The Burning Season

Dorjee Sun, a 29 year old Australian with a Chinese/Tibetan background, travels the globe in pursuit of a carbon trading deal that could protect millions of hectares of pristine rainforest, save the orangutan from extinction - and make him a fortune. The young environmental entrepreneur believes there's money to be made from saving rainforests in Indonesia and making a real impact on climate change. His plan relies on his ability to convince the wealthy, high polluting corporations of the West that they hold the key to the planet's environmental future. But the scale of the problem is enormous. Rainforest areas equivalent to 300 football fields are cut down and burnt every hour to clear land for crops such as palm oil. As a result of this massive rate of deforestation, Indonesia is now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. The perpetrators are primarily large-scale corporations seeking a quick profit. But there are also millions of subsistence farmers who use fire as a low cost method of clearing land. One such farmer, Achmadi wrestles with the dilemma of contributing to climate change and needing a viable alternative so he can feed his family and put his daughter through school. The annual burning season in Indonesia has many casualties. In Borneo, wildlife carer Lone Droscher-Nielsen rescues and cares for orangutans injured and orphaned by the fires. She desperately needs a long-term solution to save the species and to return the animals in her care back into the wild. Armed with a laptop and a backpack, Dorjee sets out across the globe to find investors in his scheme. But the corporate world is not yet , willing to value the world's most precious assets, and he receives over 200 rejections. Until the global community signs up to a new agreement on climate changes and forests are included in carbon trading mechanisms, the big corporate players are holding back. The final Act plays out on the global stage at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, and later in California, where Dorjee is invited to meet Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite enormous obstacles, including the collapse of the world's financial markets, Dorjee pulls off a landmark deal that will reduce global carbon emissions, offer alternative livelihoods to small farmers like Achmadi and give new hope to the orangutans. (Antidote Films)