Aidan Hartley writes about the vital work of environmental activists in Indonesia. Find out more about his film, Indonesia's Wildlife Warriors
With her hijab framing a determined face, Irma Hermawati storms ahead of the police during raids into the lairs of organised criminals. Her mission - to shut down the illegal trade in wildlife species in Indonesia.
A devout Muslim in the world's most populous Islamic nation, Irma fascinated me with her explanations of how the Koran admonishes believers to protect the environment and not inflict cruelty on animals. For Irma, her environmental activism is core to her religious belief. When I met her she was preparing for a pilgrimage to Mecca on which she was taking her young son, who she hoped would grow up to also see Indonesia's natural beauty saved from destruction forever.
Irma is part of a small handful of young, educated Indonesian conservationists trying to bring about change in the way this fast-growing country manages what is left of its biodiversity - which even now is incredibly rich.
Most of the stories I have done for Unreported World have covered more mainstream political events - conflict, human rights or big social issues such as refugee migrations. The environmental crisis facing our planet interests me deeply, but for both me and the producer Rodrigo Vazquez - a film-maker who has won many awards for hard-hitting investigative documentaries, particularly in his home continent of Latin America - what interested us was to investigate how the destruction of the forest, and species such as the orangutan and green turtle, are linked to corruption and political misrule.
One of the main arguments deployed by elites in developing economies has been that environmental destruction is a necessary sacrifice to grow economically - a right for people trying to lift themselves out of poverty. Environmentalism, so this argument goes, is merely a luxury for Westerners. But, on the ground, Indonesians in Borneo told us that deforestation and palm oil are actually entrenching poverty - polluting and drying up their rivers, robbing them of land and livelihoods, and destroying their traditions.
Another thing Rodrigo and I learned was that the fight to save Indonesia's environment is increasingly being led by young local people. Their struggle is a race against time, but we saw them deploying all the technology and ideas of their generation to spread their message in an attempt to alter public opinion.
I often felt sad and angry about what was happening to Indonesia's environment during our shoot, but I feel immense respect for the local campaigners' dedication to a cause that should be important to the world. 'Do you feel you're losing the battle?' I asked one campaigner after a day of filming that I found particularly depressing. 'My battle is never lost but I cannot work alone,' she replied.
Aidan Hartley
