Children never see a green Jakarta

"Let us be your friends whose foliage shall provide you with shade and fresh air. Plant us along your boulevards, your town squares, your desolate hills and fields -- and not instead, fell us with your chainsaws."

Such were the words of a poem titled Tree, by Syechna Meutia Flohrianti, 8, a fourth grader from Bekasi.

In another poem titled River, Syechna told of rivers that would unleash their wrath of floods if they were littered, while in Flower, she portrayed a beautiful world filled with flowers.

The an anthology had earned Syechna the 2004 Young Environmentalist of the Year Awards (YEYA) for the junior category, an annual event held by water company PT Thames PAM Jaya to promote awareness of the environment among the young.

Meanwhile, for Rhendy Akbar Hilman, 14, winner of the event's senior category, his way of expressing environmental was by making a black-and-white comic strip book titled "Heroes for Earth", about two teenagers who encouraged their community to clean up their environment which had been polluted by a factory.

The works of Syechna and Rhendy will be submitted to YEYA's international level, organized by the Young People's Trust for the Environment and Nature Conservation in the United Kingdom.

Chairman of Kehati foundation's board of advisors and former environment minister Emil Salim, who was the event's honorary guest, said it was important to promote an environmentally friendly attitude among children.

"This is because some 20 or 30 years from now, it will be these children who will take over the earth from our hands and manage it," he said.