Constructing the Climate Defenders Camp

Greenpeace activists and local community set up a "Climate Defenders’ Camp", in the heart of the Indonesian rainforest on the threatened Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra. The Camp was built to bring urgent attention to the role that deforestation plays in driving dangerous climate change, a critical issue to be addressed at the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in December in Copenhagen. The activists construct dams across the Kampar Peninsula, where forest destruction for plantations emits huge quantities of CO2 and has led Indonesia to become the world’s third largest climate polluter after China and the US. The forest peat soils in Kampar are particularly deep and store some 2 billion tones of carbon. They form one of the largest natural carbon stores on the planet and a significant global defense against global climate change. Much of the forest that once surrounded the Peninsula has been destroyed to make way for paper and palm oil plantations. Actress Melanie Laurent, and Chinese celebrities, pop star Xiao Wei and Beijing novelist Chun Sue, all join Greenpeace to speak out against forest destruction and climate change.