PHOTOS: RAN on the Frontlines of Indonesia’s Endangered Rainforests

RAN Forest Campaigner Lafcadio Cortesi and I traveled to Sumatra, Indonesia last month to meet with and interview an extensive network of allies involved in the movement to resist the rampant deforestation and human rights abuses occurring there. We witnessed firsthand the ecological devastation, tense social conflicts and choking haze of carbon emissions resulting from [...]

Continue reading...

Paper Tiger: RAN Featured in Must-See Expose on Indonesian Logging

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has just aired a damning exposé called “Paper Tiger” about the devastating deforestation caused by the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia. The program is called Foreign Correspondent and it is a sort of Aussie 60 Minutes. The piece features compelling footage of logging giant APRIL mowing down vast expanses [...]

Continue reading...

From the Field: Inspirational Agroforestry at the Corner of Nature

After the doom and gloom of devastation we witnessed across the lowlands of Sumatra’s Riau and South Sumatra Provinces, we have finally got to visit a vibrant version of heaven on earth. The journey began from the city of Jambi with a harrowing 12-hour drive through treacherously muddy and mangled roads. The trip was alternately [...]

Continue reading...

A Rainforest Apocalypse? People, Peat And Promises For A New Direction

If you think this title sounds hyperbolic, you probably have not visited Sumatra lately. Before traveling here, I had heard stories about the oceans of oil palm that have been planted where rainforest once stood. But I was not prepared for this. The first sign that something is terribly wrong came before our plane even [...]

Continue reading...

From The Field: A Customary Elder of the Malayu Addresses Asia Pulp and Paper

It’s a good thing RAN’s forest campaigner, Lafcadio Cortesi, speaks Bahasa Indonesian so well. Otherwise I almost certainly would have gotten in the car with the undercover intelligence agent who told me to come with him because he “wanted to practice his English.” We had just arrived in the small village of Siabu, in the [...]

Continue reading...

From The Field: RAN’s Work Pays Off In Indonesia

I’ve only been in Indonesia for a few days and already I’ve heard multiple accounts of intimidation, corruption, kidnapping, torture and even murder suffered by our allies here who have been bold enough to speak out and resist the destruction of their forests and villages by palm oil and pulp and paper companies. But I [...]

Continue reading...