Early March 2020, we had 7 students from Tokyo University visit Bali to learn about sustainability issues faced by this beautiful island. They are Oka Shunsuke, Masato Suzuki, Motohashi Tomohiro, Yokoe Kirara, Tomizawa Ikumi, Uozomi Ryosuke, Li Ziqing, and Takanashi Hiroki. Through small research projects, they were given two main topics that are waste management and agriculture.
Researching waste management and agriculture
They worked together in two teams to observe and understand the waste management and agricultural system in Bali. They met and spoke with the locals to gather data and information they needed for their projects.
Masato Suzuki from the agriculture team shared his experience during the short course “I was surprised by the kindness of Balinese people. They spent a lot of their time to interview. There are also a lot of stakeholders in agriculture, from landowner, buyer and the system is also very complicated” he said. “Some villages are developing some great systems and I think it is a good solution to all villages of Bali,” Ziqing added.
In terms of research, Ikumi from Waste Management Team also shared her experiences and tips. “It is important to be logical on how you are progressing your research and for the interview, we always get something we did not know and did not expect so it is important to be able to be flexible with the information you got,” said Ikumi.
Exploring Balinese Culture
Besides conducting research, they also got the chance to experience some of the Balinese culture, the Mekotek Festival in Munggu Village. You can find this event every Kuningan (twice a year) in this village!
To support this event, the students took their trash bags and started picking up plastic waste around the festival. By the end of the program, each team presented their analysis, lessons learned, and shared their creative ideas on how to solve those problems. We believe the young generations like them can give an impactful contribution to our environment. Do you want to know more about their journey in Bali? Watch the video on our YouTube: su-re co.
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