So for me, this story started a couple years ago at a dinner party in Bali, and at the

end of the night, just almost as an afterthought, a friend started telling me about this protected

rainforest, just a couple of islands over from us in Sumatra, that was being chopped down

for, of all things, instant coffee.

My name is Wyatt Williams, and I'm a contributor to the New York Times magazine.

As a writer, I'm often drawn to stories where nature and agriculture meet in some kind

of conflict.

Looking into this protected rainforest and this idea that it was being cut down for instant

coffee, things immediately started to check out.

The forest is called Bukit Berasan Salatan National Park, and it's this remarkable and

unique ecosystem.

There are Sumatra entigers that stalk low in the bushes.

There are elephants.

The last few renussers living in Sumatra live in these mountains.

The question is, of course, bad coffee can be grown almost anywhere.

Why pick this one protected place?

So getting to the coffee farms inside of this National Park is no small thing.

I landed on the south side of the island and spent two days with a driver, fighting traffic,

logging trucks, truck scurrying, oil palm.

We'd pass through towns where soup carts and donation bins for the mosques crowded traffic

into a single lane, and eventually we arrived at the end of a gravel path.

This is where I got on to the back of a motorcycle.

...