By: Natalia Trita Agnika

Climate change over the past century has led to an average global temperature rise of 1°C. This has resulted in weather anomalies. Melting ice caps, rising sea levels of up to 17 centimeters, and adverse extreme weather events have all occurred. One of the causes driving climate change is high deforestation activity.

Seeing this reality, WWF-Indonesia in partnership with Unilever Indonesia initiated "brightFuture", a campaign that invites people to play an active role in protecting one million trees in Indonesia and Brazil. "Indonesia and Brazil have the highest deforestation rates. This is also the basis for us to run a forest protection program with Unilever. In Indonesia, the forest protection program will be implemented in West Nusa Tenggara, precisely in the Sesaot Protected Forest area, Lombok Regency," explained Devy Suradji, Marketing Director WWF-Indonesia. The launching ceremony of WWF-Indonesia's collaboration with PT Unilever Indonesia, Tbk. was held on Friday (21/08) at the Intercontinental Hotel, Jakarta. Also present was the Deputy Governor of West Nusa Tenggara, H. Muhammad Amin, SH, M.Si, as a form of support and appreciation from the local government.

In a talkshow session, a question was raised about the importance of active participation of people living in cities - which are far from forest areas - in the deforestation discourse. "When we talk about deforestation, let's not forget that one of the causes is the consequence of our choice to do unfriendly development. We may live in the city, but we feel the impact. As a downstream community, we get supplies from upstream communities (who live in the forest) in the form of water, air, and so on, so we cannot separate urban communities from forest ecosystems because they are all part of the ecosystem," explained M. Ridha Hakim, Small Islands Partnership and Governance Leader WWF-Indonesia, who was present as one of the speakers.

"Everyone can make a difference. We hope that through this 'brightFuture' campaign, people will become more aware and inspired to take small steps in their daily lives to help tackle climate change. Small things, when done continuously and together, will undoubtedly create big changes," added Maria Dewantini Dwianto, Head of Corporate Communications PT Unilever Indonesia, Tbk.

During the day's activities, Indonesian music artist Nugie was asked to be one of the speakers in the talkshow session. This loyal supporter of WWF-Indonesia also performed songs with social and environmental themes. Nugie voiced a message for urban communities to start a green lifestyle and choose consumer goods wisely.