00:01Borneo's orangutans are among the world's most endangered great apes.
00:06But their home is shrinking.
00:08My parents still remember the old forest.
00:11Now the forest no longer exists.
00:13Palm oil plantations are threatening the ecosystem,
00:16while large companies reap the profits.
00:20We didn't clear the forest, but we're the ones suffering the consequences.
00:25Is there a way to balance nature and economic growth?
00:29And what future remains for Borneo's orangutans?
00:48Entering the Tanjungputing National Park.
00:51I'm traveling with Jeffrey Wanda, who grew up in this part of Borneo.
00:56For three days, he will guide me deep into the jungle.
01:01This feels like home to me.
01:03So after I graduated from my study in Java, I decided to come back here.
01:09I enjoyed this job. This is my office.
01:13My lovely office.
01:14His office covers around 4,000 square kilometers and includes several different ecosystems.
01:22The National Park lies in southern Borneo, in Kalimantan, a region that belongs to Indonesia.
01:29Alongside the island of Sumatra, Borneo is the last remaining home of the orangutans.
01:36The National Park is one of their most important habitats.
01:42Suddenly movement on the riverbank. My first wild orangutan.
01:50This young male has come down to feed on fresh shoots.
01:53The forest provides exactly the kind of environment they need.
01:57And the orangutans help keep the forest alive.
02:02The orangutans are known as the farmers of the forest.
02:07You know, they eat the fruit with all the seeds.
02:10They help to spread the seedlings.
02:12So basically it's very important for the nature, for the ecosystem.
02:17The problem is, the same forest that is good for orangutans is also valuable to humans.
02:24For timber, plantations, mining and settlements.
02:28Studies show that the rainforest on the Indonesian part of Borneo has been disappearing particularly fast.
02:38This analysis by Forest Watch Indonesia shows that the country has lost millions of hectares of forest and the deforestation
02:45goes on.
02:46With Kalimantan, this part of Borneo where we are now, accounting for the largest share in forest loss.
02:53Jeffrey doesn't only know the forest, he also knows what its destruction looks like.
02:58He is Dayak, part of one of Kalimantan's indigenous communities.
03:03My parents still remember the old forest, the primary forest.
03:08Because we lived there for a long time.
03:13And we spent a lot of time playing in the jungle.
03:17My dad hunting for the boar and deer with all the men in the village back then.
03:24But it changed a lot in the last few decades.
03:27Now the forest no longer exists.
03:30It converted into a palm tree already.
03:34The next day I take a speedboat further upstream.
03:38We have been told about a recent deforestation site outside the national park.
03:43A group of local farmers invited us to see their struggle against a big palm oil corporation.
03:52One of them is Handi Firdaus.
03:55He says the company has continued to cut trees here even after their license for this area was revoked by
04:02the state last year.
04:06Now he is concerned about landslides in his village further downhill.
04:15We don't want to become victims.
04:17We are the indigenous people of this land.
04:19We didn't clear the forest.
04:20But we are the ones suffering the consequences.
04:23The companies and their bosses live comfortably in Jakarta.
04:26But we are the ones who feel the real impact.
04:29The people here actually want to protect our forest.
04:36Indonesia sharply reduced deforestation after the mid-2010s.
04:40And the current forest ministry insists it isn't neglecting forest protection.
04:45But numbers from environmental groups say the trend is worsening again.
04:49According to a local think tank focusing on biodiversity, forest loss surged by roughly two-thirds in 2025, the highest
04:59level in eight years.
05:02We want this land to be restored and turned back into forest.
05:06We have plans to do that, even though we are just villagers with limited knowledge.
05:12There is forest land upstream along the Mentai River that we want to protect and preserve.
05:18The next day starts early and it starts well.
05:22With movement again in the trees.
05:25The silver langur.
05:27Here.
05:28This one right here.
05:29A small group of monkeys is moving through the canopy.
05:32But we are looking for big apes.
05:35Jeffrey suggests heading into the forest on foot and it turns out to be our lucky day.
05:42A group of orangutans is moving through the trees.
05:47Around 20 animals of the roughly 6,000 that still live in the national park.
05:54This big male was once released back into the wild after being held in captivity, which is why we can
06:01get unusually close.
06:02The population here hasn't been counted for several years.
06:07But Jeffrey says that inside the park there is hope that numbers are stable or even growing.
06:14Females usually have one infant at a time.
06:18Young orangutans stay with their mothers for years.
06:22That means populations cannot bounce back quickly after forest loss, fire or capture.
06:30Yeah, poaching used to be a big problem like then because there were people that willing to keep a baby
06:37orangutan as a pet at home.
