Original subtitles

Asia is home to the most extraordinary animals.

But they are under pressure that is increasing as never before.

All over the continent,

remarkable people are dedicating their lives to saving them.

Their aim is to ensure a future

where humans and wildlife can co-exist.

Northeast Borneo...

..home to one of Asia's most elusive mammals...

..sun bears.

No-one knows how many are left in the wild...

..but they face tremendous threats from deforestation and poaching.

All too often, orphaned cubs are sold as pets.

And those that are rescued...

..end up at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre...

..run by Dr Siew Te Wong...

Hey, hey, hey. Be nice, be nice.

..also known as Papa Bear.

People give me that name, Papa Bear, because all of these are my kids.

But yet, I'm a wildlife biologist.

I want bears to live in the forest and not in captivity, not even here.

One of the sanctuary's residents, Sika,

is about to begin her journey back to the wild.

This will be the culmination of years of care and rehabilitation.

Sika came to our centre in March 2017.

When we first got her, she was about three, four months old.

You see her eyes, she looks very sad, does not want to interact.

Here, of course, we have to play the role as a surrogate mother.

And then she is getting bigger now, you know.

And hey, with that kind of strength,

this is something that you do not want to mess with.

You need to have a lot of love and patience.

The process of rehabilitating and taking care of a bear cub

is a very, very, long process - it takes years.

Before her release can begin, Sika must be darted...

..to avoid unnecessary stress,

and to protect the team.

Although roughly the size of a Labrador,

sun bears have incredibly strong jaws...

..and they could easily kill a human.

Once sedated,

the team have limited time to move her.

The clock is ticking, definitely.

Fingers crossed that everything's go well.

She is placed in a metal crate,

specially designed so that she cannot chew her way out.

OK. There's no going back now.

OK.

One, two, three.

All right, let's go.

The team travel at night to avoid the searing heat of the day,

which could be fatal for an animal inside a metal box.

In order for our reintroductions to be successful,

we need to send them deep in the jungle,

where they're not going to see any humans ever again.

The final leg of Sika's journey...

..will be by helicopter.

The sedative is wearing off...

..and the temperature is rising.

And there's a bigger problem...

..the landing site is under cloud cover.

I'd give it about an hour, 10.30 at least.

10.30? 10.30 we decide,

because it's still very covered on that side.

It looks kind of blue now, it's moving that way,

but it's still kind of sitting.

Erm... It's not ideal for the bears to bake under the sun for too long.

So we basically need to do it before this last trip.

Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.

Working in the forest or working with the animals,

safety always come first.

It is very dangerous,

but I feel like we still need to continue the work

because if we don't do it nobody will,

and the bears would have no future.

Yeah, OK.

News comes through that there's a break in the weather.

OK.

Oh.

For the team, there is not a moment to lose.

It's risky.

The crate could spin uncontrollably,

so palm fronds are attached to steady it.

The only place to land is a small patch of volcanic mud.

After over 20 hours in the crate...

..Sika is now only moments from freedom.

OK.

OK, OK.

All right, so get ready.

Here. All right, Sika, this is it, your last journey ends.

So I wish you all the best.

Yeah, I wish you all the best.

Wish you all the best.

Wish you a happy... Wish you a long life.

Yeah, OK.

OK? Pulling. Go!

The moment I open that door and the bears dash out into the forest,

they are all on their own, I cannot help them any more.

It's not guaranteed that we can make sure

that the bears can live happily ever after.

But I think after all the hard work,

it is still the right thing to do.

The bears deserve a second chance to be in the wild.

In this protected reserve...

..bears like Sika can still make a home.

But in some of the continent's forests,

wildlife is being removed at an alarming rate.

Java, Indonesia.

This rainforest should provide a habitat

for a multitude of birds with melodious songs.

But the jungle is falling silent.

In stark contrast, the bird markets are noisier than ever.

Keeping birds that sing as pets is a deep-rooted tradition in Indonesia.

And, in recent years, a new craze has emerged.

Singing competitions take place all over the country.

The stakes are high.

Big-money prizes are on offer.

Many of these birds have been taken from the wild...

..and the hobby is driving some species towards extinction.

Panji Gustar Akhbar is determined

that one very special species isn't going to vanish.

All this security is here for a reason.

Within these walls is one of the rarest birds in the world...

..the Javan green magpie.

OK, shall we start with the body condition score?

Three and a half.

Here, a breeding programme is being run

with the aim of releasing captive-bred magpies into the wild.

