It is sunset and we are at a street market overlooking the Batang Hari river watching the boats hovering in the orange splash across the water. Achmadi and Harie are drinking tea and coke, laughing and smoking nervously. I have just eaten one of the spiciest and most delicious nasi goreng dishes I’ve ever had, and chased it down with ice tea. We are all nervous and wondering what the next few hours will bring. We are about to go with Achmadi and Harie to meet the Governor of Jambi.
At their cousin’s house in a suburban area, Achmadi and Hari put on their smart clothes and talked about what they hoped to get from the meeting. Outside the neighbours, some chickens and a rooster came to see what was up. It was a great contrast to the plush residence of the governor that we were about to enter.
At 7.15pm, we walked up the path into a flamboyant waiting room. We were met by a pack of advisers and officials who seem to hover around this governor in presidential style. His staff told us we’d be having dinner with the governor. Surprise number one. That plate of nasi goreng by the river suddenly didn’t seem such a good idea. But as it turned out, eating was not a priority of the dinner. The governor arrived beaming his most welcoming smile, determined to show us that this would be an informal and friendly meeting. He had an elaborate buffet prepared for us, with a dozen or so staff to serve us, and a table beautifully prepared with throne-like seats. There were wine glasses filled with water, and platters of fresh fruit. The table itself was a work of art. The governor insisted that I sit next to him and Felicity next to me, and was determined to translate all conversation into English for us – he welcomed the opportunity to practice his English. He had invited the forestry minister and several other ministers who all sat further down the table. Achmadi and Harie sat on the other side of him, like stunned mullets. They picked at their tiny plates of food, and looked like they were having trouble breathing.
After we had engaged in some amusing small talk, about his English, the background to the elaborate table and his ancestry, we started talking about the forests. In essence, he listened to Achmadi’s story and seemed to understand his predicament. After much discussion with his ministers, he proposed a solution. He is about to launch a pilot program of 50 hectares as a model to show small farmers how they can clear land without fire. He offered Achmadi the opportunity to be part of this pilot program – with up to 10 hectares of his land. The bottom line is that Achmadi has to agree not to burn this land. That was non-negotiable. As part of the pilot program, Achmadi will get free seeds and fertiliser – the reward for those who don’t use fire. As a solution to clearing the land, the fallen rubber trees can be sold to a rubber tree company who will pay for the logs, and collect them using heavy equipment that, in the process, can clear the land for planting palm oil. Although he looked shell-shocked most of the time, Achmadi was pleased with the outcome and accepted the governor’s offer.
After the dinner, the governor posed for photographs and left us with his forestry ministers for a follow up meeting. I was able to ask them about the large companies like PT Makin and their expansion programs. The answer is that they see two types of forest; national parks and conversion forests. The national parks –virgin forest not suitable for cultivation –are out of bounds to everyone. The conversion forests are those areas of forest slated for development. This type of forest they view as a source of revenue, like a big bank, and give permits for it to be logged. Burning, however, under any circumstances in illegal, and they are stepping up their efforts to prosecute the big companies who do use fire. They have satellite surveillance systems to show them locations of ‘hot spots’ as they occur. With regard to the Orang Rimba, the indigenous people still living in the forest, they would prefer they come out of the forest and live like ‘normal people’. They referred to them as “like animals” living naked and wild in the forest, and would like them to be ‘socialised” into mainstream society.
Then we got an unexpected payoff to the scene - the Governor and his staff band, singing karaoke. He sang us a quaint, Malay folksy song, with expressive gestures – which he explained is a song to tell the people that they must not burn the forest!!
We were a boisterous party later at the Novotel bar where we went for drinks and a debrief. Amid much hilarity, we recalled some of the more bizarre aspects of the evening. Achmadi and Harie finally relaxed and told us they were very happy with the governor’s offer, but still sceptical as to whether he will deliver on his promises. I assured him, in my best Arnie voice, that “we’ll be back!!” to follow-up the story.
With regard to Achmadi’s fire that we filmed earlier in the week, I have the assurance of the governor and his forestry ministers, on camera, that they will not prosecute Achmadi for a controlled fire that he lit in the past. They say that prosecuting small farmers is not part of their plan during this transition or education phase. They will prosecute the big companies if they burn, but the small farmers they want to educate with incentives and rewards, not punishment at this stage.
In the film, as in real life, Achmadi lights his fire before he visits the Governor and does so believing it is the best and only option available to him. At the dinner, the governor tells him very clearly and firmly that he must not light any more fires - it is illegal. Achmadi gets the message. He has three more pockets of land to clear, and they will become part of the Governor’s pilot scheme to be cleared without using fire.
The final scene with Achmadi takes place back at his brother’s house – a now familiar location near his land. This is where the fire preparation scenes occurred. Achmadi tells his brother and another local farmer what happened at his dinner with the Governor, and gives them all the arguments why they must not use fire any more. Achmadi looks so much happier, lighter and more positive than we have ever seen him. Even though I couldn’t understand the words of this scene, the change in his character is visible on his face. He has become an active campaigner for change in his community. The men talk about climate change and Arnold Schwarzenegger and the role of forests in reducing carbon emissions. This is a very different Achmadi to the one we first met in the village, who completely dismissed the idea that his fire could be contributing to climate change, or when he was arguing with Walhi about why he needs to use fire. He is so much more aware and has a greater understanding of the issues around climate change and the role of fire. In this last scene, it is clear how much he has changed. He appears more confident and sure of himself, and more positive about his future.
