saviour from the international political sphere will receive a special award tomorrow, Wednesday 20 April, when he attends the University of the Sunshine Coast’s 2011 Graduation Ceremony.
His Excellency Barnabas Suebu, The Governor of the Indonesian Province of Papua, The Republic of Indonesia, will receive an Honorary Doctorate from USC for his significant contribution to conservation and his sustained service to the Papuan community through educational links with local, national and international bodies.
Governor Suebu was listed in Time Magazine’s ‘Heroes of the Environment’ in 2007 and has won worldwide acclaim for implementing forest reserve systems that now protect more than half of Indonesia’s endemic species across 23 million hectares of rainforest.
“In establishing these reserves, Governor Suebu has led the preservation of the single largest stretch of continuous rainforest in the world,” USC Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill said.
Professor Hill said the Governor and the Papuan Provincial Government had signed an agreement with the University designed to achieve carbon forestry and landscape rehabilitation and restoration of degraded rainforest ecosystems.
The agreement also fosters reforms of teacher training in the province of Papua and development of e-learning strategies for universal access to education.
Some of these measures are already underway.
Governor Suebu will deliver the Graduation Address to a crowd of about 1,500 people in the USC Sports Stadium tomorrow evening (Wednesday 20 April).
Then on Thursday, the University of the Sunshine Coast will host a special Papuan Business Forum in Brisbane to enable the Papuan delegation – which comprises 23 people including provincial government ministers and journalists – to network with dozens of representatives from government, business, education and trade groups.
Media are welcome to attend the forum at 111 George Street from 10am to noon.
Governor Seubu will provide the keynote address: “Papua: A new frontier for trade and tourism – a model for sustainable green development with equity”.
Other speakers at this event will be Indonesian Ambassador Primo Alui Joeliante, Trade and Investment Queensland representative Bob Quinn, and USC’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for International and Quality Professor Robert Elliot.