Travelling down the Melawi River. Photo by Paul Daley

We jut across the windy river, travelling on small colorful speedboats that dash across rapids and interconnecting channels. It’s only been a few days since being in Borneo and the journey has officially begun. We travel down the Melawi River, one a thousand rivers traversing the West Kalimantan province, heading deep into the heart of the rainforest. As we reach deeper and deeper into the interior, we leave all signs of civilization behind and enter an unknown world.

Along the river we pass by small villages with wooden huts, fisherman paddling wearing rice hats, children bathing in the water and the only thing in the sky is the canopy of a the rainforest covering the heavens. Yet as remote as we go, we could not escape an ugly reality. At seemingly every turn we were reminded of the industrial axe this land faces. There was illegal logging with pile-ups of timber as tall as buildings, illegal gold mining spewing toxins into the water stream and the rows of palm oil plantations further beyond the riverbanks. These were the last of the primarily rainforest in Borneo, supposedly protected, and even they were disappearing.

Near nightfall, we finally arrived at a Dayak village in the Serawai region where we are greeted with a wonderful eruptions by the entire tribe and their many children. Swarmed by seemingly a thousand tribes people gleefully greeting us, shaking our hands and taking pictures with us.  For many we were the first foreigners they had ever laid eyes on.

Eco-Warrior Ben Dessen greets Dayak community. Photo by Paul Daley

We were then taken to join neighboring tribes in a traditional Dayak ceremony. There was electric dancing of our numerous cultures, piles of food handed to us and gulps of wins taking a pounding on our livers. At the end, we we’re made honorary Dayak tribes members and accepted as one of their own, each given a bracelet to bind this new relationship.

The next few days we travelled up river by boat to the villages of the Serawai and Ambalau regions. We had meetings with the tribes people. We told them of why we came, to help support their fight and to hear their stories of what was happening. What we heard brought many of us to tears.

They told us how their land is being stolen from them, as the palm oil companies make claim by bribing local officials to sign off on permits, turning tribes against each other resulting in bloodshed, and abusing the Dayak’s lack of land certificates for their own gains. It can be as simple as one day the palm oil companies makes claim to their land by spray-painting the trees, sometimes without any prior notice or compensation to the owner. A week later the land has been demolished with palm oil saplings crudely planted. For the Dayak, everything is gone: their farm, their livelihood and their ancestral land.

In these conversations, it becomes clear that they are desperate for us to hear them. For they so gravely want a voice in a world where they are voiceless. In one meeting in particular we begin to hear their voices loud and clear:

A Dayak farmer impacted by palm oil. Photo by Paul Daley

“We do not want to be slaves on our land,” says an anonymous tribes leader.

“This is our land, our water, don’t let us loose this because soon we won’t have a home,” says another. “We will become poorer than we are now.”

These are powerful words that stay with me. It was beginning to sink in that protecting the rainforest of Borneo is life or death for the Dayak. This wasn’t just about protecting trees – this was about human rights. With their voices, it is clear that both survival of people and the planet are at stake here.

Four days later, we said our goodbyes to the villages, some tears and hearts full for these communities. As we leave, they ask us to do one thing, to tell their stories and to make their voices heard.

***

The Borneo Diary is the story of Emily Hunter’s eco-campaign with DeforestACTION. The DeforestACTION project is a youth driven movement to protect the Borneo rainforest of Indonesia. Fifteen young people, including Emily, took part in a campaign in September on the on-ground in Borneo, with the support of millions of students & schools around the world.

Disembarking from the plane, the dry and arid heat hit me like a wave. It was evident that the climate had been reshaped from a once moist rainforest to desert-like conditions. Prior to this, Borneo was a unique place, the third largest island on Earth and home to the oldest rainforest at 130 million years old (older than the Amazon). It has been estimated that nearly half of the world’s plant and  animal species once existed on this island, with many thousands of species that are endemic only to Borneo including the endangered Orang-utan.

