We're going to be a bit short staffed on the blog over the next couple of months - Jamie has joined our ship the Esperanza in Indonesia to help document forest and peatland destruction and collect evidence about the palm oil companies that are driving the devastation.
It's his first time on a Greenpeace ship so we're still waiting to hear how he handles the sea sickness, but looks like he had an amazing introduction to the tour:
Earlier this morning, under a blistering tropical sun the Esperanza slid slowly in to dock in Jayapura harbour. About 100 people were waiting on the dockside to welcome the crew, including the mayor and a troupe of colourful dancers. I was also waiting, not just to see the ship arrive but to join the crew as we set out on the next stage of our Forests For Climate tour.
Over the next six weeks, we'll be touring the archipelago to do a number of things. We'll be showing you the incredible wonders of the majestic forests and peatlands in Papua and Sumatra, which will also serve as a reminder of what we stand to lose if the current rates of deforestation continue. We'll be collecting evidence about companies who are causing the devastation as they expand their operations - the focus will be on the growth of the palm oil industry, but there are plenty of other factors, including industrial logging and mining. And we'll also be providing solutions to the crisis both long and short term so these forests can be permanently protected.
So why Papua? As one half of the remote and mountainous New Guinea island, it contains the largest area of remaining forest in Indonesia - with those of Sumatra and Kalimintan on the island of Borneo largely gone or degraded, this really is the last frontier. New Guinea as a whole is home to hundreds of distinct tribes and clans with a corresponding range of cultural diversity. And of course the biodiversity is second to none, with animals and plants new to science being recorded on a regular basis.
That alone makes the forests worth protecting, but as we now realise they're also vitally important when it comes to climate change. Not only do the trees and soil act as huge carbon stores, cutting them down also releases that carbon in the form of greenhouse gases. Indonesia is the third largest emitter on the planet, largely due to deforestation, so if we're going to beat climate change we have to save the forests, including those in Papua.
The way to do this is to place a moratorium on all deforestation across Indonesia, which will provide the breathing space necessary to work on plans to safeguard the future of these forests. The Indonesian government is the one to lay down a moratorium, but it also needs the palm oil industry to provide ministers the space to do so.
Over the course of the coming weeks, we'll be filling in the details on this blog - the problems we face, the companies and people involved on both sides of the argument, and what we can do to fix it.
So come and join us. It's going to be an exhilarating expedition for all of us, but also a very urgent one. The effects of climate change are already being felt around the world and we don't have long to prevent the worst predictions becoming inevitable. We still have time if we act now.
You can follow all of Jamie's updates on the Greenpeace Forests for Climate blog, and we'll reprint some of the highlights here.
