Conservation on the Front Line in Indonesia

As palm oil companies continue to expand into Indonesian forests, the indigenous people of the area are “calling for help from people everywhere in protecting [their] forests and ancestral land.” For the indigenous communities, this is a plea for the conservation of their natural resources. More specifically, palm oil companies have taken advantage of weak planning, and are determined to cut down the Muara Tae land area, which “has lost more than half of its land and forests during the past 20 years of mining companies.” This next land grab by the companies will be very detrimental to the local communities. Since Indonesia already deals with catastrophic levels of deforestation, protecting the greatly-diverse Maura Tae forests is crucial for the island’s continued well-being and for the greater fight for conservation. The indigenous people end by saying; “This is the last remaining forests that we have and the only land we have to survive. If my forests are gone, our lives will end.”