In Indonesia, the rainforests are being destroyed due to the expansion of the palm oil industry. Today, palm oil is grown on an ever more huge scale, providing global commodity markets with vast quantities of cheap vegetable fat. Across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, palm oil plantations have so damaged the rainforest that experts expect the extinction of the orang-utan in the wild by about 2020, if nothing is done. More than 90 percent of the orang-utan’s original habitat is gone, and the remainder is under serious pressure, with the palm oil industry being backed by the Indonesian government even in protected areas where the last orang-utans live, for example, in southwest Borneo. The forests on these islands are also the home of countless other unique and rare species. Logging operations and plantation activities can increase the risk of serious fires, especially when coupled with unusually dry conditions. A very large fire may lead to further forest loss and increase pressure on neighbouring virgin forests by improving access to formerly remote areas. They also cause major public health problems across Indonesia and Malaysia, as the haze of smoke drifts across urbanized areas.