State of the Forest is a hard-hitting report on the condition of Indonesia’s rainforest today. Still in the production phase, the film is presented below in 8 parts.
Through “a mixture of voices from communities covering Papua, Kalimantan and Sumatra, also blended with the expertise of some of the key Indonesian academics and activists,” State of the Forest provides an overview of the history, future, and present-day reality of Indonesia’s rainforest.
Films4, the producers of the film, explain on their website”The exploitation and clearance of forests has played a major part in funding Indonesia’s economy since the early 1970s, but the financial reward of this destruction has primarily only benefited an elite few. Land management has been largely unsustainable, based on short-term gains. The majority of the Indonesian population has had to suffer the broader consequences.”
And yet, the rate of deforestation “continues to accelerate,” a daunting concern since, palm oil plantations were established so rapidly from 1991 to 2006 — at a rate of “more than fifty” football fields an hour.
Today, “Indonesia is the second biggest producer of palm oil in the world, second only to Malaysia, and the palm oil industry provides the country with an important source of revenue. International demand has fueled the expansion of the industry.”
There is already an est. 7.2 million hectares of land covered in palm oil plantations, and the Indonesian government is planning to dedicate another 4 million hectares by 2015, solely for biofuel production.
Endlessly touted as being “environmentally friendly,” the replacement of Indonesia’s rainforest with palm oil plantations for biofuel “will exacerbate rather than reduce” stress on the environment — leading to even more natural disasters, water and air pollution, and increasing negative impacts on the 40 million Indonesians and Tribal Peoples that directly depend on the forest for their livelihood.
John Ahniwanika Schertow is an indigenous rights activist of Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) and mixed-European descent. For the past 8 years, he has served as the e... 
This is very sad news to hear i always wondered why they had so many earthquakes and storm systems besides being in the ring of fire have struck out there the earth does this when she is hurting bad in an area of the world i have found she is alive this is a living feeling planet i worry about them out there.In Haiti they had little to no protection from the trees surrounding the island because the had clear cut the forests surrounding the island we had one heck of a problem calming that storm.I hope and pray they the tribal leaders of that island learn from these mistakes and remember that after the last tree has been cut down and after the last fish has been caught and after the last river has been poisoned that they will find that man cannot eat money.
State of the Forest – Indonesia’s Battle to Save its Rainforests … http://tinyurl.com/db49a8