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Featured video: new documentary highlights ‘Sumatra Burning’


Oil palm plantation with the rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park in the background of Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

Oil palm plantation with the rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park in the background of Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.


A new half-hour documentary investigate the impact of the palm oil industry in Indonesia, including burning forests and peatlands as well as haze spreading across Indonesian borders. Entitled Sumatra Burning, the documentary explores palm oil production on the island of Sumatra, which is experiencing some of the highest deforestation rates on the planet.



The investigative team travels to Sumatra to talk with activists, meet with locals suffering from the air pollution, discuss working conditions with women in a palm oil plantation, and see a burning peatland forests for themselves.



Sumatra Burning was produced by Coconuts TV, an online media service focusing on Asia.
















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