♪ host: welcome to "global 3000." this week we're in kenya, where a woman fighting poachers has developed special way of protecting elephants. in suriname, tpical wood is being logged on a massive scale. chinese businesses are reaping the profits. and on the indonesian island of lombok, people hit hard by an earthquake are trying to reclaim their lives. it's the world's most seismically active area,

extending from new zealand to japan, to alaska and chile -- the ring of fire. along its 40,000 kilometers are at least 450 active volcanoes, and 90% of earthquakes take place along the ring of fire. in recent weeks, japan and indonesia have been hit particularly hard. a major quake in august had its epicenter in indonesia's island of lombok. the devastating shocks claimed hundreds of lives and caused enormous damage. reporter: a warning from god. that's how local residents describe the catastrophe on lombok. five severe earthquakes, hundreds of aftershocks, and new tremors almost every day. judith edel has lived on the indonesian island for a year and a half. the german national works at a diving school on the island of gili trawangan, near lombok.

on a partyestinati and divingaradise,oday it's ghost isnd. we tral with h to lomb to deliver aid packages. judith: we got a call from our employees. they said, "we've received nothing. please, please, please help us." at that point, my other german colleagues and i said, "ok, we have to do something." i'm right in the middle of this situation. since the first big earthquake, i've been trying to make a difference. reporter: here, the earth shakes on a near daily basis. judith has counted more than 300 tremors since the start of august. judith: everything that is still standing has to be demolished. these buildings can't be left like this.

they have to be taken down before someone gets hurt. that was a school classroom. reporter: judith is visiting this remote village for the third time. she's delivering supplies like baby food, medicine, and toys. for a few moments, these young ones can again feel like children. they can forget what they've been through, even though the memories are still fresh. muhamad: i'm always afraid. during the last tremor, my mum was carrying me. she fell down, so i hit the ground, too. since then, my back's been hurting. reporter: the residents have built a tent village high in the hills for fear of a possible tsunami. judith is tired, but happy she can help, even if just for a while. the last weeks have shown that a new earthquake could strike again any moment.

and around 560 people have died. indonesia lies on the pacific ring of fire, an area of extreme seismic and volcanic activity. on the way, we find ismiyati and her children. together, they search through the rubble of their home for remnants of their former life. ismiyati: i can't put my feelings into words. but i have to stay strong. we're not the only ones who have been affected. everyone here is suffering. i believe that god wanted to send us a warning. reporter: everyone here is hard at work clearing the chaos with their bare hands. the sheer amount of rubble makes this seem like an endless task. ismiyati hopes that government-supplied bulldozers will soon help clear her property. crisis management here is

functioning well, the locals say. we travel to the far north of the island, where the devastation is extensive. almost 400,000 island dwellers are living in tents like these. this is the biggest emergency shelter on lombok. it's also a temporary control center, where the military, government, and aid organizations are coordinating the relief efforts. bernadus: the biggest challenges here on lombok are the destroyed infrastructure and the traumatized population. people here live in constant fear of another earthquake. reporter: in a trauma center, six psychologists work around the clock to care for children of the catastrophe. some of them have lost their parents in the earthquake. muflih: most of them were very scared.

they cried on and off again. but little by little we make treatment. we give them therapy. we give them something what they need, psychologically and physically. reporter: it's the biggest disaster the region has experienced since the 2004 tsunami. the tourists who have stayed behind, and who are so important for indonesia, know this. judith's diving school is almost empty. few people want to wait here until either the ground settles or a new quake shakes the island. but the 32-year-old doesn't want to leave. judith: i know that my decision to stay here and not to return to germany has worried my family. but if i were to leave with the images of destroyed and empty

islands, it would take me longer to process the trauma of that than if i stayed thelp with the reconstruction. reporter: the gili islands economy is fueled almost entirely from tourism. but we only found a handful of tourists on the whole island. like this couple from france. renaud: i may feel bit guilty about it because i'm just on holiday here. i don't ve the worst side of the story. i'm just here to enjoy and have a good time. but the other people, they also need us to be back in the future again, so. reporter: the authorities hope to complete their reconstruction efforts within six months. it's an optimistic goal for the people living here in the rubble of lombok. host: when china invests abroad, it mobilizes lots and lots of money. at a major forum in early september, chinese president xi

jinping pledged $60 billion in assistance to africa in form of investments, development aid, and loans. more than 10,000 chinese companies are operating in africa. they build roads, rail lines, harbors, and airports. those infrastructure measures are needed locally, and they help export raw materials back to china. the hunger for natural resources is also attracting chinese businesses to latin america. $250 billion are set to flow there by 2025. but this involvement creates dependency. three quarters of brazil's soy crop goes to china. tiny suriname's big export is tropical wood. reporter: the green treetops seem to go on forever in suriname. almost the entire country is covered by rainforest.

