Discovering the Tangkoko Nature Reserve

As part of the Lembeh Foundation's commitment to providing educational opportunities for our local villagers we were delighted to be able to organize a trip for the children to visit the Tangkoko Nature Reserve. In total we took 24 children from our neighboring village of Pintu Kota Kecil and they had a fantastic day out!

Taking the bus was all part of the adventure

The Tangkoko Nature Reserve is just a short trip from their home village, by boat and bus, but the children had not visited before as their families are not able to fund excursions of this type. Some of the children were even hesitant of traveling by bus as it is a lot different to sitting on the back of (or driving) a motorcycle, to which they are accustomed on Lembeh Island!

Children were divided into small groups and accompanied by a park ranger

The purpose of the trip was to educate the children about the incredible flora and fauna of North Sulawesi – and it was definitely a huge success! The children were divided into small groups and each group was accompanied by one of the Tangkoko Park Rangers who told them exciting stories about the local wildlife and their behaviors. The children were enthralled!

The North Sulawesi black macaque was one of the highlights for many children

During the walk through the park the children were fortunate enough to see a single black crested macaque up close, sleeping tarsier monkeys in the trees, two cuscus bears, flying lizards, numerous species of birds and butterflies and on the way back a large group of black macaques.

The children were lucky enough to spot two bear cuscus in the trees

After the walk through the park we headed to the beach which was a wonderful way to end the day as the children chatted excitedly about what they had seen and the stories they had been told. It seemed as though every child had picked a favorite animal and they were all immensely proud of their local wildlife and had developed a desire to protect it.

The tarsier is the provincial mascot of North Sulawesi

Another key focus of the Lembeh Foundation is sustainability and reducing the usage of single use plastics and so we were delighted to see that every child who attended brought a reusable water bottle and lunchbox with them – no single use plastic was in sight! It’s little moments like this that make us realize how far we have come through hard work and perseverance. A big thank you to everyone who has helped and donated to the Lembeh Foundation!

We ended the day at the beach for some play time before heading back to Lembeh

If you’d like to support Lembeh Foundation and our ongoing initiatives on Lembeh Island by making a donation, please contact us on info@LembehFoundation.org.

We will send you a donation form, and as we are a registered Indonesian Charity (Yayasan), once your donation is received we will also send you a tax form for claiming tax relief.

It was an educational treat for the children and a lot of fun too!

Thank you for reading - look out for our updates on FaceBook (please "Like" our page) and we hope to see you soon in Lembeh, North Sulawesi.