Climate change and deforestation are inextricably linked. Forest destruction contributes around one-fifth of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transport sector, and the problem is so severe that Indonesia and Brazil are ranked third and fourth respectively in the list of top emitting countries, mainly because of deforestation.
It's against this
background that our latest Forest Defenders Camp opened a couple of weeks ago
on the Indonesian island
of Sumatra, located on
the frontline where the peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil
plantations. Palm oil is used in hundreds of food and cosmetic products, as well as biofuels.