but things are changing. paulus has a family to feed, so he's happy that he can cut down a few of those trees today. paulus: this tree is more than 600 years old, i think. it might even pull down a few other trees with it, but there's nothing i can do about that. we need the money. reporter: the 600-year-old tree will earn $60 u.s. the workers split the money. but who's buying the trees? >> the chinese. reporter: chinese firms are turning the tropical wood into luxury floor panels, which are then shipped to germany, belgium, the netherlands, and elsewhere. xu: you have some wood that looks red or some wood that looks yellow, or even purple, like purple heart. it's purple. it's really rare for a wood

species to be purple, actually, and people are like, "wow, we want to buy this." reporter: one company allows us to visit and take a look around. the family business has been operating in suriname for 20 years. for its director jimmy chen, time is money. each month, he ships ten tons of wood to europe alone. the business is a gold mine. but still, chen is restless. jimmy: if my business is having problems, i can't sleep. my brain starts rattling. the chinese mentality is to work hard. i once did double shifts for three years straight. reporter: chen's son is slated to take over the family business. the supply of wood seems endless, labor in suriname is cheap, and the government is generous. xu: no, they don't put any conditions, not for export at all. no, nothing.

reporter: and it's easy getting chinese workers into the country. having employees with the same mentality as the bosses makes things easier. suriname's valuable resource appears to be rmly in chinese hands. locals like paulus are only employed as manual laborers. the former dutch colony is tiny compared to other south american countries. it has a population of just 550,000. different communities live together peacefully. the mosque stands right next to the synagogue. these days, people of chinese descent make up some 10% of the population. the government sees china as an engine of development that it can control. ferdinand: they are a little bit more easier if it regards the rules. but we have to -- it's our task to educate them. reporter: educating the chinese? a bad joke says suriname's

leading economic expert, who claims the government can be bought. winston: i think the minister is not we informed. because the chinese, they make and break the rules. in the country there is a lot of corruption on all levels. and the chinese are involved on their level, they're involved in paying unofficial money to people. reporter: chinese companies are very generous. they build playgrounds for children, houses for the poor. these builders have arrived directly from china to oversee the latest project. the government minister is delighted. it's the ground-breaking ceremony for 500 council flats, courtesy of beijing. yun: the two governments are very close. the chinese government sees that there are many opportunities in suriname, and that is why we are here. reporter: china has lots of experience, his translator says, as well as good technology, and money. is china giving suriname money

to do this here? yun wang says yes. and surinam counts on the money from china. so how can one so dependent call any of the shots? far from the world stage, china's financial and political influence are continuing to grow. jimmy chen doesn't doubt that, either. jimmy: we're everywhere around the world. our government opened the doors for us. china's become powerful. reporter: paulus works hard too, and he's angry. paulus: our government sells our land, our property to strangers. we get nothing. nothing.

host: now we meet up with enagers around the world to fi out what makes them tick. >> i am a global teen. host: day's global teen comes from georgia in the caucasus region. mariam: my name is mariam. i'm 15, and i live in the georgianountrysidein ivdidi. i have lots of friends and when we get together, we like to play soccer, volleyball, or just run.

my mother is a librarian, but rks for tharmy. myather doest have a job. he's currently unemployed. i have a sister, diana, and a brother called georgi. i do like going to school. d really le maths an georgian. i want to finish school and then go on to university. i don't know yet, but i think i'll studyedicine.

from my point of view, the global problems are climate change. and also that people often don't understand each other. i'm happwhen my faly is well and i can be with my friends. host: in our global ideas series, we head for kenya to track down wildlife poachers. the trade in ivory is a vast global business. how can it be stopped? our reporter bettina thoma went to the south of the country to meet faye cuevas. the american uses military surveillance methods to combat poachers.

she says it's the only way to break up the networks of illegal hunters, dealers and buyers, and protect the remaining elephants. faye: my name is faye cuevas. i'm with the intertional fun for anal welfaren kenya an i ad our eleant protection and coter poachi projects for eastfrica. porter: fa cuevas used to work for the u.s. military, fighting militants. now she's in southern kenya, fighting pchers. e largest d stronges animals are the ones most daer. fa: i can sethe color. oh, ntastic. reporter: it's a race against time. faye: elephantsre extinct ecystems crule. there's cascadg effectfor the counities at live the areas at are riant on wilife forheir livihoods. d, you kno in the enit uld be human greed.