But the team face a huge challenge.

Panji will only release his captive-bred birds

if he can find a population of wild magpies with which they can breed.

But with so few left...

..it's a near impossible task.

He is deploying new technology -

sound traps -

microphones that pick up every noise in the jungle.

Software powered by artificial intelligence

helps Panji analyse all the recordings.

But it still takes hours and hours of listening.

We just need to hear one magpie.

This isn't Panji's only problem.

There is no point in releasing birds if they're then just poached again.

So he must also change the hearts and minds

of those who make a living from them.

Panji is meeting with Mr Neo,

who owns several award-winning singing birds.

Astonishingly, in Mr Neo's back yard,

Panji finds a bird he never expected to see here...

..a Javan green magpie.

I care about birds a lot, but also I care about people.

I care about the culture, I care about the income of these people.

And you can't just forcefully tell them to stop depending

their daily life on this activity without giving any solutions.

Panji needs to convince people like Mr Neo

that there's another way to appreciate birds.

He wants to show him a project in Central Java

that might persuade him.

The village of Jatimulyo was once a hotbed for poaching

but now, instead, the locals make a living from bird tourism

and photography competitions.

It attracts birders from across Asia.

And now the poaching has stopped.

Panji is hopeful for the future...

..because he now knows a change of heart is possible.

Mr Neo has donated his bird to the sanctuary.

And, after months of work, there is more good news.

Wait. Wait.

This is interesting. This is interesting.

That's a magpie! That's a magpie!

That's a magpie!

We found it.

We found it!

With Javan green magpies confirmed at a secret location,

Panji is now a step closer to releasing his captive-bred birds

and help ensure the survival of this newly-discovered population.

Okinawa Island, Japan.

Scientists here are developing techniques that give us a glimpse

of what conservation could become in the future.

Marine biologists Mr Tomita and Mr Kaneko

are taking delivery of some very precious cargo.

There is only limited time to get the refrigerated unit

back to their laboratory.

Their task is to take pregnant sharks,

killed accidentally in fishing nets,

and rescue their unborn young.

They have developed an incubating system

that simulates the mother shark's womb.

The delicate embryos are fed by their existing yolk sacs.

But they need to be surrounded by a special chemical fluid,

similar to that provided by their mother...

..and are kept dark, as they would be naturally.

The process requires constant monitoring

and the liquid must be changed as time passes...

..to become gradually more like sea water.

After several months,

the baby sharks are ready to be released into a tank...

..where their development will continue.

As we learn more about the animals

with which we share the world,

we also invent new techniques for conserving them.

And a recent discovery may prevent rare species of fish

from being caught in the first place.

Muncar, on the eastern tip of Java,

is home to one of the region's largest fishing fleets.

Many rare species that are caught in drift nets by accident...

..end up in the market here.

They are known collectively as a bycatch...

..and Egin Salim and his team at the Mobula Project Indonesia monitor it.

It's not just small rays that suffer...

..this giant mobula ray was caught by accident last night.

In the dark depths, it couldn't see the net and swam straight into it.

Some new research could help protect the rays.

Egin is working with scientists, including Betty Laglbauer,

who is an expert on ray eyesight.

I'm good, I'm good.

We think we've finally been able to basically identify

which wavelengths the animals can detect.

We're really curious to see if we could use some lights

that basically shine light

in the specific wavelengths

that these animals can detect,

to try to get them to notice the nets in the water

before they swim into them.

And if we can...

If Betty's theory is correct,

traditional fishermen like Egin's friend, Pak Usik...

..could help conserve the species.

But will he be willing to adopt the idea?

Tonight, the lights will be tested on the net.

If the science is accurate, green lights will be visible to rays...

..but not to the fish that Pak Usik and his crew depend on

to feed their families.

It's the moment of truth.

There are plenty of target fish.

And no rays have been caught in the net tonight.

Pak Usik is relieved.

This initial trial gives hope

that there might be a way to safeguard ray species across Asia...

..and beyond.

Technology is increasingly being used in the fight to save wildlife.

And, in Hong Kong,

a small team are testing a new way

of protecting another of Asia's most threatened marine creatures.

This city consumes over 800 tonnes of seafood every day,

including one rare coral reef species...

..the ultimate luxury delicacy - the Napoleon fish.

Yvonne Sadovy, a marine biologist from the University of Hong Kong,

is an expert on this species.

These animals are complex, they're very intelligent

and in the wild get really, really big -

over one and a half metres.

