9 October 2019, story by Philip Jacobson (former Money-Trail trainee Jakarta 2019) and Tom Johnson (Mongabay and The Gecko Project) 

In the mid-1800s, the extraordinary biodiversity of the Aru Islands helped inspire the theory of evolution by natural selection. Several years ago, however, a corrupt politician granted a single company permission to convert most of the islands’ rainforests into a vast sugar plantation. The people of Aru fought back. Today, the story of their grassroots campaign resonates across the world as a growing global movement seeks to force governments to act on climate change. This story was co-published with The Gecko Project. Additional support was provided by Earthsight.

The full story is published here by Mongabay