Pungky Nanda Pratama (Pungky) is a passionate naturalist, environmentalist and educator who firmly believes in educating younger generations residing in high deforestation areas with human-wildlife conflict. Pungku graduated from the Diponegoro University, Central Java Indonesia with a degree in Fisheries and Marine Science.
Since 2013, Pungky has been actively involved in conservation efforts relating to marine and aquatic life, from mangrove and wetland conservation and a sea turtle rescue project in Java as a Volunteer and Field Assistant. In 2015, Pungky worked with the Orangutan Protection Project as Field Assistant. In 2016, he worked in a local non-governmental organisation as Environmental Educator and is concurrently working with the Indonesian government and local communities on the collection and analysis of data of biodiversity in understudied aresa as part of the biodiversity protection programme in South Sumatra.
In 2017, Pungky spearheaded an Environmental Education Programme, The Jungle Library Book Project with his colleague to raise awareness of environmental issues and to instil the right values and mindsets of young generations residing in areas with highly deforestation with human-wildlife conflict at the border of Isau-Isau Wildlife Reserve, South Sumatra. This is done through the introduction of an experiential Environmental Education syllabus created based from teaching experience, community condition and cultural heritage. The Jungle Library Project provides dynamic lessons which highlights five key topics including Forests, Rivers, Endangered and Protected Animals, Plastic Pollution and Human-Wildlife Conflict. 70% of the programme is conducted outdoors while the remaining 30% is conducted indoors.
In the same year, Pungky also collaborated with the government agency, Natural Resources Conservation Agency of South Sumatra Region II SKW II, BKSDA Sumatra Selatan) to kickstart a new programme, Flora Rescue Project.
The project focuses on rescuing flora from destroyed land and those in unprotected areas across South Sumatra thereby propagating and releasing these endangered and protected species or potential flora. Through these efforts, the project hopes to raise the population of native flora in the wild and to educate local people about native flora and botany.
In 2018, Pungky launched a conservation project,
The Sumatra Camera Trap Project to monitor and record animal diversity within the Isau-Isau Wildlife Reserve, one of un-researched and understudied area in collaboration with government agency, Natural Resources Conservation Agency of South Sumatra Region II (SKW II, BKSDA Sumatra Selatan. The project aims to promote Isau-Isau Wildlife Reserve as an essential and a biodiversity hotspot in Indonesia and the data collected serves as useful learning materials for SNBC’s educational programmes.
