August 10, 2010

Jakarta, Indonesia - Entering the third month of WWF's "Forest Friends" competition, six young finalists have collected nearly 60,000 trees to reforest critical tiger habitat in Sumatra. The number of trees will continue to grow as they garner more support online.
The Forest Friends competition is an online friendship network, a joint initiative of WWF-Indonesia and WWF-Germany targeted at youth aged 18-25. Six finalists have been selected, divided into three teams with one Indonesian and one German youth. The competition started at the end of May 2010 and lasted until the end of August 2010. At the end of the competition, the top two winners - representing Sahabat Hutan from Indonesia and Germany - will visit the Sumatran tiger habitat in Riau's Tesso Nilo National Park, as well as the forest and freshwater conservation area in Schaalsee, Germany. Each team competed to win a prize for their team.
Each team competed to voice their concerns about forest conservation and biodiversity. This allowed them to make friends and exchange information online about forest conservation efforts, environmentally friendly lifestyles, and other activities related to forest and nature conservation, provide practical tips and examples, and invite other youth to take concrete actions to save forests. "Through the blogs that they build together and update regularly, the finalists also invite their supporters (fans) to contribute directly to support forest rehabilitation efforts for Sumatran tiger habitat," said Desmarita Murni, Communication Coordinator of WWF-Indonesia's Forest, Species and Freshwater Program.

Not only taking place online, the support gathered by the finalists during this competition will be realized in real life by planting trees in the critical habitat of Sumatran tigers. "In just one month since the online campaign began, each finalist team has managed to gather support for 10,000 trees and the number continues to grow," Desmarita continued.
"WWF sees the widespread use of social networks, especially among young people, as a positive opportunity to convey various messages of nature conservation, including forest rehabilitation. We see that social networking allows communication to the whole world in a real-time, fast, and fun way," said Dr. Efransjah Executive Director of WWF Indonesia.
The online form also makes it easier for finalists to upload supporting media such as videos, photos and articles to support their campaigns. In addition to blogs, the forest friends competition can also be accessed through Facebook..
"The number of fans or supporters they manage to gather through the online campaign, not only determines which finalist becomes the main winner, but also determines how much real contribution the finalists have made to forest restoration. The number of supporters obtained by each team will be multiplied by 10 trees of local species to be planted in Tesso Nilo National Park, a critical habitat for Sumatran tigers," said Dr. Efransjah. This initiative is in line with the designation of 2010 as the global Year of Tiger campaign to encourage tiger conservation efforts in the world. The Sumatran tiger is the only Sumatran tiger in the world.
The Sumatran tiger is the only remaining sub-species in Indonesia and one of six tiger sub-species in the world. Tesso Nilo National Park is one of the locations with an important population of Sumatran tigers in Riau Province, Sumatra. Currently, Sumatran tigers are threatened by habitat destruction, poaching, and prey species depletion.
Related to efforts to involve the younger generation in nature conservation, in addition to the ""Forest Friends"" competition, WWF-Indonesia will also send a young delegation to the Youth Tiger Summit - where youth representatives from various countries will gather to voice their concern for world tiger conservation - to coincide with the Global Tiger Summit in Russia 2010 in the near future.
Note To Editor:
Info about Forest Friend can be accessed at: Team Blog: http://www.wwf-jugend.de/durchstarten/forest-friends
Forest Friends on WWF-ID: www.savesumatra.org
To visit the Forest Friends Facebook application (keyword search: Forest Friends Application)
Contact:

• Desmarita Murni, Communications Coordinator for Forest, Freshwater, and Terrestrial Species Program, mobile: +62 811793458, dmurni@wwf.or.id
• Annisa Ruzuar, Communications Officer (lead project Sahabat Hutan) hp: + 081320044343, asruzuar@wwf.or.id

About WWF
WWF is an independent, global conservation organization founded in 1961 in Switzerland, with nearly 5 million supporters and an active network in more than 100 countries and in Indonesia working in more than 25 field regions and 17 provinces. WWF-Indonesia's mission is to save biodiversity and reduce the ecological impacts of human activities through: Promoting a strong conservation ethic, awareness and conservation efforts among Indonesians; Facilitating multi-stakeholder efforts for the protection of biodiversity and ecological processes at the ecoregion scale; Advocating for policies, laws and law enforcement that support conservation, and; Promoting conservation for human well-being, through the sustainable use of natural resources.
More about WWF-Indonesia, please visit the organization's main website at www.panda.org; local sites at www.wwf.or.id.
Profile Three ""Friends of the Forest"" from Indonesia

• Rima Putri Agustina
  24-year-old Rima Putri Agustina's interest in environmental conservation began with Bumi Satu, a student organization at her high school. This organization sharpened the sensitivity of Rima, who grew up in the suburbs of Bandung, which is still quite beautiful, to environmental issues. While studying as a Biology student at the Bandung Institute of Technology, she joined KMPA Ganesha.

  Listen to Rima and Lena's journey at: http://www.wwf-jugend.de/community/channel.php?channel_id=1

• Mia Amelinda
  20-year-old Mia Amelinda's environmental awareness grew stronger after taking an environmental crime course at the University of Indonesia's criminology department. The course opened her eyes to the importance of natural resources such as clean water. For Mia, nature was created to support human life, but humans must also protect it.

  Visit Mia and Gerrit's blog at: http://www.wwf-jugend.de/community/channel.php?channel_id=2

• Yangki Imade Suara
  Growing up as a farmer's son from Lima Puluh Kota Regency, 21-year-old Yangki Imade Suara is used to living alongside nature. His closeness to the environment encouraged Yangki to study Environmental Economics at Padjajaran University. This student who is active in organizations has been a representative of the Indonesian delegation at the Harvard National Model United Nations in Boston, Bliss Point in Delhi, and the International Youth Climate Movement in Copenhagen. The issue of climate change is Yangki's main concern, because the impact is very much felt by her father. Erratic climate change has a negative impact on the lives of farmers. Forest destruction, especially peatlands, has an impact on increasing carbon emissions, which is one of the causes of climate change. This motivates Yangki to continue to explore knowledge, one of which is through the Forest Friends program where he and his German teammate, Hanna, can exchange ideas about environmental issues and concrete actions to mitigate the negative impacts of natural damage.
• Listen to more of Yangki and Hanna's thoughts at: http://www.wwf-jugend.de/community/channel.php?channel_id=3