By: Natalia Trita Agnika

One afternoon in early August, the faint sound of children singing cheerfully could be heard coming from the Subayang River. Not long after, a piyau (a term for a small wooden boat -Red) docked at WWF-Indonesia's Subayang Field Station in Riau's Rimbang Baling region. From the top of the piyau, you can see the happy faces of elementary school children. They quickly took off their life jackets and climbed down from the piyau to the Subayang Freshwater Laboratory, accompanied by two facilitators from WWF-Indonesia's Riau Program.

The ten children from Tanjung Belit Village entered the library located on the second floor of the Subayang Freshwater Laboratory. The interior of the library is dominated by cheerful yellow and beautiful green colors. The floor is like a stretch of green grass that makes children feel at home reading. On the bookshelves, neatly lined up a collection of donated books from HSBC, Mizan CEO, and Weber Shandwick. There are knowledge books, novels, comics, dictionaries, storybooks, to WWF-Indonesia's Living Planet Magazine. Each child takes a book according to their interests. "Wow, I want to go to the Eiffel Tower in Paris," exclaimed Helmi who had just read the book Around the World Europe Series.

The presence of several students from SD 002 Tanjung Belit in the library of the Subayang Freshwater Laboratory was made possible thanks to a new piyau who picked them up and sent them back to their home villages. The Piyau was the result of public donations that had been collected through kitabisa.com/doubletigers on Global Tiger Day 2016 ago.

When not being used for WWF-Indonesia's operational activities in the Subayang area, the piyau is transformed into a floating library that travels along the river and brings book collections to villages along the Subayang River. Armed with containers of books, facilitators from WWF would visit villages and stop by. Such was the case on a sunny afternoon in early August when the floating library stopped by Tanjung Belit Village. As soon as the container was unloaded from the piyau, children rushed to pick out books. Rafselia Novalina, Rimbang Baling Tiger-Habitat Conservation Program Support Officer WWWF-Indonesia closed the visit by reading a storybook in English. Farhan, Reva, Roza, and Patirul listened carefully. Occasionally they were asked about the meaning of the vocabulary in Indonesian.

"In its implementation, this floating library will collaborate with the IMBAU consortium consisting of WWF-Indonesia (specifically for the protection of Sumatran Tiger habitat, YAPEKA (Perkumpulan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat dan Pendidikan Konservasi Alam) which specializes in renewable energy alternatives in the villages in Subayang, and INDECON (Indonesia Ecotourism Network) which specializes in ecotourism in this area. In a month, there will be two or three activities in the village. And for three days in each village, there will be activities carried out by IMBAU," Rafselia explained.

Through activities that will target villages along the Subayang River, it is hoped that children and the community can be more open-minded by reading books. In addition, with various activities carried out in the villages, it is hoped that they can increasingly love and protect the nature of Rimbang Baling.

Thank you for this piyau. May it contribute positively to a sustainable Earth!