Yet the land here is being transformed into an unrecognizable biological desert from rapid deforestation – and becoming part of the problem. For deforestation accounts for 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with Indonesia releasing more CO2 though deforestation than any other country. That piece of the carbon puzzle is more than the entire transportation sector – meaning that’s more than every car, truck, boat and plane on the planet.

Climate change was one thing, but there were also rich biological values in the rainforest that were at stake. Everything from medicinal plants that could hold the secrets for a cure to AIDS and cancers, to unique animal species found nowhere else in the world. Yet every time the forests are cleared these biological treasures are being lost, destroyed, or in the Orangutans’ case, use for entertainment, sold in body parts or exploited for the sex trade.

But that was purely the environmental side of the coin; what was happening in Borneo was also about human rights, something that was unchartered territory for me an eco-activist. Soon, I would come to find that deforestation meant the lands was being stolen from  the Indigenous people of Borneo, called the Dayak. The very lands that the Dayak depend on for their food, their water, the parts to build their homes, their jobs with farming and for their very survival. I would also come to learn that when they fought back for their lands, they were beaten, arrested, humiliated and in some cases, killed. Much worse, the world wasn’t listening to them; they were voiceless in this struggle.

So why was this all happening? The driving factor was the palm oil industry. Palm oil is a small red fruit whose oils are increasingly desired by the West for cooking oil, cosmetics, cleaning products and ironically for biofuels. In industrial-scale palm oil, these plants flourish in vast monocultures that is to say single-specie agriculture. Imagine rows upon rows of palm trees as far as the eyes can see, the previously existing rainforest hacked away leaving but a few plants in its wake. This is a palm oil plantation. This is deforestation. And tthis is what we must stop.

***

The Borneo Diary is the story of Emily Hunter’s eco-campaign with DeforestACTION. The DeforestACTION project is a youth driven movement to protect the Borneo rainforest of Indonesia. Fifteen young people, including Emily, took part in a campaign in September on the on-ground in Borneo, with the support of millions of students & schools around the world.

There was so much responsibility on our shoulders. The Indigenous people of Borneo were relying on us to help protect their land and their livelihoods. The forests were depending on us, disappearing quickly with bulldozers on the way. The climate was aching for us, with “carbon bombs” ticking away as gases slowly release from each falling tree.

But we were only a group of 15 young people, what could we really do? This was the question, the question of our times. This was the test, the test of our generation. To save the Borneo rainforest; to win one of the few battles we have left in this world; and to steer humanity off a destructive path. However, in that moment, I wasn’t sure whether we could pass the test.

As I looked back into her eyes, there was something so simplistic yet so powerful communicated without words. A truth I had seemed to be forgetting…

We had already made a change. A change for the life of this one creature in front of me.

Her name was Jojo and she is a baby Orangutan we had rescued. We found her in a small wooden box with nails spiking out. She was sick and terribly afraid. But now she was being looked after with our care at our rescue centre.

This of course was only a beginning, we had hoped to do much more. But it was a turning point in this campaign.

For this showed us that we could make a difference. We can make change. And that a new battle was ahead.

A great eco-battle we must fight.

A battle we must win!

***

The Borneo Diary is the story of Emily Hunter’s eco-campaign with DeforestACTION. The DeforestACTION project is a youth driven movement to protect the Borneo rainforest of Indonesia. Fifteen young people, including Emily, took part in a campaign in September on the on-ground in Borneo, with the support of millions of students & schools around the world.

Check out the show here: www.mtv.ca/impact

For more on The Year of the Uprisings, check out TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year: “The Protestor” 

Here are the instructions:

1. Go to www.climatespark.ca

2. Register at the left corner & login

3. Click on Green Heroes (Finalist)l
or click here: http://www.climatespark.ca/node/144

4. After reading (or skimming) the proposal – Scroll below the proposal & Give us a star rating under “Your Rating” below. There are 10 stars, we hope you will give us a 9 or 10!