He takes Yuni (his wife) and Dya for a walk to the section of his forest he has not yet logged and they talk about their future. Yuni is afraid the governor won’t keep his promise and Achmadi will end up in jail. He assures her this won’t happen. It is a great scene. It ends with them walking down a long road with forest on either side, singing a song with Dya. They spot a monkey, and watch it romping in the tall trees. Good stuff.
In December we will come back to film the epilogue - whether the Governor has kept his promise to Achmadi and progress on the forest pilot program.
Cathy Henkel, Producer/Director
We can, at this point, or later, track the journey of the palm oil fruit through the factory to where it is shipped off to sea ports for export. We can also trace the palm oil all the way to Europe, specifically Holland. 
At the end of the harvest day, Hari is in his bedroom (with his Britney Spears and body-building pictures on the walls) reading the WALHI papers. He looks very concerned. 
Back in Jambi, Hari and Achmadi visit WALHI again. Achmadi confronts Arief with his concerns about their proposed fire abatement proposals. The arguments are heated and passionate, and yet Achmadi comes away still determined to light his fire. 
Patrick’s wife, Avi, tells us about the Orang Rimba, the local indigenous people who have been displaced by the government and Javanese people and lost their traditional right to manage their own forests. Avi is working with one particular group of Orang Rimba who still live the traditional forest life, but are seriously threatened by the expanding palm oil business. She has given a young man in their community a video camera and laptop computer to document their way of life as a preservation tool. 
The meeting between Achmadi and the Governor will take place on Thursday 2nd August. Achmadi is taking his brother-in-law, Hari to support him, as he believes Hari will be more confident with the Governor. I have no idea what the outcome of this meeting will be, and that creates the drama for the film - will the Governor be able to convince Achmadi not to burn?
It was getting very late, so we went straight to work, filming a sequence with Patrick and his family at home and out walking in their local neighbourhood before we lost all light.
Arriving at the Governor’s ‘palace’, a large, ornate set of government buildings, we were met with further ceremony. Aides escorted us into an elaborate meeting room, with a screen set up. Clearly the governor was going to give us a slide show. When he arrived, dressed in a white military style suit and accompanied by about a dozen staff and advisors, we were impressed by how young he looked. He is in fact 60 but looks twenty or so years younger. Patrick asked the Governor about his efforts to curb the fires, and what alternatives he is proposing for the traditional ‘slash and burn’ method of land clearing. He is clearly passionate about finding ways to stop the fires, and showed us slides of his personal efforts in the peatlands to put out a spot fire. Other slides showed him planting rubber trees and encouraging alternative industries like fish farms. We discussed the impacts the fires are having on climate change and the potential benefits of carbon trading. After the interview, he presented me with a plaque of the shield of Jambi, and we gave him a gift of coffee and chocolates from the Byron Bay region. 
The Governor also agreed to a follow-up meeting on August 2nd with Emil Salim, the ex-environment minister and advisor to the president. Emil is a highly respected figure in Indonesia, especially amongst environmental groups. I interviewed him during the Governors Roundtable meeting in Bali in April where he spoke of the government’s determination to stop the fires this year – mainly because of the upcoming COP meeting in December this year in Bali to discuss the next stage of the Kyoto Protocol. The Indonesian government will be very embarrassed if there is a smoke plume over their country while the delegates to this meeting are in their country.
We set off on Friday morning and drove all day to a small town not far from the access road to the forest. On Saturday morning we were back on the road at 6am, taking a four hour drive along the roughest, bumpiest road I have ever experienced - potholes all the way. And it just got worse the further we went. On the way we filmed a palm oil plantation, some burnt and chopped down forest areas and a family burning their land to clear it. The man of the family told us he was planting vegetables, but across the road was a stand of oil palm trees, so its likely he was clearing for more oil palm. He let us film him cutting trees with a chainsaw while his small fire burnt away in the background. We also filmed a load of oil palm being loaded onto a truck and carted away. 
His people wear some clothing and live in a compound on the outskirts of the forest. We left the car under the watchful eye of our driver, and set off by foot. About 30 people from the compound accompanied us on the journey – kids (mainly naked), adults and a couple of very elderly people – all smoking constantly. We were quite a possie. We walked along a narrow, slippery clay, path deeper and deeper into the dense forest for about an hour. Then we came to a small settlement made up of half a dozen shelters, which was good as it started raining just as we arrived. The shelters consisted of raised wooded platforms each with a canvas roof. We waited there for about an hour, and then out of the forest came a man, three women and about six children. The man wore only a small loincloth, and the woman wore sarongs and were topless. The children were all naked. Ezther and Handi got wonderful coverage of them and we did an interview with the man. He told us how his lifestyle and forest home are threatened by palm oil and that he wants the government to give him a protected area that can’t be logged or burnt. It was poignant and yet disturbing as he smoked all through the interview. They are all heavy smokers in the forest, men and women, which I found surprising and quite distressing. We were advised to take supplies for them in return for the interview – and these consisted of cigarettes, sweets, salt and matches. I baulked at such a gift, but we were told that was what they most wanted. After the interview, we presented the gifts, and they shared them out amongst themselves.