We live in a beautiful, strangely connected world. A world where an Argus pheasant dancing in the under-storey of a Malaysian rainforest is linked by logging and timber trade to furniture in households in Coimbatore or Delhi. A world where an orang-utan sleeping in its canopy nest in the rainforests of Indonesian Kalimantan is linked precariously to bars of chocolate and soap in Europe and cheap palm oil in Indian markets. It’s a world where a person buying a packet of Indian coffee or tea anywhere is inextricably linked to hornbills and rivers, to threatened macaques and elephants of the forests and grasslands of the Western Ghats, Assam, or Darjeeling. In today’s world, although perhaps unintended by the ultimate consumer, a purchase of a cell phone or laptop carrying coltan ore could signify slamming the door on equatorial forests and endangered gorillas of the Congo. Read More
