Oscar is an orangutan. He’s a swinging, singing orangutan. Oscar’s favourite things are using his long arms to swing through the trees where he lives. And singing. He spends hours doing this. And sometimes he meets other orangutans and they swing and sing together. It sounds a bit like an orangutan opera!

Oscar lives in Borneo in a peat swamp forest. The forest floor gets waterlogged. So peat is created from the soaking wet wood and dead leaves on the ground. Certain trees grow really well in peat swamps. Oscar’s home is full of very, very tall trees. This makes them just perfect for swinging through!

One afternoon, Oscar is swinging from tree to tree on loose vines. He sees a group of orangutans in the distance and continues to swing in their direction. He hopes they’ll feel like swinging and singing with him.

As Oscar nears the group of orangutans, he notices they appear to be hiding behind some particularly thick undergrowth. He spots an orangutan he knows, Owen.

“Hi Owen,” Oscar calls as he swings down to land beside them.

“Shh!” Owen whispers back. “Keep quiet or they might hear us!”

“Who might hear us?” asks Oscar, not really understanding.

Owen points at something with his large forefinger. Oscar follows Owen’s finger with his eyes. Owen is pointing to a clearing not far away where several men are working. As the orangutans watch, the men pour some petrol from canisters into tanks attached to big saws. They pick them up, pull a cord and the saws start to make a really loud noise. They place them close to the bottom of the trunks of some of the trees, and quickly cut right through them. The trees topple over! The orangutans all start making a kiss squeak sound, to show they are agitated.

“What’s happening?” asks Oscar, who can hardly believe what he is seeing.

“They’re sawing down palm trees in the plantation to make palm oil,” explains Owen. “It’s called deforestation.”

“Buy why?” asks Oscar.

“My mum says it’s because humans like to use it in their food and things that keep them clean. They even use it in their cars!” Owen replies.

“But we need to eat the fruit from those trees,” Oscar says.

“I know,” replies Owen. “Mum says the more trees they cut down the more we’re losing food. We’re even having to go closer to the humans to find food. And that can be dangerous sometimes.”

Oscar, who loves palm fruit, swings back up to the top of a tree. He looks down and sees the humans cutting down more palm trees. It doesn’t seem fair that the humans are taking away their food. Why can’t they all just share the fruit on the palm trees? Oscar desperately wants to do something to help.

As he swings round and round on one of the branches, Oscar starts to sing. Singing helps him to think. After just a few seconds, he has an idea. He sings to the other orangutans to get their attention.

“What if we take away the liquid that makes the saws work?” Oscar suggests.

“The petrol, you mean?” asks Owen.

“Yes,” says Oscar. “We could wait until night-time and hide the petrol so the saws don’t work. Then they couldn’t cut down the trees.”

The orangutans all look at each other and make a grumbling sound to show that they think this is a good idea.

So, later that night, once the humans have left, the orang-utans form a chain across the trees in the forest.

Oscar and Owen head for the clearing and together, they pick up one of the petrol canisters. Using their long, lanky arms, they heave the canister upwards. One of the other orangutans swings down and grabs it from them. Using his momentum, he swings the canister along to the next orangutan. And this orangutan swings it along to the next, who swings it on to the next. SWING-SWING-SWING. The canisters gradually move along the orangutan chain far away into the thick forest. They’ll be safely hidden there. Soon, there are no canisters left.

The following morning, when the humans return to work, they try to start their saws. When no sound comes out of them, they look for the petrol canisters. But there are none. Anywhere. They look around the clearing. At first they are confused. Then they are perplexed. Where have all the canisters gone?

Oscar and the other orangutans watch safely from amidst the trees in the forest. They give each other big ape high fives.

“Thanks so much Oscar,” says Owen.

“No problem!” Oscar says, smiling. “Or should that be ‘No palm oil!’”

Oscar is over the moon. By being little monkeys – well, big monkeys actually – he and his friends have halted deforestation!

Questions for discussion

What things can cause deforestation?

Why is deforestation not a good thing for the wildlife living in a forest?

Can you think of things that can be done to combat deforestation?