Let’s meet the field coordinator of the Elephant Response Unit in Way Kambas National Park, Pak Nazaruddin. He is one of many great people behind the ERU camps’ sustainability.
Pak Nazaruddin first joined the Way Kambas National Park (WKNP) as a mahout in 1984, when the first Elephant Training was established by the Indonesian government and has been deeply in love with elephants and the protection of the WKNP ever since. He was involved in the establishment of the ERU program in 2010 since its beginning.
As field coordinator, he is responsible for the whole activities in ERU, reporting, administration and coordination with multi-party and also train the team and elephants for health and therapy purposes.
According to his confession, he admits that his love for the wildlife world cannot be explained in words and the elephants are part of his family.
From our short interview, Pak Nazaruddin did mention that there are lots of challenges as a field coordinator. One of them is to maintain the team discipline. He also mentioned about how to deal with the communities affected by human-elephant’s conflict, as well as coordinating and collaborating with the local law enforcement authorities. Lastly, he mentioned his concerns about funds needed for the ongoing operation of the ERU program, raised by CSNC form with multiple donors.
Before we ended the interview, he expressed his hope that in the future, that the ERU program keeps improving and the future generations will love their jobs as mahouts, voice their concerns and engage for sustainable conservation in the future.
