Kembali Ke Hutan (Return to the Forest)

The approach of Kembali Ke Hutan is to create accessible spaces for trusted and informed discussion among young people, using edutainment and social media as key levers for engagement beyond conversation to activism.

As a "digital first" project, Kembali Ke Hutan involves a social media brand - AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action) on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter - which shares information and insights, hopefully in an eye-catching way. For example, as Instagram is the most popular social media network in Indonesia, the project designed a range of posts to meet the different needs of Indonesian young people, from cartoons to videos - each based around how individuals might be affected and what they can do. The goal is to help spark a generation of Indonesians to actively engage their leaders on issues of sustainable development.

To ensure the content resonates, BBC Media Action conducted research via artificial intelligence (AI) and traditional methods to tap into the youth audience's existing climate knowledge, feelings, and concerns. AI techniques helped gather, sort, and analyse information from 118 sources across 16 different areas - from lifestyle to local community forums. BBC Media Action used these results to create archetypes of young Indonesians:

• Regular Consumers: These young Indonesians lead relatively structured lives with clear routines, and, while some environmental issues are important to them, they are more focused on doing well academically and obtaining good jobs. Although they spend a lot of time on social media, it does not represent for them a forum for debate or taking action.
• Loud and Proud Crusader: This group considers social media a key forum for taking action on issues relating to climate change. Influencers and well-known names grab their attention, and they engage with content with a clear link to their daily lives. However, most didn't know what specific actions they can take.
• Quiet Heroes: They are interested in environmental and social issues and believe they should lead by example and change themselves first. They start with smaller actions: not littering, joining environmental organisations, and encouraging friends to do so, too.
• Aesthetic Indulgence: This group acts out of concern to protect areas of natural beauty for others to enjoy.
• Guardians of Future Generations: This group is driven by aspirational and positive examples that focus on social issues and the environment, either locally or nationally; they prefer to act through community-based initiatives.

BBC Media Action then followed this research up with a week-long online focus group with 50 urban youth aged 18-25, exploring their online behaviours: their interests, how they engage with issues from politics to the environment, and how they behave on social media. Researchers combined this investigation with traditional face-to-face focus groups with urban young people who are active members of community-based youth organisations to gain a thorough understanding of what motivates them to engage with environmental issues.

For instance, the social media mini-series Kangen Jalan-jalan (Missing Travel) takes young people stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic on a virtual journey to their favourite parts of the country - hopefully appealing to those who are proud of their country's beauty, such as the "Aesthetic Indulgence" group. Throughout the series, the host is accompanied by young people actively working on climate change to build audience engagement by contrasting beautiful scenery with the impacts of environmental damage. Online content has also used comedy and social media influencers to help reach those less engaged in environmental issues, as well as information that appeals to "Quiet Heroes".

Based on the aforementioned research, BBC Media Action worked with Indonesian broadcaster SCTV to create #CeritaKita (Our Story), a romantic TV soap opera whose young Indonesian actors tell stories of sustainability and environmental protection. (Click below to view one episode; click here and scroll down to view others.) It follows the story of Bodo, who is forced to return to his home village when his home in Jakarta floods. There, he reconnects with old school friends; along with tackling complicated love lives and interfering parents, they take on everyday environmental issues, such as flooding, extreme heat, plastic pollution, new agricultural practices, and forest fires. The programme role-models civic participation and aims to strengthen governance for environmental issues while exploring solutions and mitigating actions.

Each of the 20 episodes was followed by an excerpt from a live online discussion programme, Ngobrolin Cerita Kita (Cerita Kita Social), which featured online influencers, senior government ministers, experts, and role models taking their young urban audience deeper into the issues raised and giving them a chance to ask questions and share their own actions.

As part of the project, BBC Media Action also provides training and mentoring for journalists, media broadcasters, production companies, and development agencies.

Environment, Climate Change, Youth

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predicts 46% of Indonesia's population will be under age 30 by 2030, with a majority in urban areas. The country has over 350 million mobile subscriptions and 150 million active social media users - most of them on mobile. BBC Media Action decided that inspiring them to engage on climate action required reaching them where they are: online.

This project is informed by BBC Media Action's findings from Climate Asia, a project that surveyed 33,500 people across Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia in 2012. Click here [PDF] for the Indonesia report, where the reader learns, for example, that Indonesians in rural areas feel that changes in climate are contributing to declining crop productivity and making fishing more difficult and dangerous. People in cities of over one million inhabitants are particularly concerned about the impact of extreme weather and only one in ten has a disaster preparedness plan. There is an opportunity to encourage action and make climate change relevant to people's lives by framing communication around the impact they feel and the things they value. Television reaches almost everyone in Indonesia, and popular formats such as dramas and reality shows resonate with audiences and provide an opportunity to explore complex issues while inspiring people with examples of how communities like theirs can take action.