The forest dwellers

The Indonesian archipelago is made up of over 17,500 islands, with a great diversity of ethnic and indigenous cultures. Across the five main islands - Sumatra, Java, Borneo (Kalimantan), Celebes (Sulawesi), and Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) – thousands of indigenous communities live in varying degrees of isolation. When ‘The Burning Season’ was shot in Indonesia, the crew encountered two of these groups: the Orang Rimba and the Dayak people. Read more about these groups here.

Orangutans are a keystone species for conservation. The diversity of foods they eat and their wide path through the forest means that they are crucial to the distribution of seeds which regenerate the forest. Indeed, some plants won’t even germinate until after they have been through the animals’ digestive system. The loss of the orangutans could have dramatic consequences for the ecosystem, with the subsequent depletion of thousands of plants. You can read about different species of orangutan here.