Burning Season, The

Each year, in Indonesia and neighbouring countries, great swathes of the land are burned. Peasant farmers who cannot afford machinery to clear their plots simply resort to fire – to regenerate existing plantations or to clear old-growth rainforest for new ones. The result is a choking seasonal fog of smoke that blankets the entire region for weeks, sometimes months. Everyone agrees that it's a problem – environmentalists, climate scientists, politicians, even the farmers themselves. They light the match but see little or no alternative to their traditional farming practices.

The Burning Season (Cathy Henkel, 2008) examines this problem from three points of view, three individual stories which overlap and interlock. Each of the players is attempting to solve the problem or deal with its effects. The ultimate agenda is to preserve as much of the rainforest of Indonesia as is possible, using an innovative financial strategy.

The Businessman – The principal story and the one that locks the others together is that of Dorjee Sun, an energetic and inspirational young Australian entrepreneur who has a scheme to promote. His embryonic company seeks to be a broker, arranging for Indonesian farmers to 'sell' the carbon locked up in the forest plots that they own, rather than clear them. He has the Governors of several Indonesian provinces like Papua and Aceh onside and the ear of some major players in the financial institutions of New York and London. But it's such a new idea that we know that it will be a struggle to tie it all together.

The Farmer – Achmadi is a palm oil farmer in the Jambi Province of Sumatra where half the forest is already gone. As a smallscale farmer, he has several plots of palm trees and is in the process of clearing another, as well as preparing to clear and regenerate an existing plantation which is past its prime. While a successful farmer, he cannot afford the cost of heavy machinery to clear his land and while burning is technically illegal, following the smogs of previous years, no-one will apply the law it seems.

On the face of it he is the villain, one of those directly responsible for the problem. But here he is portrayed in no such light. We see a thoughtful and intelligent individual who is concerned with what he must do to survive. He is open to alternatives but cynical about the pressure he is under to change, the motives of his politicians and the benefits to him of any new scheme.

The Rescuer – Danish wildlife activist Lone Droscher-Nielsen rescues orangutans from cleared forest areas. Deprived of their habitat they flounder quickly. The adults are difficult and may be killed or left to their fate. The young are irresistible and may be taken as pets until they become too large to manage. In her compound, she raises the orphans, attempts to preserve family groups and tries to raise enough cold cash to move and resettle them in more remote forest areas of Borneo.