The film is a reimagination of the effects of deforestation in Sumatra, where natural habitats are being destroyed to meet the increasing demand for crops, such as Palm Oil. As a result the Sumatran tiger, rhino and elephant are critically endangered and the Sumatran orangutan has been pushed to the edge of extinction . Tragically, Indonesia has the fastest deforestation rate in the world.
SOS (Sumatran Orangutan Society) hopes the film will encourage donations to their Rainforest Home Appeal, with which they aim to buy an 890 acre plot of land called Cinta Raja and turn it from a lifeless palm oil plantation back into diverse and vibrant rainforest.
Some facts:
● The Leuser Ecosystem covers 2.6 million hectares and is home to 105 mammal and 382 bird species, many found nowhere else on earth.
● Around half of Sumatra’s forests were destroyed in 20 years
● 22,000 hectares (almost 55,000 acres) of the Leuser Ecosystem were lost in just 2 years
● There are only around 14,000 Sumatran orangutans remaining in the wild, fewer than
1,700 Sumatran elephants, around 500 Sumatran tigers, and fewer than 80 Sumatran
rhinos.
● Palm oil is an ingredient found in around half of all packaged products on supermarket
shelves, including chocolate, bread, biscuits and shampoo. The destruction of forests to make way for oil palm plantations is one of the biggest threats to the survival of orangutans and other critically endangered species in Sumatra.
● SOS and our partners have planted over 1.6 million trees and restored more than 2,000 hectares of orangutan habitat lost to industrial palm oil development.