By: Dyah Ekarini

Lampung (31/10) - On 23rd of October 2009, Wonder Eyes Project started its activity in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBS NP). Two of WWF-Indonesia's honorary supporters, Nugie and Davina Hariadi joined the activity which provided photography tutorial for children in surrounding areas.
The journey to BBS NP took about four hours by car. During the trip, the honorary supporters, Wonder Eyes team, WWF team from Indonesia and Japan, as well as media partner (Metro TV) stayed in Rhino Camp, run by Rhino Protection Unit (RPU) in the outskirt of the national park, West Lampung. Arriving late at night of heavy rain, the cars could not go straight to the camp. Therefore the group had to walk to Rhino Camp.

SDN (Public Elementary School) 03 Sedayu, Tumbak Bayur, Tanggamus hosted the event on the first day (24/10). The elementary school was located in BBS NP buffer zone with all of the students living nearby. The students were taught how to operate digital camera. It was found that all of the students never used camera before, therefore Hikaru Nagatake (Wonder Eyes), Dyah Ekarini and Supriyanto (WWF Indonesia) helped by Davina and fellow RPU members gave them short tutorial. The camera would then be taken home by the students for two days to document their daily activites .
Second day was full of outdoors activities whilst the students visited cacao and coffee plantation managed by farmers from Field Farmer School, a WWF-Indonesia's partner. There, Hikaru Nagatake gave a short instruction on how to use a digital camera. Unlike the first day, the student directly practiced their new skill in the field.
Fortunately it was a sunny day, contrasting to a few days before the event started. Tanggamus even experienced flood and landslide a month earlier. Evident of the catastrophe could still be seen on the way to BBS NP. But the students were always cheerful through out the event.
They received postcards from Japan, distributed by WWF-Japan's member. The postcard mainly from children in Japan, with pictures of Mount Fuji, Sakura, traditional houses, lampion, and kanji words on it. The students would reply the postcards using their photograph taken during the Wonder Eyes event.
Armed with digital cameras in their hand, the students were divided into groups accompanied by members of WWF or RPU.

It did not take long before the children sprayed around the national park, chasing objects that captured their eyes, such as butterflies, ants, insects, lizards, birds and plants. Not only fauna and flora, they often took pictures of their friends and teachers.
After three hours of glee and curiosity, the students marched back to the field school to choose one of their pictures to be made into postcard. It was proven to be a hard task, as most of the students had their long discussion deciding which photo was their best.. Finally, just before dawn, Wonder Eyes activities in Bukit Barisan Selatan over.
In the Field School, Davina and Nugie did not miss their chance to talk to cacao and coffee farmers. They tried the sweet taste of cacao fruit before it was processed into the delicacies we know as chocolate.
On their stay in BBS NP, Hikaru Nagatake, WWF-Japan, honorary supporters took a hike near Rhino Camp, as the national park boast a beautiful high land forest. While walking on the track with sounds of Owa and Macaque accompanying, the group found a rare tree species, Meranti (Shorea sp.) It is one of the best logs in the world. Meranti was widely used to build houses, but unsustainable use has led into scarcity of the tree.

Other interesting activity during the Wonder Eyes trip was patrolling the buffer zone of BBS NP on Elephant. The BBS NP Elephant Patrol was established in July 2009, comprising four elephants and four mahouts. The elephants were from Way Kambas Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampung. Recently the patrol had one more additional member, the little elephant calf named Tomi. He was found by the patrol, separated from his group. Since then, Tomi followed the patrol team. Curious and eager just like kid, the patrol team hoped that Tomi would grow into a handy patrol elephant.
Last stop was Kuyungarang Coffee production in Sedayu Village. Nugie and Davina learned from women of Sekar Sedayu farming group how to select and process good quality coffee beans. The Kuyungarang coffee was made with regard to conservation ethics. It is one of WWF-Indonesia's Green and Fair products, as part of community empowerment program under conservational guidelines to produce sustainable products without compromising communities' welfare.
After 5 days of trip in BBS NP, the group returned to Jakarta before heading for Tesso Nilo National Park where the next Wonder Eyes activity will take place