By: Ika Viantiani

Jakarta, December 14, 2013. How many sheets of tissue do you use every day? Did you know that tissues are made from trees? Did you know, one person per year needs 182 trees in a year? Those are the questions that come to mind when talking about tissue. To fulfill the need for knowledge about wipes, WWF Indonesia held an educational activity for high schools in Jakarta at the Kite Museum which was attended by around 50 high school students from Jakarta and Bekasi.

This activity was opened by Fajar from WWF Indonesia's Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) who told about how the condition of Indonesia's forests today is getting worse due to palm oil plantations and the increasing need for paper so that logging and burning forests damage the ecosystem so that not only humans lose their homes but also the animals that are around the environment.

Fajar also said that our daily activities affect the destruction of Indonesia's forests, therefore we must be selective with the consumption of wood products that we use daily. Not only by reusing, reducing or recycling but also by choosing to use certified wood materials.

One of the students then asked how we can tell if a product has certified wood or not. According to Fajar, there is a logo included on the product packaging that explains that the wood used as raw material for the product is wood that is not the result of illegal logging, for example.

After asking questions, these students were invited to practice collage techniques to decorate boxes or wallets from tissue guided by Ika Viantiani. Students were immediately engrossed in choosing the collage medium to be decorated, tissue box or wallet. After that, Ika and two other presenters presented various ways of decorating using tissue paper that had been tested beforehand to trigger the creative ideas of the participants.

It turned out that the participants were very confident in experimenting with tissue paper as well as the various colors provided such as watercolors, markers and highlighters. The participants were very diligent and concentrated fully when working on decorations with tissue paper so that when the work time was announced to be finished at three in the afternoon, all the works could be completed properly. Each child looked proud of their work.