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.
