Key Characters

Dorjee Sun

Australian "green entrepreneur" Dorjee Sun

Now 31 years of age, Asian-Australian Dorjee Sun is one of his nation's young achievers. Right after graduating from his double degree in law and business, he made a fortune developing websites for social networking and legal industry recruitment. Since then, his boyish charisma has impressed powerbrokers from Davos to DC. But faced with the global climate crisis, Dorjee decides to put his own money and reputation on the line in an effort to save the planet.

Through his business relationship with Steve and Terri Irwin's Wildlife Warriors, Dorjee learned that many of Indonesia's unique endangered species - particularly the orangutans - are on the brink of extinction. Indonesia is tagged 'world's worst' in forest clearing, chopping down and burning 300 football fields'-worth of rainforest every hour.

Using expertise gained during the dot-com boom, Dorjee set up a small carbon trading company and developed a scheme based on 'avoided deforestation'. His plan is that farmers and companies should be paid to protect the forests instead of clearing them to plant cash crops.

"I've always had an abiding passion for conservation but I could never work out how to make it profitable. When the Kyoto process came through, there was a way to - one - a way to stop climate change, and - two - make money, so I started looking really closely."- Dorjee Sun

The funding comes from trading the carbon storage represented by the forests on an international exchange, like stocks or shares. To raise the carbon finance, Dorjee travelled from his home in Sydney to the jungles of Sumatra and Papua, gaining the trust and support of the local political leaders. The governors of Aceh, Papua and West Papua (Indonesia) signed contracts allowing Dorjee the exclusive right to trade the credits represented by their vast forests.

Journeying onward to the USA and UK, he pulled together a team of experts and inched toward his goal: a massive carbon deal supported by investment powerhouses and respected institutions. A major hurdle in the process is the exclusion of avoided deforestation from the Kyoto Protocol. Dorjee attended the climate change conference in Bali last December to push the case for including forests in the roadmap for a new protocol to commence in 2012. The stakes were high at the UN conference: could world leaders reach a consensus to create meaningful change?

If successful, Dorjee's company, Carbon Conservation, will be responsible for shifting millions of dollars from big polluting nations into Indonesia, thereby protecting the endangered ecosystems and their inhabitants. The pressure on Dorjee to deliver is enormous, and he's losing sleep over his commitments. If he can pull off the deal - arguably the biggest conservation scheme in history - he will be a hero to the governors ... and could become a very rich man.

Achmadi

Farmer Achmadi

On the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, there is a province called Jambi, known mainly for its agricultural produce. In the tropical countryside surrounding Jambi City, thousands of farmers eke out a living by growing palm oil, rubber trees, and edible crops, or illegally harvesting cabinet timber from the rainforest.

Farmer Achmadi lives in a small village dependent on the local palm oil factory. His community survives by selling the fruit from their oil palms to the representatives who come to the village with their scales and trucks and pay cash for the produce 'on the spot'. Achmadi used to grow rubber trees, but with a wife and young daughter to support, he's moved on to a more lucrative crop with higher yields. The palm oil has been working out well, and the returns have allowed him to purchase a new plot of land on the other side of the city. It's still covered in forest, though, so it will need to be cleared before the palm saplings can be planted.

Truckload of oil palms

For Achmadi and thousands of farmers like him, using fire is the most viable way to clear the almost impenetrable rainforest to plant their crops. For generations, the process has been the same: the forest is selectively logged for saleable timber, using saws and axes or chainsaws, for the wealthier landholders. The farmers must wait until the weather is hot and dry before the burning season can begin. Then, in a ritualised procedure involving the community, the dried-out debris is set alight and incinerated back to the dirt. Unlike some traditional cultivation practices which use fire to positive agricultural effect, this method is intended to be as destructive as possible, getting the forest out of the way in order to plant crops.

In an era of increasing environmental awareness, Achmadi can't ignore the ecological consequences of his methods. Slowly becoming aware of the destructive impact of the burning, Achmadi has a choice to make: to go on in the same fashion, or attempt a more sustainable practise. Global demand for palm oil is increasing, pushing up the price, and he can't risk the welfare of his family on an untried substitute. At the same time, concern about climate change is sweeping the globe and the local Governor, Zulkifli Nurdin, is under increasing pressure to stop the fires. He too is looking for a viable alternative to the massive land clearing for palm oil.

Governor of Aceh Province: Irwandi Yusuf

Governor Irwandi

Governor Irwandi has a chequered past worthy of a Hollywood adventure film. He grew up in the highlands of Aceh throughout a thirty-year struggle for independence against the Indonesian central government. Mr Irwandi, a veterinarian by trade, joined the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in 1990, participating for three years before taking up a scholarship at the University of Oregon, where he undertook a Master's degree in Veterinary Science.

After returning to the capital, Banda Aceh, to teach at Syah Kuala University, Mr Irwandi became a founding member of the Acehnese branch of Flora and Fauna International, lending his veterinary expertise to their conservation campaigns, particularly in regard to the endangered Sumatran elephant.

His concern for Acehnese socio-political issues led him into further contact with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). He held several different positions in GAM over the years, including as a special officer for psychological warfare in the GAM central command, as Negotiation Coordinator, and as Expert Staff on counter-intelligence in the Central Command of the Aceh National Army. He spent some time in 2001 with the Red Cross, taking the opportunity to study humanitarian law. Mr Irwandi was arrested in 2003, and was held as a war prisoner in the Keudah Prison in Banda Aceh.

Mr. Irwandi was in his jail cell when the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake struck. The epicenter of the undersea tremor that caused the disastrous tsunami was very close to the Acehnese coastline. It is estimated that up to 170,000 lives were lost in Aceh alone. In some places the wave was 30 metres (90 feet) high.

As the waters rose inside his prison, Mr. Irwandi fled to the second floor while walls collapsed around him. His only means of salvation was to punch a hole through the asbestos ceiling, scramble onto the roof, and hang on until the tsunami abated. Of the prison population of 278, Mr. Irwandi was one of just 40 survivors.

In a traumatized and devastated province, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian central command negotiated a peace settlement, and Mr. Irwandi renounced his separatist agenda. No longer in conflict with the Indonesian government, the former rebel liaised with an international peacekeeping mission which paved the way for Aceh's first democratic election in 30 years. It was a landslide victory for Mr. Irwandi, who won almost 40% of the popular vote.

"My basic idea is how to save the nature. When I got that idea, I wasn't even aware of the carbon credits. What I had in mind: How to save the forests? My forest is relatively intact. I want it to stay that way."- Governor Irwandi

He took office in February 2007 and is now guarded by the army that once pursued him through Sumatra's jungles. His passion is the protection of Aceh's magnificent rainforests, and he felt that way long before the green movement became fashionable. "My basic idea is how to save the nature," he says. "When I got that idea, I wasn't even aware of the carbon credits."

His first step in realising his vision was to accept Dorjee Sun's initiative and embrace the establishment of carbon trading in Aceh. He saw in Dorjee's plan, a way of reinvigorating the faltering economy and preventing further deforestation. In June 2007 he declared a moratorium on logging in Aceh, and now personally drives out to the villages to conduct spot inspections of former logging camps, encouraging the locals to take up sustainable new professions.

In the lead-up to the Climate Change talks in Bali, Governor Irwandi and Dorjee took a trip through the USA to meet green senators and business leaders, attempting to bring them onboard in Acehnese eco-investments and Aceh Green, a carbon-trading scheme that could turn out to be the biggest conservation deal in history.