Boxgate

In the field in a rural part of Aceh Province where we've got a project focusing on community-led protection and management of village forests (hutan desa). Three of us who are not Indonesia-based but who are supporting this project needed to see the site to understand the geography and the context.

A useful trip to lodge some details in the brain regarding this project, which has until now been learnt from reading documents and asking probing questions in offices many miles away.

On the final afternoon, good mood soured by one of the team throwing a box of food waste and water bottles into the river we'd just been lunching next to. Cue thoughts of 'what's the point of it all', as although this project is showing benefits, small progress in environmental protection can be negated by needless actions. 

Obviously giving greater protection to thousands of hectares of forest - one of the goals here - is worth more in the long run, but I think all people working in conservation should be ambassadors for all aspects of protecting the environment and as part of an international organisation that should supersede whatever cultural conditions usually make littering acceptable in Indonesia.