Two birds just miss the windscreen as our 4×4 drives across a palm oil plantation. A lone tree stands out in the distance––the forest has been cleared all around and the earth has been stripped bare to make way for more and more palm oil. Beyond this clearance, the calls of hornbills can be heard and pristine rainforest still stands.
I’m on assignment for Rainforest Action Network (RAN), documenting both the beauty and the destruction of the lowland rainforests of the Leuser Ecosystem on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The Leuser Ecosystem is a 2.6 million hectare biodiversity hotspot containing mountains, tropical rainforest, lowland forest and peat swamps. It is the last place on Earth where critically endangered Sumatran elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans still roam side by side. Millions of people living in the province of Aceh rely on the Leuser Ecosystem for their food, water and livelihoods.
Sadly, the majestic Leuser Ecosystem is under constant threat from the palm oil industry, as well as from logging, mining and road development. As I write this, vast areas of land are being cut, cleared, burned and drained to make way for industrial palm oil plantations. Palm oil is a vegetable oil found in roughly half of packaged goods sold in grocery stores and is a leading cause of rainforest and peatland destruction, as well as human and labor rights abuses.
Our 4×4 rolls up to a river that runs into the very heart of the Leuser Ecosystem––a favorite river of Sumatran elephants––and we prepare for the next leg of our journey, assembling the team, porters and guide. Once a long boat is packed with enough supplies for a week, we set off up river as the sun sets. In the deepening night, we travel for three or four hours up river in search of a good campsite.