It lives a very long time.

We're talking about well over 30 years -

longer than lions, longer than tigers.

So these big males, they're like the old men of the reef,

the wise men of the reef.

But nowadays, there aren't many large ones left.

They're being fished quite heavily and they're disappearing.

Because of their status,

very few Napoleon fish are allowed to be imported

and then sold in Hong Kong under international law.

But only some restaurants are sticking to the quotas

and too many fish are ending up on dinner plates.

A number of years ago, I would go to work every day

past a little restaurant.

And I seemed to be seeing the same two Napoleons in that tank

every day for weeks and weeks and weeks.

I started taking photographs of them every day.

And what I noticed over time was a change-over in fish,

as I could tell by the facial markings.

Something like 14 fish had gone through the tank.

We realised how easy it was

to actually just replace legally-imported fish

with one that's illegally imported.

How ever would anyone detect that?

Yvonne has gathered together a team

to work on an innovative solution to this problem.

Every Napoleon fish has unique markings on the side of its head.

Loby Hau is helping Yvonne develop a facial-recognition app.

It should allow them to identify individual fish

and so monitor the number on sale across the city's restaurants.

We are trying to develop a new technique to protect the species.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hi, Loby. Hello. Come in.

We think what we've developed

can really be a breakthrough in conservation.

Here we have the similarity score, from 0% to 100%.

We can keep improving it, with more images. Right.

So you can see these are different fish.

The app has been over five years in the making.

Eyes are different, left and right, and it's quite distant.

And with the prototype now at an advanced stage,

the team are training it

with as many images of Napoleon fish as they can gather.

So what's the percentage match, for example, with this one?

98. 98. Absolutely fantastic.

If the app is to be a success,

it will need the support of people like Lee Choi-wah,

who represent live seafood traders throughout Hong Kong.

That's good to know, I tell you. Yeah.

With the support of organisations such as Mr Lee's,

widespread take-up of the app is now a real possibility.

Absolutely the next step has to be that the government

adopts this approach in their enforcement work.

There is no other choice.

The technology now exists

to monitor the number of Napoleon fish being sold

and so control the illegal trade in the species.

It has the potential to be a game-changer.

Globally, wildlife is one of the largest black-market commodities,

alongside drugs and arms.

The trade is worth over $20 billion.

And one country in Asia sits at its crossroads...

..Nepal.

Stretching east-west along the southern flanks of the Himalaya...

..it has a 1,000-mile border used by smugglers,

who take animals from the wild in southern Asia

to sell to wealthy buyers in China.

At the border crossing,

many globally-threatened species are seized,

including red pandas...

..and leopards.

Kumar Paudel is working to stop this criminal activity.

Today, he's teaching customs officials

how to identify animal products.

Intercepting illegal goods is a positive step...

..but catching the traffickers who operate inside Nepal is key.

In Kathmandu, Kumar and his team collect information on smugglers...

..and share their findings with police.

Kumar has some important intelligence

for his contacts in the specialist wildlife unit

that is at the front line in the fight against trafficking.

The police have confirmed Kumar's information...

..and are planning a sting operation.

An under-cover officer will go ahead, posing as a buyer.

The rest of the team will follow

and move in once contact is made.

The team close in on the target.

Destined for the black market,

a sack of scales from a pangolin -

a critically-endangered mammal.

And people are risking their freedom for it.

Across Asia, pangolin numbers are in serious decline.

And although poaching is the main threat they face,

there are other issues.

Sunda pangolins are now being squeezed out

of their remaining forest habitats by urban development.

In Singapore, the few that remain are forced to eke out an existence

in the shadow of the city's skyscrapers.

And pangolins often find themselves in trouble...

..out of place

and in the heart of the city.

Kalai Balakrishnan runs the only

24-hour wildlife rescue charity here.

And he's a busy man.

Is this where you saw the bat? Yeah, it's where I last saw it.

He's in the door frame.

Oh, my God! Is it in the doorframe?

Considering how small we are,

and considering how little forest cover we have left,

I would say that we are pretty rich in biodiversity.

Currently, we are averaging about 1,800 calls a month.

Definitely, there has been an increase

in wildlife coming into urban areas.

There are more and more species

that are involved in this conflict with people.

A lot of pangolins that we rescue, they are in urban areas.

They are obviously coming out either because of development

or maybe they're looking for a mate.

We have rescued them under flats...

..in drains,

in construction sites.

A call has just come in.

