The funding program carried out by the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) Sumatra for the ninth grant cycle will end in 2024. Several partners working in the Jambi Province area, such as Wahana Mitra Mandiri (WMM), FKT Gadjah Mada University, and the Indonesian Bird Consortium have a lot of field experience and stories that need to be conveyed to the general public. Apart from that, the public also needs to know about the conservation work they have carried out, thereby providing new insight into the latest research and solutions that can be developed.

Based on this, Pundi Sumatra as the Central Regional Facilitator (faswil) for TFCA Sumatra held a talk show about conservation on August 31 2023. The activity entitled "Saving Biodiversity: Joint Efforts in Conservation of Wildlife and Living Space" was held at the 6th Floor Auditorium of the Muhammadiyah University, Jambi.

Partners who work in the Jambi area, were present as speakers in front of students and research lecturers from various universities in the city of Jambi. Apart from that, BKSDA Jambi as a stakeholder was also a speaker at the Talkshow. In his delivery, Jefri as the Jambi BKSDA Forest Police Coordinator told about the Government's Role in Conservation in Jambi Province.

"There are three pillars of conservation that we implement, namely protection, preservation and utilization," said Jefri. He also explained that there are 3 spatial divisions according to Law Number 41 of 1999, namely Conservation Forest Areas, Production and Protected Forest Areas, and Non-Forest Areas (APL). Furthermore, Jefri also explained that of the 2,124,481.75 Ha of forest area in Jambi Province, 58.5% included Production Forest, 33% Conservation Area, 8% Protected Forest, and 0.5% was production forest area that could be converted .

Apart from talking about forest areas, Jefri also talked about trends in handling negative interactions that occur between animals and humans. In 2022, there will be a decrease in negative interactions between Sumatran elephants and humans. However, the opposite happened to the Sumatran tiger species which actually experienced an increase. This is one of the challenges that needs to be faced together regarding awareness and active participation of local communities for the preservation of biodiversity.

"The essence of the solution is strengthening the capacity and strengthening the economy of the communities around the conservation area. "If they are economically independent and aware of sharing living space, there will no longer be any fuss with animals," he said.

Apart from that, Irfan Nurarifin as the project coordinator and the fauna research team from the Indonesian Bird Consortium represented PT REKI to attend and tell about the rescue of Sumatran elephants in the Harapan Forest landscape. Through the support of TFCA Sumatra, PT REKI and its consortium have carried out several efforts to save elephant living spaces, including monitoring the presence of elephants, involving the community in KMG mitigation, and collecting ecological data on elephants.

"As of July this year, the monitoring we have carried out has covered an area of around 147 hectares," said Irfan. The monitoring activities carried out by the patrol team are usually by searching for signs of elephants such as footprints and elephant dung. conducting elephant food surveys, checking soil mineral content, and reducing potential threats (nail mines). In line with what was previously conveyed by the BKSDA, Irfan also agreed that community participation in efforts to save these animals cannot be taken lightly. Together with the community in Pemusiran Village and Sepintun Village, this Consortium also provides community assistance by creating a citronella demonstration plot and establishing a KMG task force.

Wahana Mitra Mandiri (WMM) also said that work together with the community is very necessary in reducing negative interactions between Sumatran tigers in the Berbak National Park area. WMM focuses on working in buffer villages, namely Air Hitam Village and Remau Baku Tuo Village, East Tanjung Jabung Regency. Together with the established mitigation group, they became the first spearheads when conflict occurred in their village.

In addition to the efforts made by WMM partners and the Indonesian Bird Consortium, the UGM FKT Research Team, represented by Denis as coordinator, had the opportunity to tell about the Bioacoustic-based Early Warning System tool that they are currently developing. This tool will be able to detect the presence of elephants through the sounds produced by the elephants.

"The development of sound-based tools has actually been carried out a lot in the field of conservation, but no one has yet detected the presence of elephants through sound," said Dennis.

Conservation efforts through the lens of educators are also seen as a way to raise students' awareness of the environment. Hendra Kurniawan as Chancellor of the Muhammadiyah University of Jambi (UMJ) also served as a speaker. In the world of education, Conservation Education has also become a trend that is always involved in every lesson to increase people's knowledge, skills and awareness about environmental values and environmental issues which can ultimately move people to play an active role in environmental conservation and safety efforts.

"We now have an independent learning program, as well as internships, all of which can be converted into SKS (semester credit units). "Students who are active outside don't need to be afraid, as long as the activity is beneficial for themselves and the environment," he said at the end of the discussion.