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A Torajan Pastor Gets Environmental Award from Government

Arfi Bambani
Pastor Rasely Sinampe from Torajan Church
Pastor Rasely Sinampe from Torajan Church

TheIndonesia.id - The Ministry of Forestry and Environment awarded the Kalpataru award to Rasely Sinampe, a pastor of a Christian church in Toraja. The award is based on a ministry decree number SK.533/MENLHK/PSKL/PSL.3/5/2002 regarding the recipients of the 2022 Kalpataru award signed by the Director General of Social Forestry and Environmental Partnership Bambang Supriyanto.

Sinampe was declared as one of 10 recipients of the Kalpataru Award in the category of the environmental coach. This is the third time in a row that South Sulawesi residents have received Kalpataru.

"That means, we are hat-trick receiving Kalpataru from the Ministry of the Environment," said the Head of Environmental Management and Capacity Building, Andi Baso Pangeran, Saturday, June 4, 2022.

Pastor Rasely Sinampe became a representative from South Sulawesi as a nominee for the 2022 Kalpataru award for the coach category.

Kabarmakassar.com reported that Pastor Sinampe was included in the coach category for his services in preserving the environment with hundreds of church members, as well as educating organic farming for farmer groups, adults, and young people. When contacted via his cell phone during the nomination, the Pastor from the Toraja Church said he was happy to be a nominee for the Kalpataru award.

He said this was extraordinary thanks to the support from the local government, the Synod Working Board (BPS), and also from the Toraja people.

He said this was all starting from his thesis with the title Contextual Ecological Mission in North Toraja for his master's study in Theology Postgraduate program at the Kalimantan Evangelical Church Theology College Banjarmasin. He fell in love with preserving the environment.

In a thick thesis that was written in 2012, there is a spiritual turmoil in it that continues to disturb his mind. "So my thesis at that time, always bothered my mind, where I should not just write and convey to people. But this thesis is contained in how I see the impact of environmental damage, there I also take action or advocate for the impact environmental damage, that's where I started looking for plant seeds from Toraja, I started trying to preserve them," he said.

When serving church congregations, he always brings seeds and distributes them to members of the congregation for free, both tree and vegetable seeds. Sinampe's pastor was nicknamed the "California Pastor" by the Chair of the Synod in 2015 during the Pastor's Convention. The name California refers to the seeds of the California papaya, a popular papaya variety name in Indonesia.

"So the story is that there was a Pastor's convention, I brought 1,500 papaya seeds packaged in a small plastic bag. I was assisted by my son at that time, from there they were distributed to convention participants. The first to call me the "California Pastor" was the Chairperson of the Synod, which was in 2015 at the convention at the Misiliana Hotel," he said.

Currently, Pastor Sinampe is still active at the Talulolona Foundation in the development of plant conservation. He spends his time tending the plants in an area of approximately 4,000 meters.

Tag # kalpataru award to rasely sinampe # environmental award to pastor # indonesia environmental # indonesia biodiversity # south sulawesi # toraja

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