The first thing I noticed as we drove into the indigenous Talang Mamak village of Semerantihan was a giant satellite dish . Immediately I knew this village was very different from the traditional Talang Mamak villages I had read about before coming to Sumatra . These villagers had houses built for them by the government in 1995 when the 30 Hills National Park was established . They had a generator , given to them by a timber company , to power lights and a television . We were a western television crew in giant trucks that had just driven in to film , and the villagers , who knew we were coming , did n't seem bothered by us at all . It 's hard to imagine all the changes these Semerantihan village elders , seemingly in their forties and fifties , had seen in their lifetimes . In the last few decades , deforestation has taken around half of Sumatra 's rainforest , changing the physical landscape and the social dynamic for these indigenous people . Read more : Why you should care about Sumatra 's rainforest . Traditionally , Talang Mamak people would have lived in dwellings on stilts with walls made out of bark . They would have hunted and gathered everything they needed from the surrounding rainforest and they would have had very little interaction with the outside world . We came here with the Frankfurt Zoological Society who have set up an education program in more than 30 villages surrounding 30 Hills National Park . The educators work with each of the villages , teaching the people about conservation and their work releasing former-pet orangutans . Their main goals are to help villagers appreciate the forest and keep the villagers from hunting or killing the orangutans . FZS educators come to this village twice a month to talk to the elders and hold classes for the kids . Walking into the classroom , this seemed like any other western school . It was a two-room building with a tile floor and the kids were a range of ages from around 5 to 10 years old . They wore brightly colored clothing , some with western logos like SpongeBob SquarePants . Their desks were pushed up against the wall and the children were sitting in a circle learning from the two FZS educators . The children colored pictures , drew animals , sang songs and played games . Interactive : Mission to save Sumatra 's rainforest . What struck me the most about these children is that they were so well behaved and seemed to really enjoy the class . We joined them , filming and participating in the activities . The kids did n't seem to mind at all . Going back through the footage , none of the children acted out to the cameras . Most of them did n't even look at our cameramen Scott and John as they were filming . In a classroom in the U.S. , that would n't have been the case . A few of the adult villagers leaned against the walls outside waiting for the class to finish . I had read about Talang Mamak people shunning the outside world , refusing to educate their children and insisting on living the way their ancestors had lived . This village seemed to have embraced their western neighbors and many of their habits . They still kept to some of the old traditions , though . They survived on hunting wild pig , as we found out when one of the villagers came by with his spear during our interview with the village chief . It was also then that we learned that they were animists , a religion believing that animals , plants and places have a spiritual significance . Read more : Profitable palm oil leaves environment poor . The villagers were so well adapted to the outside world , I had expected them to have converted to Islam , the main religion in Indonesia . Villagers here gather non-timber forest products like a medicinal plant they called `` dragonsblood '' which they sell to by petrol for their generators . But as more and more of the surrounding rainforest is cut down , the elders of the village worry what will happen to their way of life if the forest is completely cut down . These villagers have all adapted so much to the outside world already . Would their traditions , passed down from generations of Talang Mamak people , disappear ? Would a way of life that had endured centuries die out because of the encroaching timber , palm and paper industries ?
Jenni Watts produced Expedition : Sumatra , CNN 's new environment special . The team traveled round Indonesia charting some of the biggest issues affecting the country . They met the local people in the indigenous Talang Mamak village of Semerantihan .