Thud!

[Bornean orangutan in Sepilok Orang Reserve]

When this little fellow peeked over the nest he had just made out of leafy branches, my heart lurched knowing what was at stake.

Home to the only great ape of Asia, the orangutan, the Bornean rainforests are a biodiversity hotspot. The oldest rainforest in the world (older than the Amazon) is home also to one of the rarest cats in the world -- the Bornean clouded leopard. 3000 species of trees, 15,000 species of plants, over 200 species of birds, some 600,000 species of fungi, countless ferns, mosses, ants... the list goes on...

And I landed with a THUD, from where i was afloat on a high, when we drove out of beautiful Danum Valley. For all is not well. This dream of mist-pools in forests and skyward trees, apes, cats and myriad creatures -- not to speak of the lives and livelihood of indigenous people -- is in grave danger.

[Aerial shot of clearing for palm plantations. the neat rows in the foreground are all palm]

Miles and miles and miles of nothing but palm oil plantations. Yes, i had read about it. Yes, i had seen photos. Yes, i knew the threat. But still -- the stark contrast of the magic of the rainforest with the grim reality of the onslaught of monoculture, put a lump in my throat that would not go away.

The insatiable appetite for palm oil has encroached heavily in to rainforests, denuding the land and clear-felling ever more rich forests in favor of palms. Indonesia and Malaysia together account for 80% of the world's palm oil production. And the demand is only increasing. At the current accelerated rate, UNEP estimates severe degradation of the rainforests in Borneo in the next few years.

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”  Baba Dioum, Senegalese Poet/ Environmentalist.