History

While spending a year working in Jember as a private teacher in 2007, Cornelia Heimgartner spent a lot of time out in nature and developed a passion for the beauty of the green and lush scenery and the locals in East Java. There is hardly any tourism in this region and she with her white skin was often stared at by locals with a smile and a warm welcome in their eyes.

In some parts, especially in the villages, the region is very poor and the unemployment rate very high. The hard working villagers earn only a few thousand Rupias every day which is often not enough to make a living and pay for the education of their children.

Sadly enough a lot of the beautiful and ecologically important Jungle regions have already been destroyed by illegal logging as well as government-run.plantations. Often, trees are chopped down because either the money earned by selling the wood is needed to make a living or because the locals don’t know enough about the importance of the Ecosystem.

In long conversations with local people about their needs concerning nature, the idea was born to start a project that will help the region to develop in Eco Tourism. We are educating villagers to become guides, porters and handicraft makers. In the long run, we will be able to increase the income of some of the villagers as well as to make them aware about the sensitive balance and the beauty of the Tropical Rainforest. Through English courses, orienteering training sessions, herbal medicine, wildlife and first aid, their level of education will increase.

In May 2007 the foundation stone was laid to start the project TAMAN HIDUP. The Swiss Travel & Outdoor Store TRANSA agreed to generously support our idea in means of providing us with high quality trekking gear. The KfE (Komission für Entwicklungsfragen) of the University and ETH Zürich agreed to support us with a generous financial fund to set up our project.

In July 2007 we set up an office place in Jember from where most of this work can be done. So far all the work that has been accomplished has been done in volunteer work.