The Burning Season

Kalimantan

REPORT FROM SANDRA COOK:

I arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday evening (7th November) and met up with Ezther, our cinematographer on Thursday morning. We spend the day on Thursday in Jakarta chasing archive footage and making contact with Hardi. We flew to Kalimantan in Borneo on Friday. 

Hardi Bachtiantoro was Lone's manager at Nyaru Menteng and left to take a more active role trying to stop big companies (like PT Makin) from logging and burning. We filmed him in April on a journey up the river to remote villages trying to track down the logging operations and talking to local villagers. I have the job of getting the ending to this story...

We met Hardi in the Jakarta business district. Since we spoke to him last March, PT Makin have stopped logging the concession that we visited. They have, however, moved to a concession upriver and are logging there. Hardi fears that the environmental impact of the new site will be far greater because it is situated upstream. Lone has asked him to come and help her. She is rescuing orangutans from the site, but she needs him to negotiate with the company. He will arrive in Kalimantan on the 16th and head up river to observe, talk to people and possibly rescue orangutans. We will go with him.

On Sunday we went to Nyaru Menteng and made contact with Lone who looked really happy and glowing. 

They are building new cages at the centre to handle the overflow of orphans rescued over the past 12 months.  The cages have arrived, but the cement foundations are not yet ready. Lone is frustrated at the delays and told us that this is a just a small example of the daily challenges she faces in her remote location in the centre of Borneo.

She has purchased the house next door to the centre in order to relocate the nursery from her house. This will finally ensure that she has a place for herself and somewhere to escape to for her own rest and renewal. We will film her moving later in the week. This could be her last scene. She's happy to have her own space, to have the money from WSPA and her new friend is encouraging her to take a day off a week. Because he's a doctor, she is listening! She looks really happy and rested and more at peace with herself than the last time we visited the centre. 

On Sunday afternoon we were at the centre waiting for Lone to return. It was raining and the orangutans were coming back from the forest. Waru went straight up to Ezther and grabbed him and wouldn’t let go. It was amazing. Ezther is impressed and delighted that Waru remembered him from his April visit and has decided to get a Waru tattoo.

It has been raining a lot this season. The weather is unpredictable and there has not really been a dry season. The locals are saying there haven’t really been serious fires this year. Also the police are really cracking down on people who light them. We have footage of many recently erected road signs telling people not to light fires.  It’s difficult to tell if that's what’s really working. This requires further investigation.

Lone is not going to COP 13 in Bali, but BOS will have a presentation stand there. She will invite people from the conference to her centre. She thinks it’s more important to lobby one on one, than with all the big players who she thinks wouldn’t have much concern about her work and her orphans. She is very interested in the concept of carbon trading, and thinks it offers interesting potential. It could redefine the way the way government officials, and the international community view the forests in Borneo, the home of the orangutan.

Tomorrow we go to the island to get orangutan mother and child shots in the wild.

Report on Nyaru Menteng

We flew into Palangkaraya on Sunday, 1 April 2007 and made our way to our hotel, an hour’s drive from the airport.  On Monday, we drove to Nyaru Menteng, the orangutan rehabilitation centre run by Lone Droscher-Nielsen.  While I briefed Lone and outlined the scope of the documentary, Jeff went into Palangkaraya with Ezther, our camera operator, to get the required permits from the local office of the Forestry Department. 

By the time the permits were sorted out and permissions granted for the cameras to start rolling, the afternoon tropical downpours had begun. Some filming was done of the storm and reactions of the orangutans.  A meeting of Lone and her Vet team on the upcoming release was also filmed that night.   

On Tuesday, we filmed the infant orangutans in the forest, the BOS Kids orangutan club, the wild adults held in cages in NM II and the infants being fed fruit on the lawn by the ‘baby sitters’ – the name given to the professional orangutan carers.

On Wednesday, the pace began picking up. We were able to film the first of the orangutans being prepared for the release. They were anaesthetized, loaded into cages and onto the plane.  Watching the huge males crumble to the floor as they lost control of their bodies and being loaded like floppy dolls into their crates was at the same time shocking, heart-breaking and uplifting.  They could not know it, but this would be their cage to freedom. In two days, they will finally be released into a part of the forest where they have a decent chance of survival.  Despite Lone being frantic and not having enough time to pause or eat, she agreed to do an interview with us late in the afternoon in her office.

We also made contact with Lone’s ex-manager, Hardie, who has set up his own NGO called The Centre for Orangutan Protection.  Hardie agreed to fly to Palangkaraya on Thursday in order to tell us the story of the PT Makin Group plantation. This large Indonesian company has acquired 42,000 hectares (by dubious means) and plans to begin logging in the next few weeks – and will most likely burn at the start of the dry season. Lone was invited to do the orangutan report on the land as part of an EIS for the company late last year. She surveyed the area and made a conservative estimate of 1,000 orangutans on the land. She told us that it is more likely there are up to 1,600 orangutans currently living there. Despite knowing this, the company plans to proceed with the clearing and burning.  This story will be the major narrative for Lone and the orangutan story. Hardie, who is willing to be outspoken about what the company and local officials are doing, or not doing, will be a key part of Lone’s story.

We met with Hardie and his wife (above) at the airport on Thursday afternoon and had a quick briefing. Sam and I were due to depart Borneo, after meeting the incoming crew of the BBC at the airport. They had footage of the orangutans caught in the midst of the fires during last year’s burning season which belongs to Lone. She agreed to give us the footage, if we could extract it from the luggage of the BBC. This was achieved and we have 3 tapes of what I hope will be valuable, important and potentially very distressing footage which we need for our teaser tape.

It was logistically impossible for us to accompany Lone and the BBC crew to the release site. The BBC paid for the plane, boat and helicopter access and there was not one spare kg of space available for one of our crew. However, we gave Lone two tapes and she agreed to film the sequence herself, from her POV, and one of the BBC crew members agreed to film Lone in the situation and a short interview with her after the release. We can also acquire some BBC spectacular shots if necessary.

Jeff, Sandra and Ezter set off up the river to some of the remove villages inhabited by Dyaks in order to hear how the logging and forest fires are impacting on them. Also Hardie will show Jeff the location of the 42,000 hectares and if there is any visible logging already underway, they will film it. They plan a two day trip up the river.

Sam and I took 33 hours to get back to Brisbane and arrived back in Clunes late on Saturday. Last reports from Jeff were that they ‘got the story’ and survived the trip, Sandra arrives back in Clunes today so I will get more details.

Cathy Henkel
Monday 12 April 2007