Taking Alamsyah – Deede Couple Back to the Forest
Garut - "We hope that you can hunting prey in the forest, live in harmony, breed and enliven forest ecosystem," said VP CSR and SMEPP Pertamina Agus Mashud, just before release Alamsyah and Deede in Hutan Kamojang Area, samarang, Garut, on Thursday evening (19/10).
The release of the eagles is conducted by VP CSR SMEPP Agus Mashud together with GM PGE Area Kamojang Wawan Darmawan and Pertamina board of management, by opening the cage in Kamojang forest area.
The tradition of delivering messages are done so the eagles that are released will not return to Kamojang Eagle Conservation Center (PKEK), where the eagles have gone through rehabilitation for more than one year.
Alamsyah (male) and Deede (female) is a mature snake eagle couple (Spilornis Cheela) that have finished rehabilitation period, so it’s worth releasing to the wild.
Alamsyah, the eagle that was submitted voluntarily by the people of Desa Laksana, Ibun, Bandung district on 6 march 2016. While, Deede is a confiscated eagle of the Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) Tasikmalaya on 19 October 2016. Both of them are turned to PKEK for rehabilitation.
PKEK Operational Manager Zaini said that the eagle rehabilitation proses begins with medical check-up to ensure its health, when the eagle first received.
During rehabilitation period, the eagles are taught various activities to restore their natural instincts such as hunting skill, fly and other skills so that the eagles can survive in wildlife. Zaini added, this release will be different from the previous release.
The eagle that was released from the early stage has been mated and is expected that they can mate in its wild nature so they can increase the population of snake eagles.
With the release of two eagles, there are 22 eagles in total that has been released to wildlife by PKEK as the largest eagle conservation center in Indonesia with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) standard.
PKEK, established through environmental CSR program distributed by Pertamina through its subsidiary PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) Area Kamojang in collaboration with BBKSDA West Java, & Forum Raptor Indonesia. VP CSR and SMEPP Pertamina Agus Mashud stated that Pertamina has invested 5 billion rupiahs for this program since 2014.
Investment for biodiversity sustainability consist of Eagle Conservation Center infrastructure enhancement, such as: Information Center, Working Place, Quarantine Cage, Observatory Cage, Rehabilitation Cage, Flight Training Cage, and Education Display Cage.
"With this release, we hope that eagle ecosystem in its natural habitat can be preserved. We also ask for those who are still keep the eagle to submit them to Kamojang Eagle Conservation Center," he explained.Since its establishment in 2015, PKEK has rehabilitated 119 eagles, where 25 is submitted by community.