Archive for February, 2008
Stephen has been at the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve for the last few days but he sent a message saying that the streets in Pangkalan Bun, where the Orangutan Foundation office is, are hazy with smoke and there is still a very high risk to the forests. For those of you who haven’t seen Stephen’s last post (Fires in Tanjung Puting National Park), because of the maintenance work on this website, please have a read. A big thank you to everyone who has donated to our appeal for buying fire beaters. Unfortunately the “lastest donations box” isn’t working yet so we can’t see who has donated but we will be thanking you as soon as we receive notification. Please help us with this appeal. Stephen has asked for a $2 donation from each reader. The beaters costs around $1.50 and the extra money will go towards buying hand sprayers which are used for dousing beaten, but still hot, embers. We need to be prepared so that if more forest catches on fire we can tackle them as quickly and effectively as possible. Thank you. On to more positive aspects of orangutan conservation! Please see the information and photos below from Togu Simorangkir of Yayorin (our Indonesian partner organisation) about the sustainable rubber cultivation that the Belantikan team have been establishing. Over to Togu… “We do not have a full-scale rubber cultivation. What we do is agroforestry with rubber as main plants. In the agroforestry system, we mix different plants in one area like vegetables, fruit tree, gaharu and rubber. This way, the community can enjoy the harvest from short and long harvest. First, we provide training for community and after that we make one demonstration plot. Now some farmers already duplicate the system in their own lands. Attach are the pictures of training, nursery and maintenance of the agroforestry.
Training session
Nursery
Maintenance
I know you are still waiting to hear an orangutan story – for that I apologise. The post is written and will follow this one but I have been caught up in rather more immediate events. I wrote some weeks ago how little rain we have received, well we are now into our third week without a decent shower and have suffered our first fire (see photos below) in Tanjung Puting National Park.
Six and a half hectares went up behind Pondok Ambung Research Station. The fire burned through scrub and secondary forest – it was held at the edge of the primary forest which was a relief but, sadly, this is only a sign of things to come. We are caught up in “La Nina” weather phenomena which is effecting the Pacific bringing rain storms to north eastern Australia and drought to south-eastern Australia and, bizarrely, to us. Here, I have lived through two El Nino events, in 2002 and 2006. On both occasions the extended dry season resulted in wide spread fires and chocking haze. The fires of 2006 catapulted Indonesia into third place on the list of the largest emitters of green house gases. El Ninos are bad. I have to say, I am not impressed by its sister La Nina either. To be so dry at this time of the year is beyond exceptional. And it will impact on the orangutans. Already, the evening sky is filling with smoke. Small blazes are tackled directly, encircled by lots of people who tamp down the spreading edges and are backed up by the hand sprayers. Larger blazes require the making of a cut line across the fire front, which is typically a metre (3’) wide scar of bare soil; in 2006 the cut line in Tanjung Puting was 12 km long (see photo below).
The cut line is then patrolled until the fire arrives and is then prevented from crossing. For small fires, our staff is usually first on the scene. For larger fires, everyone is called in including people from the surrounding villages.
Now I am going to break with tradition and ask directly for support. I have no idea whether this request is allowable under Wildlife Direct rules; all I can do is vouch for its sincerity. We need to equip our staff with fire fighting tools. The principal tool is a “beater”, which consists of a bamboo pole with a cut car tire ‘tongue’ at the end. We need to buy lots of these beaters so that we are ready to tackle the fires. I am asking for a $2 donation from each reader. The beaters costs around $1.50 and the extra money will go towards buying hand sprayers which are used for dousing beaten, but still hot, embers (see photo below).
Thank you for your support and I will keep you updated.
A quick post about comments. The EU directive banning flying on all of Indonesia’s airlines is in view of the recent aeroplane crashes which involved a number of EU personnel. The EU are requesting that Indonesian airlines meet international standards. Theresa, I will try and get some photos of the rubber cultivation and will then explain about the process. OFI do an Orangutan of the Month but the Orangutan Foundation don’t actually do that we just have one orangutan, called Violet, for our Foster Programme. I will try and include more information about individual orangutans, including Violet, in my blog.
Thank you for your interesting questions about Belantikan Conservation Programme (BCP). You are right, Belantikan does need protection and we are looking for protected status, but we want this under local management with the involvement of the village communities. Protected status would then stop all legal logging and mineral extraction. We are working with the village communities of the Belantikan, who are highly dependent upon the forests, to identify and implement sustainable ways to generate an income. The working relationship between the communities and the BCP team is an honest and open one and this really helps to facilitate our work here. The BCP has a strong focus on sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on rattan harvesting. The Balai Belajar is the training centre for this and monthly meetings are also held here to evaluate the projects. Since the project started the number of people engaged in rattan harvesting has increased sharply from only one or two people per village, harvesting rattan occasionally, to over 20 people now deriving an income from it. The BCP has identified markets and traders and put the communities in touch with them and in recent months, the communities twice sold rattan at a profit with no intervention from project staff. Rubber cultivation is also being established and training sessions are again held in the Balai Belajar.
