Fun and games to teach kids environmental concern

By Sugianto Tandra

MOJOKERT0, East Java (JP): On a dusty playground under the shade of a big tree, a group of elementary school students played a game under the guidance of a teacher.

"Who would want to be a worm?" the young educator, Budi, 23, asked his noisily excited students, who had come all the way from Surabaya, some 60 kilometers northeast of here.

"I want to be a tiger," replied a chubby boy enthusiastically.

He was booed by his friends, who teased him as ngaco for spouting off with an extraneous answer. The boy seemed proud though -- at least he had made himself heard and, luckily, got a response.

A girl then volunteered. Budi gave an end of the rope for her to hold up. She accepted it eagerly, her eyes searching for what would be in store for her.

"What eats worms?" Budi asked.

"Birds," shouted a boy.

"Good," the teacher complimented the boy. And he gave him another part of the rope.

The activity continued, with the fundamental nature of the food chain elements memorized by students in their basic natural science class -- the bird is eaten by a cat, the cat by a tiger, and so on.

Then came the punch line: when every piece of the rope was held to form a food chain, Budi asked: "What will happen if the worm dies?".

Budi invited the girl to let go of the rope end she was holding.

"The rope becomes loose," some of the children chorused.

Budi told them: "That means this food chain will vanish, and all the animals will die."

The children whispered among themselves.

Budi, assisted by two other colleagues, lined them up in three groups. The teachers blindfolded them with handkerchiefs tied around their heads.

"Listen to the instructions your friend walking in front of you gives you, so you won't fall," Budi told them.

"We'll go into the forest," he said, to the joy of the children.

One of the kids owned up that the handkerchief was loose and he could peep. A teacher fixed the band and praised him for his honesty.

Then they went into the forest to learn more about nature.

Late in the afternoon, the children returned to the "barracks", soaking wet after a fresh bath in the pristine river inside the nearby tropical forest.

It seemed they had learned to love nature more than ever.

The scene above was described last week by the Pusat Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup, known as PPLH Seloliman, an abbreviation which stands for the Environment Education Center, an non-governmental organization established on May 15, 1990, with the help of the World Wide Fund for Nature International.

Among its founders are veterinarian Suryo Prawiroatmodjo and German architect Ulli Fuhrke, who hosted recently a four-day workshop on Traditional Beliefs and Religious Concepts for the Environment. The workshop was co-organized with Earth Wire-Antara and sponsored by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation.

"In a busy month, visiting schools could be up to 25, while in a slow month at least five schools will come to visit and work with PPLH in teaching children to love nature," Suryo told The Jakarta Post.

Suryo said the PPLH's concept of educating children to be aware of the environment actively involved people, ranging from schoolchildren and local youths to villagers. The education is also aimed at sustainably managing the environment.

"It's a question of how you could live in the next five, 10, or 15 years with your present habitat...in this case local people are playing a fundamental role," Suryo said.

Some 60 personnel working full-time for the center are mostly local youths who have trained themselves to be ecological experts in agriculture, cooking, medicine, and house cleaning.

The center is located in remote Seloliman village of Trawas subdistrict in Mojokerto regency.

Monthly expenditures are around Rp 20 million (US$5,750), covered through "ecological business" such as selling ecologically grown food to visitors who come to stay in its environment-friendly cottages and bungalows.

Hosting schoolchildren and organizing workshops are also two "business-like" green programs at the 3.7-hectare compound.

On the hillside location overlooking Trawas subdistrict town, some 10 kilometers away, the center has two guest houses with a capacity for 10 residents each, eight bungalows with room for four people each, a library, restaurant and seminar laboratory.

However, Suryo preferred not to call the PPLH's activities "business-like", arguing that profit was the last of their considerations. PPLH regards profit only as a means for supporting its programs, he said.

International recognition has come to Suryo and his friends, among them the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1990, Ashoka International for Public Social Entrepreneur (1990), Global 500 Award from the UNEP (1992), Pacific Asia Tourism Association for eco-tourism (1995), Satya Lencana Pembangunan from President Soeharto (1996).

PPLH will conduct similar programs at South Sulawesi's regency of Takalar in the Puntondo subdistrict village of Laikang, Bali's Sanur beach and Jayapura in Irian Jaya.

The newly officiated Environmental Impact Management Agency of Central Java has also shown interest in cooperating with PPLH in developing a similar environment education center.

"We are happy to share our experience...as well as work together with the government," Suryo said.