Students get back to nature

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hundreds of students from Sevilla School in East Jakarta were for once allowed to play in mud as part of an environmental project carried out at their school Friday.

As part of the project, the students each planted a rare seedling in the school's garden.

"It is fun to plant trees because we can get dirty," sixth grader Livia said, adding that it was the first time she had planted a tree.

"There is no garden at our house. We only have parking space, so there is nowhere to plant trees."

Livia's classmate Kimberly said her home also lacked space for planting new trees.

"My mom has used all of the space in our garden so there is no space left for me to plant trees," the 7-year-old said.

Rafi said he enjoyed planting trees at his school but would not do the same in his own garden.

"My garden is awful," he said.

The tree-planting project was organized by the school in conjunction with the Mekarsari Tourism Park.

The project, which also received support from the State Ministry for the Environment, the Forestry Ministry and The Jakarta Post, was organized to encourage young people to take care of the environment.

The general manager of park operator PT Mekar Unggul Sari, Hari Tanjung, said people of all ages were responsible for dealing with climate change, including younger generations.

"There is a need to face this problem together and we came up with the idea of planting trees with the children so they could be involved," he said.

As part of the project the students planted a wide array of seedlings, including Bisbol (Diospyrosphilipensis), Menteng (Baccuria rasemosa) and Sawo Kecik (Manilkara kauki) seedlings.

"If we wanted to make people aware of this project, we had to attract them with something different. We decided to plant rare trees to get their attention," Hari said.

The students were also taught how to take care of the newly planted seedlings as part of the project. (dia)