Meet Dr. David E. Parry, the Soil Scientist, Environmental Development Consultant and Curator who has been a resident of Jakarta since 1980. So David, what exactly do you do and how long have you been a resident of Indonesia? I am a soil scientist and remote sensing expert by training which means that I map [...]

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The recent flooding followed by the inevitable Jakarta traffic grid-lock must make us look back wistfully to a time when Jakarta really was a big village and the commute to the office was not something to be dreaded. We need to go back to the 1970s for such luxury, but even then urban Jakarta had [...]

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The health of the Earth’s environment and the sustainable management of its organic (carbon-based) and non-organic (non-carbon-based) resources, is at or very near the top of most governments’ political agenda. This has to be good for mankind and for the planet but is it delivering the kinds of changes that need to be made if [...]

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When writing about aid projects words like ‘uplifting’, ‘inspirational’ or ‘downright bloody fantastic’ rarely, if ever, enter the vocabulary of cynical development consultants. That maxim held true until I visited the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) located on the remote and inhospitable northeastern slopes of Mount Agung and Mount Abang in Bali. The project is [...]

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In 1994 there were an estimated 1.38 million vehicles (cars, motorcycles, lorries and buses) in Jakarta; 27 years later in 2011 the total number of vehicles is estimated to have risen eight-fold to 11.3 million and yet, believe it or not, air pollution measured by any internationally recognised index (TSP – total suspended particulates, PM10 [...]

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