The Genius Plan to Rewild Palm Oil Farms (and Save the Orangutan!)

Their plan to save the orangutan starts with cutting down trees? We are here, deep in the jungle of Sumatra, Indonesia. A biodiversity hotspot home to hundreds of endangered animal species, including the Sumatran orangutan. Orangutan translates to person of the forest, and we literally share 97% of our DNA with these gentle and intelligent primates. But orangutans are critically endangered, and despite decades of conservation efforts, the crisis is actually worsening because their habitat is still being cleared for logging and agriculture. But that's all about to change, because you're about to see a project that could solve the problem once and for all. Welcome to our food forest. Because not only are they restoring the threatened jungle ecosystem, We can reverse the damage. They're working with the local villagers to create an experimental food system where orangutans and humans eat from the same forest, coexisting side by side. This is a unique project because it's layering all of these different elements. This is how we save the orangutan. But the wildest part is, it starts with cutting down trees. Very specific trees. Palm oil. Half of the world's palm oil is produced here in Indonesia. It's a cooking oil. It's a food additive. It's a biofuel. It's a highly valuable crop. But this is not a native tree. In order to grow these trees, the native biodiverse jungle is cut down, burned, all the native species removed, and replaced with these non-native palm oil trees at a massive scale. Yes, these are trees, but there's no habitat that's familiar to these native species. And the impacts are devastating. But I know we can fix this problem. The question is how. Some people say, boycott palm oil. But you have to realize, most of the food of the world is grown as a monoculture, which is the practice of growing a single crop in a large area. And as far as wildlife is concerned, a monoculture might as well be a desert. So how can we feed ourselves without having vast monocultures that displace the native ecosystem? This is the core issue that we actually need to address. So if you care about the orangutan, you're going to be inspired by what you're about to see. Because right across the river from this palm oil plantation is one of the best examples on the planet that shows how nature and humans can coexist using a system called permaculture. The Orangutan Information Center selected this site very intentionally, because it's at a critical location at the edge of the Gunninglusser National Park. Right at the epicenter of the problem, where palm oil plantations are encroaching on some of the last wild habitat left on Sumatra. This is our permaculture site, and this is the national park. A lot of trees, I think maybe 20,000 already planted in our restoration and also in the national park. Looking at historical satellite images, we can see that they wiped out the palm oil trees and then replanted a biodiverse forest. And the whole site has been restored back into thick jungle. Do orangutans ever come onto your site? Yes. Wild orangutan. Okay. And he's looking, my brother, my brother. You can see the trees already connect, so some of the monkey or the orangutan can cross to our site. But farmers really hate them because they always eat like a banana from their garden. This is actually really important to understand. Local farmers don't want to lose crops to hungry primates, just like farmers around the world fight to protect their crops from foragers, pests, and predators. It's as if it's become a battle against nature. But at this site, they designed a genius solution, a wildlife permaculture interface. It's like a protective buffer zone full of massive amounts of food that can be harvested by humans and animals. In here, we prepare like a food forest for the animals. Hopefully by preparing this additional food for the wildlife, they will not go anymore to the farmer garden. So they will be safe and the farmers also will get good income from the garden. You guys restored this national park area, but you planted tons of fruit mixed in here on your side, and that's harvested by monkeys and other wildlife that you can also harvest for your own yields. So when humans have a forest that they can harvest from, and the very same forest the wildlife can harvest from, then there's no need for either humans or wildlife to come and encroach on each other's lands. Deeper into the site, there are more protected food forest areas where they grow high-value crops, demonstrating how village farmers can make even more money than growing palm oil, all while still supporting the natural ecosystem. Welcome to our food forest. So many different types of food that we grow here. Cacao, banana, lemon, betel nut. Between the banana, we can grow the vegetable, cassava, sweet potatoes, special fruit. I think the food forest is a very good technique because we can harvest from many different types of plants. In conventional agriculture, we only cultivate one layer. Like the palm oil here, there's one species of tree. In the permaculture multi-layered system, in that same area, we have many different species filling the different layers, mimicking the same structure that we find in a natural jungle. Tall tree species, lower tree species, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, ground covers, and food-producing plants. So while they do keep out the large wildlife, like primates, to protect their yields in this area, it still functions as an ecosystem. From here you can see some of the birds, and they can eat here because there is no chemical at all here, so they are safe here. In addition to growing their own food, forest gardens can be used to produce highly profitable commodity crops, like coffee, and even flowers that can be processed into valuable essential oils. With this technique, we are not dependent on one market. So many different ways to get income compared to monoculture system. The food forest should be implemented by the community in the village also. If we're really going to solve the problem of encroachment into the habitat of endangered species, then we need