5. Last but most IMPORTANT step – This is what counts – Scroll down to the bottom of all the comments and leave your own comments. We need meaningful comments that are more than one-liners (as they get discounted) but at least 2- 3 lines. (Tip to save time: just read others comments and summarize your own based on that).

6. SAVE your comments & rating at the bottom of the box. That’s everything!

THANK YOU A MILLION!

When: Saturday, Aug. 27th

When: 8pm – midnight (auction starts at 9pm Sharp)

Where: Disgraceland, 965 Bloor St West, Toronto (next to Ossington Subway Station)

FREE ADMISSION! 19+ Event 

Click Here to see Auction Items 

Emily is a dedicated eco-activist, she is a Sea Shepherd veteran crew, occasional host on the show IMPACT on MTV Canada and author of the book The Next Eco-Warrriors. To learn more about Emily, visit:http://tiny.cc/sfmqo

1) Date with Emily Hunter 

Emily is a dedicated eco-activist, she is a Sea Shepherd veteran crew, occasional host on the show IMPACT on MTV Canada and author of the book The Next Eco-Warrriors. To learn more about Emily, visit:http://tiny.cc/sfmqo

2) Personal Chef: Cooks Veggie Dinner Party for 6 

Disgraceland Chef Stephan Crowe  will come to your home and cook a multi-course vegetarian dinner for you and five friends.

3) Organic Eco-Goddess Convertible Dress by Yes Lifestyle 

Two outfits in one. Both a dress and a skirt. Yes Lifestyle Organics offers women stylish clothing without compromising the earth. 95% organic cotton

4) Robert Hunter Collection 

A collection of Robert Hunter’s books: Warriors of the Rainbow, Greenpeace to Amchitka, Red Blood & 2030: Countdown to Thermageddon – all signed by the Hunter family. As well as an extremely rare copy of his one and only comic book “In the Time of the Clockmen.” Robert Hunter was the founding president and visionary behind Greenpeace and father of Emily Hunter. Also, autographed copy of Emily Hunter’s new book “The Next Eco-Warriors.”

5) Yoga Package

Get all the yoga you’ll need for one year. In this yoga package, there is two Passport to Prana cards for you and  friend. The Passport to Prana cards entitles you to one class at 70 of the participating yoga studios across  GTA for 1 year. As well, you’ll receive a one month membership to Bikram Yoga Toronto and yoga equipment.

6) One Hour Message & Reflexology 

Recieve a 45 min massage and 30 min reflexology treatment by a registered masseuse, Kevin Janna, from Zen Garden Therapeutics.

Scroll down to see all three parts of the documentary 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

1) Join my Network – Click Here to Join Network (BOTTOM page)
If I gain 500 supporters, I’ll be one step closer to being selected for the project.

2) Donate $25 or more – Click Here to Donate
If you can, the money goes to buying back land for reforestation in Borneo.There are also prizes for different levels of donations.

What is DeforestACTION?
DeforestACTION is a global action campaign that will restore a rainforest, save orangutans and help a local community in Borneo, Indonesia this summer. All funds raised go to securing and sustaining land for restoration. If I raise enough funds, I will get the opportunity to join.

http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/27722?a=141449

My first book has been released called The Next Eco-Warriors, a collection of short stories by a new generation of eco-activists from around the world, that I edited. Together, these stories show that a global movement is on the rise, a new movement that is more diverse, inclusive and using new tactics to make their change.

The book includes stories from Enei Begaye, a Navajo/Diné activist who mobalized her community to end coal plants and begin green jobs on her reservation; Andy Ridley, the executive director of Earth Hour, who used the powers of the Internet to stem a global climate movement; Peter Hammerstedt, first mate on the ships of  Sea Shepherd, who uses direct action to save marine life;  Tanya Fields, a guerilla gardner who empowers her Bronx community and the planet one seed at a time.

In a time of advancing climate change and environmental destruction, the world is calling out for
The Next Eco-Warriros.