Jenny Cottle
“I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees” – this is how the central character of Dr Seuss’ wonderful story introduces himself.
Watching the original Lorax video recently put me in mind of the remarkable people who devote their lives to the conservation of wildlife and habitats.
One such person is Rudi Putra who has recently been awarded the world’s most prestigious environment prize, the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Rudi Putra has worked in the Aceh Province of Sumatra to dismantle illegal palm oil plantations and protect Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem; which is the only place on earth where rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans can be found together in the wild.
Born in Aceh, in an area that was prone to flooding, he came to learn that deforestation amplified the damage the floods caused. He went on to study biological conservation and through his studies became an expert in Sumatran rhinos, and engaging in anti-poaching work. He soon came to realise the bigger problem was habitat destruction – deforestation.
He now works to ensure the government is aware that protecting forests is vital to the animals who live there, and to 4 million people from around Leuser who rely on it for sustainable agriculture, water and protection from flooding.
Rudi has worked with Aceh police to dismantle over 485 hectares of illegal palm oil plantation, creating corridors for elephants, orangutans and tigers which have increased the population of rhinos in this area.
He is currently fighting a proposal from the Aceh government to open up large tracts of the Leuser Ecosystem for the production of palm oil. He created an online petition which received 1.4 million signatures and has helped make the issue a topic of international conversation and placed pressure on the Indonesian government to enforce its own conservation laws.
Tony Rinaudo – image provided courtesy of Suzy Sainovski/World Vision © 2014
In a different, but no less important way, Australian Tony Rinaudo also speaks for the trees.
Tony has committed his life to restoring forest trees to degraded land in poor communities, using a system called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR)
In the early 80s, Tony stumbled across something which led to FMNR. He realised that what he thought were shrubs were actually trees trying to regrow.
He had gone to Africa trying to bring sustainable agriculture to poor communities in the sub-Saharan region, but was often met with indifference and suspicion. His efforts at getting communities to replant trees largely failed.
However, he realised that FMNR is a fast, sustainable method of reforestation, because although around the world millions of hectares of land have been cleared, you can often find an ‘underground’ forest – tree stumps that are still alive. Tony found that by protecting the regrowth on the stumps for 6-8 months and a little pruning, they can become trees once again. The leaves and branches that are pruned can be used for fertiliser and firewood, and the trees can protect crops from drought by holding moisture in the soil.
FMNR workshop in Ethiopia – image provided courtesy of Suzy Sainovski/World Vision © 2014
In 1999, returning to Australia from Niger, Tony joined World Vision as Natural Resource Management Advisor where he continued to spread the success of FMNR on a greater scale. FMNR has not only transformed the landscape of Niger, where Tony first piloted FMNR and now around half of its farmland has been regenerated, it is changing the landscape of vast areas of Africa and Asia.
We may not have a Lorax, but thankfully we have people like these – and perhaps in small ways, we can all learn to speak for the trees.
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