systems like this that have an economic yield that are serving the needs of humans while at the same time creating habitat for nature. Because let me be real with you, the wild Sumatran orangutans population has crashed by 80% in the last 75 years. They are headed towards extinction, and this community is fighting for their very survival. We want to see them convert more palm oil plantations into permaculture systems. And that's why we're launching a crowdfunding campaign to help support this project. Every $2,600 we raise will cover the cost to buy an acre of palm oil plantation and convert it into a thriving permaculture rainforest, expanding this critical orangutan habitat. So if you want to help save the orangutan in a real way that's long-lasting, then donate to this project. Because together we are building a model for a new world where we can have food security and thriving wildlife. But let's be real, it's not a simple task to get a whole culture to change their farming system. And that's why the project decided to go right to the source, by starting a nature school where they teach the village children this new way to live. This is our nature school. The kids from the village go to this school. They are not only learning the national curriculum, but we also teach them about permaculture, how to grow the vegetables, how to make the fruit trees, and forest restoration. To educate them, that's really, really important because they will be the next leader who will protect the forest. Who is your name? Your name? Your name. Your name? Who is your name? Yes. Okay. Who is your name? My name is Monica. Monica. Who is your name? My name is Juliana Leticia. Excellent. This is Rosella. How amazing is this that these children are taught how to harvest Rosella here, which is a type of hibiscus. They're being taught how to make products, how to get yields out of this food forest. The real skills you need to survive in this area here in a sustainable way. This is our Rosella tea. The color is really nice. It's very fresh. Tastes a little bit sour, like lemon tea. Now they know why they have to protect the wildlife and habitat, and they know how to help their parents to practice with a permaculture technique. You can see there's many different types of fruit trees here coming from our students. Every month they have to pay the school with the seedling. Wait, so the kids pay their tuition in tree seedlings? Yes. They bring at least four every month to pay the school, and their parents don't need to spend any more money for their school. So these fruit trees will give a good income later to pay the teacher. And it's not just trees they're planting. They're using high-level permaculture methods in their school vegetable garden as well. We use this permaculture garden for the school garden, teaching them how to grow food to help their family in the village. This is eggplant, and then we have corn. And now we are mulching to stop the weed. What makes this a truly sophisticated permaculture garden is how all of these garden beds are built level across the natural contour of the landscape, like miniature terraces. When it rains, water flows down and it hits that level line and spreads out evenly across the whole garden, working with nature to create a free passive irrigation system. They're training villagers how to use this very simple leveling device to find contour across a hillside. So these techniques can be implemented across the region, empowering the community to grow their own food in a sustainable and affordable way. This whole integrated system is demonstrating to the villagers how they can once again coexist with the natural wildlife, which was actually their traditional way of life before the palm oil plantations. Local people don't want to see the orangutans disappear. In fact, there's a big effort to support the orangutans directly by helping those who have been injured in the wild or rescued from illegal wildlife traffickers at their wildlife rehabilitation facility. And they have biologists working with these animals to rehabilitate them and then eventually re-release them back into the wild. To understand what it would take to save the orangutan once and for all, I spoke with the founder of the Orangutan Information Center, Panut Hadiseswayo. His vision could help unite a global movement to actually make this happen. Palm oil is not the problem. The problem is destroying the forest. Two years after we converted this monocultural palm oil into a permaculture rainforest, we have tigers here. We have sun bears. Even we have wild orangutans coming to this site. We have to really educate the people that with permaculture they can grow their own food and cash crops and commodities like coffee and cacao. Even palm oil in a sustainable way. Forest is the source of living. Forest is the future for us. And without forest we lose many things including our civilizations. But we can reverse the damage. So my biggest vision is how we create coexistence between human and wildlife and forest actually standing peacefully. I've never seen a project that is merging habitat restoration, endangered species rehabilitation, agroforestry, and education all in the same site. This multi-layered approach is how we actually fix these problems. The habitat of the orangutan is decreasing year after year after year. With projects like these we can actually see the habitat of the orangutan increase. And we can see the livelihoods of the people around here increase at the same time. People like Sabar and Panut have devoted their lives to uplifting the community and saving the orangutans. And as a father, seeing the next generation of forest stewards brings me hope. They've shown what's possible and they're ready to continue to improve this site and grow this incredible forest we see. And also expanding to create a model that could be replicated in other areas around the world. This is how we save the orangutan and any other species that's threatened by industrial agriculture. Because if we can address this here, we can do it anywhere. So please donate to support this project and this movement to fix our world. Because we can repair this earth together.