06:39So they're willing to spend a lot of money to buy a cute baby orangutan.
06:43And also because the female orangutan and the baby, they have a very strong bone.
06:47And the only way you separate the mom and the baby is just by killing the mom.
06:51There's no other way to do that because the mom will never leave the baby alone.
06:57Jeffrey believes education of the local population is key to protecting wildlife here.
07:03The impact of deforestation isn't always immediate.
07:07So making informed decisions is important.
07:10It's just a complicated thing.
07:12It's just hard to make a balance between the economic and then the nature.
07:18Because if you talk about palm oil, if you see it from the economic perspective, it's good.
07:23It helps a lot of people to get jobs.
07:26But on the other hand, if you see it from the environmental perspective, it's bad.
07:31From the air, it becomes clear how bad.
07:36Palm oil is efficient and highly profitable.
07:38But here in Kalimantan, it often comes at the expense of rainforest.
07:44This is a new area.
07:46It's like a couple of months ago.
07:48They are planting the palm oil.
07:53We have stopped at one of the last villages before the deep jungle begins.
07:58Ariadi, who lives here, shows me around.
08:01Locals say nearby palm oil plantations have affected the rivers people here depend on.
08:07Fertilizer, pesticides and eroded soil wash into the water during heavy rain.
08:15This river used to run clear.
08:19But the issue is not simple.
08:22Palm oil is a lucrative business and there are few jobs here.
08:29Yeah, of course, for our villages, like, didn't have a choice for walking.
08:35So when a palm oil plantations come in, they, like, give a promise to us and we can give a
08:44job, like, working for a palm oil plantations.
08:47And then they are promised to give us, like, electricity too.
08:53Back on the boat, we head to a place that Jeffrey says offers some hope for the forest and the
08:59animals that depend on it.
09:01We arrive at a place that looks radically different from the lush rainforest.
09:05So this is used to be a gold mine here.
09:09Yeah.
09:11So now, um, also there's an area that burned by fire in 2015.
09:17It's more than 14 hectares area get burned by fire back then.
09:21And now they have a restoration project, which is, so invited a lot of people like volunteers to come here
09:30to plant the trees.
09:31Yeah.
09:32The project is run by private organizations.
09:35Without trees, rain has washed many of the nutrients out of the soil.
09:40What's left is sandy and dry.
09:42Keeping new trees alive here is difficult.
09:46It's a long-term process.
09:47It's not instant.
09:48Yeah, because, again, it depends on the area and depends also what type of tree you planted,
09:52because some of the trees are slow growing and some of them quite fast growing.
09:55So you need to choose the right seedling.
09:58Yeah.
10:00Jeffrey wants me to choose a tree, too.
10:02So we visit a small reforestation nursery.
10:06There are many seedlings here, but Jeffrey is looking for one in particular.
10:10Fruit bed, the monkey, and that one right here.
10:16George, this is your tree.
10:19It's called Nyatu.
10:21Nyatu has a fruit.
10:22It's like avocado.
10:24The communication of avocado.
10:25It's good for the orangutan and all the monkeys.
10:29We pick a spot that has already been prepared.
10:33Smaller plants provide some shade.
10:36Planting a tree here is easy, they say.
10:39Keeping it alive in the soil, though, takes years of care.
10:43And restoring a forest can take decades.
10:49This is planted in 2017, he said.
10:54Yeah.
10:56Yeah.
10:57Yeah.
10:59Yeah.
11:00As you can see, even though these trees grow relatively fast, they still take time.
11:07Jeffrey tells me that reforestation is good, but stopping deforestation is even more important.
11:13That will require alternatives of income for the communities here.
11:18One of them is tourism.
11:21Taking visitors by boat to see orangutans gives local people a way to earn a living from the forest without
11:27cutting it down.
11:30It gives them a reason to protect the trees and the animals.
11:35This is what I learned on this journey.
11:40If you want to save this forest and with it the orangutans, you have to work with the people who
11:45live here.
11:46The forest does not only protect great apes, but also rivers, villages and livelihoods.
11:52Young trees take decades to grow.
11:55People here depend on the forest for clean water.
11:59Orangutans reproduce slowly.
12:01And once a forest is gone, it can't simply be replaced.
12:09Without real protection, the future of this entire ecosystem hangs in the balance.
12:31This is where we can take place and escapades to take place and do this for our children.
12:33And it is also available on the forest for us.
12:35Put it up in the forest, how to make a creature that is past?
12:37And it has a variety of trees that are shining in the forest?
12:37What does that mean?
12:38The forest is here.
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