The fundraiser may be over, but the story of this place stays with me. I was brought into this habitat by Travonim, Valen, and her students, and nothing quite prepares you for the experience of moving through those blackwater channels. It is silent, dense, and unlike anywhere else I have been. This peat swamp forest on Bangka Island is the only place on Earth where Betta burdigala exists, a small fish that has come to represent everything that is quietly disappearing from Southeast Asia's freshwater ecosystems. Two-thirds of the forest has already been sold to a palm oil company, and the drive-in made the stakes impossible to ignore. What remains is still intact and genuinely extraordinary, and a dedicated team of researchers and conservation partners is working urgently to have it protected as a nature reserve. My role was to document what is there, to bring back images that could make the case for why this place matters. I hope the photographs did their part.