We chose to use what all Malaysians are familiar with – classic fairytales – and reimagined them in a world without trees. These tales served as a conversation starter to show how deforestation can ruin these stories, as well as ours.

We brought these stories to life through our notebooks, which look like classic storybooks. These notebooks were made available for sale, with proceeds going towards MNS. Because these fairy tales were set in a world without trees, the stories in each book end abruptly. Serving as a constant reminder that our story too could have an abrupt ending if we don’t stop deforestation.

The notebooks also drove people to the microsite, where people could dive into each tale further and learn about how deforestation affects us, as well as take action by donating, signing up as a member and sharing our message.

We built our reimagined “unfortunate tales” by hand in 3D using mixed media. Whenever possible, we used reclaimed wood, metal, cloth and other repurposed items, in keeping with our theme. These sets were then photographed and turned into the cover of our notebooks, which were made using sustainable FSC recycled paper.

Each notebook starts with a story set in a treeless world. Upon turning the page, readers discover that the tale has ended abruptly thanks to deforestation. The rest of the pages were left blank, allowing readers to reuse the notebook. This ensured that they had a constant reminder that our story too could have an abrupt ending if we don’t stop deforestation.

The notebooks were made available for sale offline at our roadshow as well as online on our microsite, with proceeds going towards MNS’ conservation efforts.

As the campaign was recently launched, we’re still collecting the results, but so far the response has been encouraging. Both young and old responded positively to our campaign. In just 36 hours, the notebooks sold out at our launch event. The notebooks also played a key role in our campaign’s success, which helped increase deforestation awareness by 48%, and raised over RM45,000 within the first week of launch. Encouraged by these results, we’re currently in discussions with a top local bookstore to publish and distribute our notebooks at their stores. More importantly, Malaysians were encouraged to join MNS in its quest to rewrite nature’s unfortunate tale in the real world.