we are the generation that can take this on and stop it. reporter: like the militant groups, poachers form networks thateach beyontheir ville. because they have no work, they turn to illegal activities. poaching is very lucrative. goods such as ivory fetch a high price on the global market. faye cuevas's goal is to destroy those networks before the poachers get a chance to kill. she needs the maasai community on her side to achieve that goal, because she pends on theiassistancend advice. the ders welcome her. these are men with lots of influence. they still live according to centuries-old tradition. fayeit is the asai that e reprentative oa culture at have pcefully coisted with wilife forillennia. so ocourse wlook to em as a sourcef local owledge,nd

then to partner in modern conservation. reporter: it's 8:00 in the morning. more and more young maasai, like robert kone, are training to become range. protecti wildlife creates jobs. they patrol the remote forest of loita. this is their land. they know ery squareilometer here, and recognize every animal track. rort: it's aelephant footprt as youee, fromhis morng. porter: e ranger explains that the elephts could b taking a new route, perhaps because they sense danger. this is all important information for fayeuevas. with theid of gps, the ranger documes the elepnts' movements. faye: a good place to put one of the camera traps. >> yh. ift's a normal corridor that

they usually use, a camera trap will help us identify, like, how many, the numbers that pass here. reporter: the rangers risk their lives on this job. whereverou find elhants, you usuay find poaers, too. many of the hunters come from local villages and know the area just as well as the rangers do. the wildlife of southern kenya spread acss many thsands square kimeters, mo of it maasai-coury. the landsce is breathtakingly autiful, b it's alsonder threat. local won also plaan important ro in faye cuevas's monitoring network. they are the eyes and ears of the commity. she maintains good contact with them, and some work for her as informants.

faye: it's the women that are out in the markets and are out talking and hearing about potential poaching plans. and, you know, we've seen through ouwomen's emwerment programs, at where wen have trusd channels to report on suspicus activity, they do, and at can drive big impact. rerter: thinformatn providedy local ople is collecteat the n's officin nairobi,long witthe data compiledy the raers. these e all pas of the puzzle that faye cuevas's team is analyzing. any solid leads are then passed on back to the rangers or reported to police across the region. faye cuevas began working in wildlife protection a few years ago, back in the united states. then she realized she needed to be in kenya tackle the problem at its source.

faye: we sat down as a family and i id, "we ha an opportunitfor an advture." and theyaid, "what, what, what?" and i said, "well, we have a opportity to move to kenya and save elephants," and they were immediately all-in. reporter: her decision seems to have paid off. the organization says 27 possible poachers have been caught ithe last 1months. and elephant numbers are rising again in kenya. ye: we can stop there. we haven't won. so where we've seen poaching decrease in kenya, we've seen it increase in other places. so as a world consvation community, it's not me to rest. poaching rains a chaenge. host: our global snack gives you something meaty to sink your teeth into.

reporter: anguilla. this beautiful coral island in the middle of the caribbean is one britain's overseas territies. a lot of vitors onlyome to the tahaven becae of its bas. yet angula has smuch more fer. t least, rich and ried caribbn cuisine which incorporates global influences. from early evening to late at night, people line up at ken's barbeque. the grill resembles a production line, with a range of meats basted in a variety of marinades. hot, fruity, and packed with spices. chef ken vanterpool mans his own grill every day. ken: when i started doing barbecue, i started barbecuing pork. this is the pork. i started doing this alone.

and then it migrated towards the chicken and the ribs. and now the chicken and ribs has taken over. reporter: the chicken is based on a jamaican jerk chicken recipe, with garlic, ginger, lemon, and brown sugar. a final flourish of hot barbeque sauce rounds off this culinary delight. most here eat it with french fries. you won't find any other vegetables at this grill. ken: ken's famous ribs. i'm just getting some prepared for the customers as they come along. at the same time, we have the fan catching up the fire. no longer do we use piece of paper to fan the fire. we use a fan now. all high tech. reporter: and what do ken's customers like most? >> pork. >> the grilled pork, with fries. and sometimes garlic bread, right? yeah.

>> it's just authentic local food. it's nothing fancy. it's just local. you can come and hang out. everybody is friendly. so that's what makes it good. reporter: ken's anguilla grill is limbering up for a long, hot caribbean night. announcer: who cares about the flower industry's destructive impacts? >> i d announcer: who cares about lgbt rights in australia? >> i do. announr: who car about homeless people living on the streets of los angeles? >> i do. announcer: who cares that your superberries are destroying the rainforest? >> i do. announr: who car about female empowment in senegal? >> i do. all: a that's why i follow d global society. host: that's all from "global 3000" this week. we love to hear from you. write to us at

global3000@dw.com, or visit our facebook page, dw global society. see you soon. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: in the 1980s, biologists working in the southwestern deserts of the united states began finding something very disturbing-- the remains of young tortoises that had been attacked and eaten by ravens. man: ravens are like the ideal survivalists. woman: they're eating everything. second man: some raven nests have been found to have the carcasses of hundreds of juvenile tortoises underneath. narrator: tortoises in the southwest have been under pressure for decades. much of their habitat has been damaged or destroyed. diseases, predators, and other factors have also taken their toll. third man: there have been massive declines--80%, 90%.