Farwiza Farhan is the winner of the 2016 Whitley Awards, she works at the Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on earth where four gigantic beasts--orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinos still roam the land. After graduating with a master’s degree from the University of Queensland, in 2012 Wiza Co-founded Hutan, Alam, dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA) an NGO that empowers local leaders and organizations in policymaking to build a sustainable Aceh socially, environmentally, and financially. As a born-and-raised Acehnese, she saw how the ecosystem in her area is constantly threatened: Forest fire from agriculture land opening, to massive infrastructures development projects such as road network and hydroelectric power plant, at
the same time understand the importance and needs of local community to have access and infrastructure, after the area suffered the tsunami and decades-long conflict.
In this talk, she elaborates on how development and conservation are actually partners and can co-exist just like human society and nature. In fact, she argues that the involvement of the local community is crucial for conservation effort to thrive and our participation matters.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
