By Annisa Ruzuar & Dyah Ekarini

Science Film Festival has been held in twelve cities in Indonesia. No less than 27,000 visitors attended the regional festival which this time took the theme of forests. This theme was deliberately chosen because 2011 was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Forests. "WWF sees this momentum as a good opportunity, not only to increase young people's awareness of nature and forest conservation, but also to motivate them to become the motor of change for the environment around them, starting from themselves," explained Devy Suradji, Marketing Director of WWF-Indonesia in a press conference at Goethe Haus, Jakarta (10/11). WWF-Indonesia itself became a co-host in three cities: Pontianak, Yogyakarta and Jayapura.

The festival opened in Jakarta last November 16 and Pontianak became the second city to screen the Science Film Festival 2011. No less than 1100 children from 24 schools in Pontianak attended the screenings that took place from November 17-19, 2011. In the opening of the event, Ismu Wijaya who represented the West Kalimantan program office invited the students to learn from the surrounding nature, "We are lucky to be blessed with a rich nature and can learn a lot from our surroundings. Nature has given us so much, it's time to ask what can we contribute back to nature?" Various answers were given by the students, some answered that they would plant trees in their yards and others promised to keep the river clean in the surrounding area.

A representative from the Cultural Department of the German Embassy, Matthias Glascke, was a guest on the second day of SFF Pontianak. "I am very happy to see the enthusiasm of the children in answering questions and participating in scientific practices", he said after the first session of the movie screening. The event, held in collaboration with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Pontianak, was also accompanied by a photo exhibition Panda Click! with the theme of the environment and culture of West Kalimantan.

Science Film Festival Yogyakarta was held at CCF (French Indonesian Institute - LIP) Yogyakarta on November 29 and 30, 2011. There were around 200 festival goers who were mostly students from prominent elementary schools in Yogyakarta such as: SD Tumbuh 1 & 2, SDK Dioscece, Yogyakarta International School and children from homeschooling.

For this Science Film Festival in Yogyakarta, WWF participated by installing a booth with various activities/games and Wonder Eyes Project photo exhibition. For preparation and implementation, WWF-Indonesia invited two Youth Tiger Ambassadors and students of Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta as volunteers. The WWF booth and photo exhibition were located in a small gallerie right beside the movie screening room that visitors would pass through on their way out of the screening room. There were 20 Wonder Eyes Project photos on display and 3 games for visitors to play.

When visitors win the games, they will receive various merchandise. volunteer in charge of making sure all his friends had written down their data to receive information from WWF.

Along with the activities in Yogjakarta, SFF Jayapura was held from November 28-30, 2011. WWF-Indonesia's Papua Program Director, Drs. Benja Mambai, Msi gave a speech at the opening of the activity, "Film is one of the media for conveying conservation messages that are easily understood by everyone. Hopefully, you can get positive benefits from this Science Film Festival activity."

Nicholas Saputra took part in the last city of SFF 2011. "Frankly, I envy the children in Papua because you have such a beautiful nature. When I was little, I often saw movies about the environment with my grandfather and it made me always want to know more about nature and the biodiversity that exists in it," he said at the opening ceremony. The students were equally enthusiastic in watching the movie. Questions about the movie asked by Nico and volunteers from the Goethe Institute could be answered smoothly. The practicum session was also followed with great curiosity.

Over the three days of the event around 1,600 students from 20 schools in Jayapura attended the screenings. Alex, a student who attended the third day of SFF, said he learned quite a lot from the films screened and "Lea on the Trail of Gorillas" was his favorite. At the end of the event, each school received scientific practice tools from the Goethe Institute and tree seedlings from WWF-Indonesia to be planted in their respective school yards.