Save West Papua - My Third Home

Samantha Lee
Nov 27, 2018
2 min read

West Papua is my third home.

“The most biodiverse region on Earth, home to more than 1800 species of fish, three quarters of the world’s hard corals, the world’s largest mangrove forest, and the world’s 2nd largest rainforest, much of which is completely unexplored. New species are found regularly throughout this vastly rich centre of life on Earth.”

-Shawn Heinrichs

A month ago, my captain and I flew a Conservation International Team around West Papua. Their job was to present their new film, Provinsi Konservasi, to audiences across the province on their grand-scale outdoor cinema. (Link below!)

They had 900kgs of equipment including a variety of cameras, outdoor cinema screens, lots of computers and films, stage lights, and so on. We took all the seats out the plane to put the equipment in the plane and the crew.

It was an honour for me to fly the team and to be part of their projects by flying them safely to small villages for the events.

It is easy to see the locals are not yet well educated enough to value what they have from mother nature. However, I believe that education is the most powerful weapon. The team was absolutely brilliant to use their skills and talents to show how beautiful the land is that we are living in and how to protect West Papua.

A huge thanks to Shawn Heinrichs @shawnheinrichs and Candace @candace.crespi and Conservation International team.

Together we are stronger - WEST PAPUA NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW.