By: Natalie J. Tangkepayung

Jayapura - Today (20/3), at the Hiroshi Nature Lovers Club located at the foot of Mount Cycloops Sentani, WWF-Indonesia in collaboration with the Hiroshi Nature Lovers Club, Jayapura Regency Government, Jayapura Water Utility, Papua DPU Drinking Water Work Unit, Nestle Indonesia, PT Surya Mandiri Jaya Pratama and PT Bintang Toejoe, held a hiking race through the buffer zone of the Cycloops Nature Reserve.

The race, which was attended by 53 teams or 364 participants, was held to commemorate World Water Day on March 22 and World Forest Day on March 21. This competition also aims to remind the importance of the availability and management of water as a source of human life, as well as to promote a culture of preserving forests through the tree planting movement, especially in ecologically important areas such as the buffer of nature reserves.

Water is very important for the sustainability of living things. Therefore, it is very important for us to maintain the sustainability of water sources. Forests provide clean water that is needed by not only humans but all living things. The preservation of forests will ensure the security of water supplies as well as food and clothing sources for humans. The clean air we breathe every day also comes from forests.

The management of water from its sources is an important matter that needs to be considered, especially by people living in Jayapura City and Regency, because the lives of these communities are very dependent on the Cycloops Nature Reserve as their main source of water. Errors in the management of water sources such as the conversion of water catchment areas into settlements will cause flooding and erosion that can endanger human life itself. In addition, the loss of trees in what was once natural forest - especially in areas with steep slopes - will cause erosion that will have a detrimental impact on the wider ecosystem, such as sedimentation at the mouths of rivers in Lake Sentani and in coastal areas around Jayapura.

Welcoming World Water Day and World Forest Day this year, WWF-Indonesia held a week of environmental education activities in Papua, which began in early March 2014, through a School Hygiene Competition at the Elementary School Level in Jayapura Regency - attended by 47 elementary schools in 3 districts. In addition, these educational activities are also carried out through public campaigns in electronic and print media for Jayapura City and Regency areas - to be closed with a live interactive dialogue broadcast on Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) Station on March 22, 2014.

Participants of the cross-country race were released in turn by the Head of the Jayapura Regency Forestry Service, Ir. Nataniel Mebri; WWF-Indonesia's Papua Regional Director, Benja Mambai; Chairman of the Nature Lovers Club, Hiroshi Marchel Suebu; and sponsors supporting this event from Nestle Indonesia, PT Surya Mandiri Jaya Pratama and representatives of PT Bintang Toejoe. Hiking participants were released from Hiroshi's CPA location, then walked along the buffer zone of the Cycloops Nature Reserve while planting 350 tree seedlings that had been prepared along 5 check points and back to finish at Hiroshi's CPA. The tree seedlings planted were Crown of God (Phaleria macrocarpa), White Teak (Gmelia arborea) and Trembesi (Albizia saman). The winner of the cross-country competition was the IS Kijne Jayapura Theological College who was entitled to a prize money of IDR 5 million and a trophy, certificate of appreciation and memento from WWF-Indonesia.

On this occasion, WWF-Indonesia also socialized the NewTrees Program, which is a tree seedling planting program for the restoration of forest areas and critical areas supported by GeoTagging technology, where tree seedlings planted by cross-country participants will be visually documented and taken coordinates, so that their growth can be monitored online with the help of Google Earth.