Panut:
one of the largest and most intact tropical rainforests
left in Southeast Asia.
It is the only place in the world where you have
Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinos,
Sumatran elephants and orangutan
living together in the same place at the same time.
Unfortunately, the Leuser Ecosystem
the forest is shrinking.
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For the last 15 years
I have been dedicating my life to saving orangutans.
These orangutans are living in the Leuser Ecosystem
on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.
So, the forest of orangutan is really, really precious.
And not just orangutans
that depends on this forest for their survival
but humans depend on this forest for many, many reasons.
And I would say that the orangutan is actually
the guardian of the forest
because they actually keep regenerating, you know.
They keep planting trees.
They are the best gardener of the forest.
And that means actually they are
the symbol of our fight against global warming.
Unfortunately, the Leuser Ecosystem,
the forests in Sumatra and also in Borneo are shrinking
because of the bad planning.
Even the Leuser Ecosystem is not even recognized
in the government's special plan.
80% of the orangutan habitat has been gone,
mainly for plantation.
And not just orangutan that is suffering
because they are losing habitat
but also many other animals become victims
of human-wildlife conflict.
And for orangutan, being stranded is a problem.
It's a big, big trouble for them because they cannot go anywhere.
They cannot find food
and a picture like this showing you
like, you cannot go anywhere, and you face starvation.
And you can imagine that like,
with this kind of situation,
where orangutan just have no trees
left to go back to the forest
and people can get access to actually shoot the mother
and get the baby for pet-trade.
This is a big male orangutan, kept there for 20 years.
You can see the small door there
when he was actually taken, when he was very small.
Now he is lucky because he is now in safety.
And this gentleman,
look at that handsome.
And but-- unfortunately this guy is actually
really, really in trouble because
he is living in a very small forest patch
and we try to bring him into safety.
So, we come to the plantation area
and we check every tiny forest patch left in the plantation
that is surrounded by palm oil plantation.
And sometimes we found these things, that is sad.
Orangutan cannot survive in the plantation.
And we have to rescue.
When we rescue orangutan on top of the trees
top of the canopy like this, like that--
You can see that it's very risky, dangerous.
But we have to do it anyway otherwise they are in trouble,
being shot, you know, or captured
or even die of starvation.
And then we have to get the mother, check their health
while the orangutan is still actually asleep
because of the anesthetic
because we actually tranquilize the orangutan.
And not just young orangutan
but also male orangutan that we have to rescue.
And this massive animal, you know
we have to really carry into safety.
Sometimes we have to go find a very best place
crossing the river, and we sometimes have to cross
you know, peat swamp, and
then we have to move them into safety in the Leuser forest.
And, this is like a happy moment
when I see actually orangutan being released.
It's a freedom. This is something that we want to do,
we want to achieve. This is our final goal.
Keep forest as forest.
We want to secure the habitat
so we chop down illegal palm oil trees.
And then we plant them with forest trees.
And that is actually my son planting trees with me.
And then, this is just showing you how we plant trees
for growing forest from beginning
and we actually look at it from the top.
And for five years, actually we got this.
So, which is really, really promising
and I believe that this is like bringing you a new hope
that we can do something, we can help our nature.
And not only that, but animals coming back.
And then this actually
this is also becoming playground for many, many animals.
So not only that but also many, many people, local people
coming to learn and join us to actually help with the project
and this being--
this bring a good momentum for local people
that we can still save our forest.
So, it's never
too late to save our nature
so, you can do your own, your own part, and I believe
you can contribute in your own way.
So, please join me and save our rainforest and orangutans.
Thank you.
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