Protecting Nature Through Bird Watching Activities

Rahmadiyono Widodo, also known as Yono, started his activities in the area of ​​environmental conservation since he became familiar with UNY's Bionic bird watcher group in 2013. The activities that followed were routine bird watching, research and conservation education for children through the bird watching for kids scheme. The results of the research he and his friends did were routinely presented at the National Conference on Bird Researchers and Observers in Indonesia (KNPPBI) from 2015 to 2018. At the end of 2016, he was entrusted as the coordinator of the Jogja Bird Watchers Association or PPBJ.

Besides being active in bird watching, in 2015 he began participating in mangrove planting and monitoring activities, especially in the Pasir Mendit area of ​​Jangkaran Village, Kulon Progo Regency. In 2016 he became acquainted with the KEHATI Foundation's Biodiversity Warriors (BW) community and participated in the Biodiversity Warriors Journey activity in the same year. Armed with the knowledge gained from these activities, he compiled bird and mangrove observation data in the Sand Mendit area that he had from 2015-2018 into products such as posters, leaflets, and bird watching manuals. He arranged the product because he saw the potential of the area that was visited by tourists, but lacked in the aspect of knowledge transfer, especially biodiversity in the area. It is expected that with these products, tourists who visit not only enjoy enjoying the natural scenery but also gain additional insights about biodiversity in the Pasir Mendit mangrove area. In this activity, he was assisted by his friends from KPB Bionic UNY, the Wanatirta Tourism Group, and the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education as funders.

Together with PPBJ members, Yono is assisting government parties such as the Mount Merapi National Park in the Monitoring of Java's Eagle in 2017 in Klaten and 2018 in Sleman. In addition, it also assisted the Yogyakarta Natural Resources Conservation Agency in carrying out several activities, namely (1) Monitoring of Bird Trade in Yogyakarta in 2017 and 2018, (2) Release and Monitoring of Raptor Birds in 2018 and 2019, (3) Monitoring of Migrant Birds on Coastal Yogyakarta in 2017-2019. In 2017 he was also involved in the Biodiversity Inventory Team for the initial study of the construction of the New Yogyakarta International Airport in Kulon Progo.

Currently Yono is a teacher at a secondary school in Yogyakarta. At school, he also introduced biodiversity to his students both through pictures and videos or through simple observations on the school grounds. Despite teaching, he is still active in routine bird watching and other activities organized by PPBJ. It also still takes the time to write about biodiversity, especially birds.