Fighting Forest Faiths

of the palm oil industry

on traditional tribes in Sumatra.

The Orang Rimba tribes have lived

here for centuries, their land

rights and faith are not recognised

by the state of Indonesia. The

surrounding majority Muslim

population cause them Kubu.

It is

like garbage, you cannot even look

at it. It is disgusting.

And their

forests are disappearing at one of

the fastest rate in the world. Not

long ago this was decorated forest,

a hunting ground for the Orang

Rimba, but has recently been cleared

to make way for palm oil.

Now the Orang Rimba are being forced

into a stark choice. Convert to a

state religion or staff. -- staff.

We are travelling in some of the

world Boult last remaining traces of

rainforest and Sumatra. To meeting

the Orang Rimba, the people of the

jungle. They are trying to preserve

their nomadic way of life against a

enormous pressure. From the moment

they are born, Orang Rimba are

connected to the trees. Outsiders

are not allowed to witness or film

originals but we have been given

rare access. This man and his wife,

Elders of the tribe, explained their

birthing rituals.

Everyone in the jungle has their own

trees, even the dead ones. They have

to look after it, they call it their

sister or the elder sister or older

brother. From when they are born

until death, always they are

connected to the jungle.

This man is an anthropologist who

has lived with the Orang Rimba four

years. -- women.

Many of their goals

are animals.

The tiger may be the

most powerful, and they also have

something they worship the God of

the water spring, and they believe

that they cannot do anything bad to

the water, they will never defecate

or put soap in the water, so you can

straightaway drink.

They take me

deeper into the jungle, to their

cost Odile forest for the strike.

The home of the sacred trees. --

cost Odile forest.

The forest is also a valuable source

of medicinal plants. This is the

anti-malaria planned, so it has to

be boiled up and then drank, it is a

very kind of sour taste, bitter

taste. It is used here to prevent or

treat malaria. We are stopping to

arrest and food is quickly found.

Sweet potato dug up from the jungle,

and meat from last night's hunt.

They are approached -- their

approach to food is most different

to other Indonesians, they eat wild

pigs, but will not eat domesticated

animals.

Sneh, for, pick, bats.

Different kinds of letters for

example. Muslims will not eat there

is, and Orang Rimba do not eat

chicken or cows or anything that is

domesticated.

They believe it is

only fair to fight for their food.

But in this hunt today, like most

days, has found no animals. He is

bringing home nothing to feed his

family. His forest is gone.

And this is why. Indonesia is now

the world's largest exporter of palm

oil, a product found in supermarkets

all over the world.

In my lifetime, 30 plus years, more

than half of the metropolis like

force have disappeared. They are

replaced by monoculture palm oil

plantations. This would have all

been thick rainforest not that long

ago, it is now a palm oil plantation

and, as we have been driving along

it has just been rows and rows of

palm oil trees. Here in this land

that was the home of the Orang

Rimba. Orang Rimba's forests have

become someone else's, private land.

I get a sense of this suspicion and

mistrust when we enter a nearby

village with our Orang Rimba guides.

We're just about to head into the

Orang Rimba area, or the poorest,

and we just that at his place for

lunch, and within minutes a whole

group of officials from the local

government have come in and are

asking lots of questions, they want

to see my ID card, they want to know

what we're doing here. The Orang

Rimba they were brought as you say

this represents the pressure that

they have from the authorities, they

are not accepted or treated with

suspicion where ever they go.

With the rapid rate of

deforestation, social pensions are

rising. There is now a push by the

state to rein in the Orang Rimba. I

meted the social affairs

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo

has bowed to slow down the rapid

rate of deforestation and to protect

forests like the Orang Rimba's, but

his minister is reluctant to make

promises.

The fact that the central Government

is seemingly powerless to stop the

deforestation is a sensitive topic.

The palm oil plantations have moved

into the sacred forests of the Orang

Rimba. There is something else on

the horizon, too. Islam.

58 families from the treaty tribe of

Orang Rimba converted en masse to

Islam just a few months ago. The now

Islamic missionary is here to make

sure the new faith is practised.

The whole tribe where picked up by

Islamic vigilante groups and

Government officials, and bust into

the nearest city boss Mike keeping

close to where -- they have to wear

headscarves. He is certain he is

doing the right thing.

But it was not just the afterlife

that this tribe was thinking about

when they converted. It was

surviving this one.

Every dry season fires burned across

our trial, covering the region in a

toxic haze. Slash and burn in, the

quickest and cheapest way to clear

the forest to make way for

plantations. I covered the fires in

2015, a longer dry season that year

made them catastrophic. 500,000

people were affected and dozens died

from breathing problems. When the

fires were finally out, Yusuf's

tribe's forced home was gone.

With no hope of returning to the old

ways and after years of living on

the edge of the village, they

decided to try to control some of

their children into the local

school. They were told they had to

convert.

Since his conversion, Yusuf has

officially taken the wise. He tells

me that is allowed in Islam. In just

a few months, they are lies have

dramatically changed. -- lives.

A belief in one of the six

recognised religions of Indonesia

must be stated in order to get an

identity card, otherwise you don't

officially exist.

What about the Orang Rimba religion,

or the brief they hold?

This man was one of the first Orang

Rimba to convert into thousand nine.

He was the cost Odile chief of his

tribe, and a respected figure. For

him, the promise of an afterlife is

what convinced him.

But he strongly disagrees with the

mass convergence now taking place.

He says it is about clearing the

Forest of Orang Rimba, making land

grabbing easier.

Indigenous rights bodies have been

fighting to have the hundreds of

faiths practised across Indonesia

recognised.

It is so painful that we

have been round, even before they

arrive, the new religion arrived,

those religions who believe in God,

but now it is like they rule us.

They want to clean cars from this

country. -- clean cars from this

country.

They took the state of the

Constitutional Kurt, who ruled last

week there should be space on

identity cards for all faiths. The

Government wants the Orang Rimba can

assimilate, and has built a number

of housing estates for them. Most

have failed. This man takes me to

one of them

Without forests to hunt N on land to

grow crops, the Orang Rimba who have

stayed here are relied on hand-outs.

Today an Islamic charity group has

come. Bags of fresh beef are

slaughtered Cal, an obligation, he

says, to mark the Islamic veil

sacrifice. -- slaughtered calf.

For the poor people, so...

Some of

the Orang Rimba go decals. Miller

magnate everything. Bout it is a

sacred food, they would eat

something that has been kept.

, No,

they eat everything.

Religious

conservativism is on the rise in

Indonesia, wiping away the hundreds

of indigenous faiths and rituals.

Despite the intense pressure, this

man is holding out. He says he will

never convert.

Plantations are edging closer to his

tribe's area, and the scars on the

jungle are everywhere.

His son is now trying to have this

forest recognised as there is,

following a recent landmark court

ruling on indigenous land rights.

But to do that he too has converted.

He worries if he doesn't fight back

that one day his children but be

left only with stories to tell about

the Orang Rimba tribe, once upon a

time they were the people of the

forest, but they are no longer.

HE CHANTS.