On October 13th, a 28-person team of cave divers, dry cavers, scientists, scholars, media professionals, and Muna collaborators will join forces in Pulau Muna, South Sulawesi, Indonesia for what has been dubbed as “Expedition Buteng,” according to an announcement from Fourth Element.
The expedition is run and fronted by Fourth Element’s Head of Sales Rannva Jormundsson as well as Fourth Element ambassador and Nixie Expeditions Co-founder Maria Bollerup.
During their month in the under-explored island of Pulau Muna, the expedition has three goals, according to a Fourth Element Instagram post:
“1) To map the unexplored freshwater aquifer and associated dry cave passages as far as possible
“2) To collaborate with scholars and scientists from Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta to uncover new knowledge about the hydrological, geomorphological, speleological and eDNA makeup of the cave system
“3) To work with Indigenous Muna communities to better understand and articulate their cultural relationship with, and needs surrounding, water in support of a future UNESCO Geopark application to protect the area as a cultural-natural treasure.”