A continued survey conducted by BOS Foundation and the Ministry of Forestry in 26–31 December 2005 has shown that Katingan was one of several dense habitats for orangutans. In the Concession area of PT Makin Group palm plantation of 42,000 hectares size, the survey team estimated that orangutans living in the area were about 1,600 to 2,000. The government have given permits to at least 15 palm oil companies along the river of Katingan. Orangutans are in danger.

Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) and the locals have the same interests toward the livelihood of the forest, though based on different reasons. COP sees the forest as an orangutan habitat that has to be sternly protected, while the local people see the forest as source of life. The villagers of Dayak Ngaju harvest rattan and other non-wood forest resources such as rubber and bananas. The same interest has generated a common energy to defend the forest.

Tell it with a movie

It started with a shooting of documentary movie The Burning Season, one important part of the movie is when COP organized local villagers to fight the palm plantation that was going to expel the folk tradition forest. Behind-the-scenes' cuts of the movie were then compiled into a separate movie. The public responded enthusiastically. To many laymen in Indonesia, to be in a movie or television gives a sense of pride. COP saw it as a chance to strengthen supports and spirit of the people, while at the same time also functioned as a propaganda medium to save the forest.

COP got the locals to make their own documentary that told a story on threats brought by the palm plantation to the village, river and forest that had given them life for generations. The film-making process involved the locals entirely. COP trained and advocated them to write the story, to use movie equipment and audio recording way through to the editing process.

The movie, titled Huma Itah (Our Motherland), was launched on ….. at the Erasmus Huis of the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta. Daryatmo, head of Tura village gave a speech to guests and journalists on the launch. The movie is currently distributed in villages along the Katingan river and on the tables of government officials and private companies. The regent of Katingan has just recently approved the locals' demand to get a hold of the 15-kilometer forest that crosses their villages on the side of Katingan river.

Each and every resident is a Stop-Palm-Oil campaigner

Oil palm suddenly became nightmare for Dayak Ngaju people living along Katingan river. They had seen and learned themselves from other villages that had surrendered to palm plantations. Grasshoppers had attacked their fields as a result of the loss of birds caused by the loss of forests. The villagers could not harvest their rattan or catch the rubber liquid.

Before they all happened, the villagers of Tura, Tumbang Tanjung and Tumbang Lahang have prepared themselves to face the expansion of palm plantations. With COP, they socialise the STOP SAWIT (Stop Palm Oil) movement. They wore the yellow shirts written with STOP SAWIT in their daily activities: to the field, to catch rubber, to fish, to meet with other residents in distant villages. The t-shirts have pushed further discussion on the background and cause behind their acts and helped the message of saving the forest from palm oil companies to spread contagiously. Those who wear the STOP SAWIT t-shirts have become effective campaigners. From a text of a shirt size and personal conversations between individuals, COP with the residents then amplified their voice with a huge banner of a basketball hall size in front of the governor's office. This was the first campaign against palm oil for Central Kalimantan. The sound was getting louder with supports from environmental activists and journalists. On Earth Day April 22, the second rally was held in the Big Circle, the center of Palangkaraya City.

Villages on the sides of Katingan river was previously silent due to lack of access for the residents to express their voice to the public and the government. They now can voice their opinions louder and firmer to safe the forests. The same forests that had provide life to humans and 3,000 orangutans of many generations.

Conservation House

To repeat its triumph in the forest of upstream Cempaga river, COP has built another camp in Katingan. COP called it the Conservation House. With the locals, COP's activists built and filled the house with activities that strengthen the village's institutions and education. COP also helped out the village head to sort out the administration and village management while also teaching the students in the local school. Books on agriculture, development and school science were sent from Jakarta. At present, the Conservation House of Tura village badly needs computers and internet to connect them to the outside world.