Last week at Rio+20, everyone from Prime Ministers to Amazonian Indians spoke of the importance of protecting tropical rainforests. The UK even announced a new initiative, aimed at capacity building in rainforest restoration.
By an unusual coincidence (and unfortunate as far as my body clock is concerned!) I now find myself heading from a conference talking about protecting rainforests to a project that's actually doing it, as it's time for my bi-annual visit to see how things are progressing in Harapan Rainforest in Sumatra. This forest, around two thirds the size of Greater London, is one of the last five chunks of Sumatran dry lowland forest in the world. We've been working there with Burung Indonesia and BirdLife International, as well as local communities and the forest dwelling people, the Batin Sembilan, to protect the forest that's left and restore the bits that had previously been lost.
The flight to Sumatra travels down the Malay peninsular. As we get lower on our descent into Singapore, we fly over endless miles of the tell tale star-like pattern of oil palm plantations. In recent decades across south east Asia the demand for palm oil (mainly from the west) has led to huge swathes of rainforest being first felled for timber and then burnt to leave the area exposed, ready to plant oil palm. As we take off again we look down on the east coast of Sumatra, and then western Java, and the same distinctive pattern is clear from thousands of feet up.
Palm oil is widely used and it's found in everything from biscuits to shampoo. It's a mega industry, worth mega bucks, and that's why many forests are cleared for this single species.
But there are pockets of rainforest left, where the richness of the plant, animal and insect life has not been squandered, and it's to one of those we will travel tomorrow - Harapan, forest of hope.