In 2007 an RSPB-led group bought up a series of logged-out Indonesian forests to bring them back from the brink. But in a country that’s losing trees faster than any other and where farmers are desperate for land, it’s an uphill effort.
Brad Sanders, an American forestry manager in Jambi province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, stood with members of his Harapan rainforest team, sharpening bamboo poles in anticipation of an attack.
A stout, elderly ex-military officer who worked as a camp security guard asked Sanders’ advice on that morning in October 2012. “What should we do if they come into the camp and try to hurt us? Try to swing their machetes or shoot us, pak [sir]?”
Sanders responded that they should stand behind the line of police who had made the day’s drive from the provincial capital, the people with guns and uniforms. “But pak,” the guard said, “they will be the first to run.”
<figure class=”element element-embed element–supporting fig–no-caption” data-alt=”Harapan map” itemprop=”associatedMedia” itemtype=”http://schema.org/ImageObject”> </figure>
Indonesia is no stranger to conflict over its shrinking forests. But this fight does not involve the usual players. Harapan, a rainforest the size of greater London whose name means ‘hope’, is majority-owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