A pangolin has been found in a critical condition.

We don't know what might have happened.

The pangolin seemed to be in pretty bad shape

in the middle of a golf course.

A lot of pangolins here unfortunately die from road kills

because a lot of our roads are dividing the nature reserves

and the greenery that we have here - the habitats.

So, yeah, we want to do this as soon as possible,

so that he has a better chance of surviving

as a critically-endangered species.

In a lot of the rescues we do,

we often get asked this question...

"Where did this animal come from?"

People don't realise that they were always here.

It's we who moved in

and they are just trying to survive alongside us.

I think its back legs are broken.

It has a depression at the side of the abdomen,

which is not a good thing.

Kalai works with specialist vets...

..who are world-class pioneers in caring for pangolins.

The team will do everything they can

for this elderly, fragile male.

He's lost a lot of body condition.

He can't seem to manage his wounds very well.

He cannot fend for himself.

Sometimes I think all of us just want to give up.

But I think tenacity is a very important thing.

You've just got to really believe that every living thing

has a value and has a place here.

The passion and the wanting to help animals is very important.

I grew up being like that.

But, as much as you try, you can't always succeed.

PHONE RINGS

Only a few hours later, Kalai is called out

to a multistorey car park to pick up another pangolin.

Right.

It's OK, it's OK.

It's a youngster...

..less than six months old and full of life.

You're fine. You're going to make it.

You're going to make it. You're going to make it, OK?

It's OK, it's OK.

Kalai has arrived just in time.

The pangolin is out of harm's way

and can be released where it won't get run over...

So we're just going to pop this guy in

and, yeah, just let him go.

..giving this precious individual a second chance.

Kalai's work gives urban wildlife a much-needed helping hand.

But elsewhere in Asia,

conservationists are attempting something even more ambitious.

They're trying to break the link between the destruction

of the natural world and poverty.

The Batang Toru cloud forest in Sumatra.

This is home to the most recently-discovered great ape.

But it's already the most threatened.

The Tapanuli orangutan.

This baby and its mother are two of only 800 left.

Hotlin Ompusunggu is working to save them, alongside the local community.

Even though the orangutans' habitat is remote,

their last stronghold is under extreme pressure

from human encroachment.

But Hotlin has a unique approach to conservation -

one that involves the entire community.

DRILL WHIRS

And it all starts in a most unlikely place.

I am a dentist.

I work in a rural area.

The community are very poor.

Dental care is still very limited.

Health care is expensive.

They believe that the forest should be protected -

that the forest is important for their wellbeing,

but when they have no other option to survive

they have to cut trees for timber.

There is a connection between poverty and logging.

And poverty bring more poverty.

To reverse deforestation,

Hotlin has come up with an ingenious solution.

Hello, Enan.

Villagers are encouraged to grow trees from seeds at home

and then bring the saplings along to the clinic

as part payment for their treatment.

Chainsaws can also be traded-in.

They can have the treatment.

At the same time, they can also help

to protect and rehabilitate the forest.

Given time,

Hotlin's work will help take pressure off the forest

and the orangutan.

Orangutan. Photo?

Ah! GENTLE LAUGHTER

Orangutan is important for us.

It's a mutual relationship.

They are the one who look after the forest.

They will save the source of water

for the people who live nearby.

It might seem like a huge leap of faith...

..but there is real evidence this concept works.

Back in 2007, on the neighbouring island of Borneo,

Hotlin co-founded the world's first conservation health clinic

with a staff of fewer than ten.

Aah! LAUGHTER

Today it has over 90...

..and is thriving.

The challenge when we started this,

I said, "If you want to do something good you have to believe in it,"

and sometimes we don't even know how it will turn out,

but just believe and don't compromise

in what you want to achieve.

So I tell them it's like in a Bollywood movie,

at the end... SHE LAUGHS

We will dance at the end.

The ASRI Clinic now has a huge bank of saplings,

brought in by patients to help pay for treatment.

These are being used to re-forest areas

that were once stripped of vegetation.

And once the trees return...

..the animals follow.

LAUGHTER

From its bustling cities...

..to its rich oceans...

..across Asia,

individuals are working tirelessly to bring about positive change.

United by one aim...

..to protect the continent's natural riches

for future generations.

SQUAWKING

There is a long way to go

and they may not succeed...

..but if this region... ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

..home to almost 60% of the people on the planet,

can find ways to co-exist with wildlife...

..then there is surely hope for the rest of the world.

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