Every cause needs a “face” to personalize the issue, make it real and pull on the strings that link your heart to your conscience.

For Indonesia’s endangered tropical rainforest, there are enough portraits to fill an entire photo album. The solitary tree rising from a eucalyptus plantation like a desperate hand grasping for help. The once-vigorous topography flattened and carved up with unsightly veins by the palm oil industry. The lush landscape transformed by the gold mines into muddy pits fit only for sows.The rainforest, however, should not be dismissed as a book of vintage shots, a visual wake for lost land. Through the concerted efforts of government bodies and environmental groups, many with disparate interests, the rainforest has a bona-fide chance of not fading to a memory.

Protecting the rainforest can not be reduced to a simple strategy of, “Well, let’s just stop cutting the trees down.” Like any complex ecosystem, conservation plans must be diverse, adaptive and sensitive to the other players. So, different agencies are tackling the issues from kaleidoscopic angles, creating a more comprehensive approach by association and concern.

Years ago, the Indonesian government banned the export of sawn timber in order to curb rampant illegal logging. The law, unfortunately, has not been a great success: In 2007, $6.9 billion of wood-based products were sold abroad, according to the latest government statistics. So, foreign governments are picking up the slack on the receiving end. On April 23, for example, the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on legislation that outlaws all non-legally certified wood-based products. Consumers also can help by purchasing items accredited by the Foreign Stewardship Council, a German agency dedicated to sustainable forestry. Think about that the next time you’re in the market for a pool cue or dining room table. In another sign of progress, Indonesia recently applied to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving the rainforest. With the program, the country profits by protecting its natural resource, definitely a win-win arrangement.

Nonprofits won’t let the trees go down without a fight, either. The Orangutan Conservancy, for one, works on protecting the red apes by, among other tactics, safeguarding their rainforest habitat. Concerned citizens can also join the front-line activism through volunteer projects run by such organizations as Orangutan Foundation International and Frontier, a London-based non-governmental organization. Rainforest Foundation Norway also has a multi-pronged approach that includes taking legal action against felonious logging companies, and securing land rights for the local people and teaching them how the decimation of the rainforest will diminish their livelihood, culture and traditions.

The involvement of so many groups, from the governmental to the grassroots, depicts a much different picture than the one of a forlorn tree alone in its battle for survival. The new image taking shape is of thousands of people of various interests coming together under one canopy, unified in their overall mission to save Indonesia’s rainforest.

That’s one snapshot worth framing.