The Balai Belajar An eco-tourism programme has been designed in consultation with the villages and we hope this will also generate alternative income. We are looking to run the first trip later this year. Participants will visit and stay at the villages and will have a unique opportunity to witness the local rituals and ceremonies, not to mention experience Belantikan’s incredible wildlife and natural wonders. However, things are never simple. For those of you who are from Europe you might be aware that there is currently a European Union directive that bans flying on all of Indonesia’s airlines. This makes eco-tourism difficult, as it is virtually impossible to get travel insurance and our Study Tours to Tanjung Puting National Park have had to be postponed as a result. We still plan to establish eco-tourism in Belantikan and we will have to find a way around the EU directive! More on Belantikan and its treasures soon… Thank you.
Thank you Theresa S. and Faye B. for your most recent donations - your ongoing support is much appreciated. In the last few weeks we have received a few reports from the team in Belantikan on various fauna and flora that have been surveyed. They are really interesting so I’ll post about these soon but first I would like to give you a proper introduction to this region and our work there as I have only mentioned Belantikan briefly before. It is only in the last few years that the true extent of the Belantikan’s incredible biodiversity has been revealed. A survey, by Togu Simorangkir, in 2003, found an estimated 6,000 orangutans and a very high level of biodiversity– this is the third largest orangutan population in the world and the largest population outside of a protected area. These facts make Belantikan a high priority site for orangutan conservation.
Upland forest of the Belantikan Hulu The Belantikan forests spread from the foothills of the Schwaner Mountains between the Arut region and the border of West Kalimantan (see map).
(Sorry about the quality of the map!!) It is a spectacular place with steep cliffs and waterfalls. There are many rivers flowing through the valleys, including the main Belantikan River that flows into the Lamandau River. There are a variety of habitat types that includes lowland forests, swamp and upland forests thus creating a diverse range of ecosystems with abundant species of flora and fauna. Research into the biodiversity of the region has so far found; ten primate species (includes orangutans), seven of these species are listed as protected and four are endemic to Kalimantan (found nowhere else); 31 non-primate mammals species; 207 bird species; 32 amphibian species; 38 reptile species and 59 fish species. It is thought that there are many more species in Belantikan that haven’t yet been found. Installing camera traps in this area could help to reveal more species and previously undiscovered ones.
The forests of Belantikan are a biodiversity hotspot and an estimated 6,000 orangutans are found there. The Belantikan region belongs administratively to 13 villages, the Belantikan Raya District and the Central Kalimantan Province. The communties of Belantikan depend on the forest products, both timber and non-timber, for their livelihoods. They have a strong spiritual bond with the forest and unique traditional rituals and cultures. Unfortunately Belantikan is under threat. It is not a protected area and currently most of the forested area of Belantikan is a logging concession. Gold mining used to occur but has now stopped, however, its impacts are still seen and felt by the local communities with some rivers having been badly polluted. Iron ore mining is now posing a real threat with licences for exploration having been awarded. If it goes ahead the consequences could be disastrous for this forest and its wildlife - this is a real worry and we are monitoring the situation very closely. The Belantikan Conservation Programme (BCP) is a partnership between Yayorin (local NGO) and the Orangutan Foundation, and with an EC /UNEP/Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) grant, we are actively involved in the conservation of this area and its large orangutan population. As I have mentioned Belantikan is owned by the local village communities, and ultimately, the fate of these forests are in their hands. We try to influence how the communities use and manage the forests by offering advice and demonstrating alternative income-generating solutions. Within the communities we are increasing conservation awareness and the recognition, of Belantikan, as an important resource for their future.
Rattan -being processed. Rattan is one of the main sources of income for local communities.
Balai Belajar -the training centre where the BCP team demonstrate sustainable agriculture and advise on other income generating techniques for the local communities. This important orangutan population has just been found, and now we know it is there, we have to ensure its long-term survival and protect this invaluable ecosystem.
I see the number of comments my posts are attracting has shot up. However, the comments also make me think you are a strange lot. Here I am supposed to be writing about orangutans, I tell a nightmare story about spiders and I get a deluge of replies! If you want more horrible spider stories, stand by because here’s another one. Thank you F. J. PECHIR for telling me the spider, an arachnophobic’s worst nightmare, that I had in my bathroom, was in fact harmless. It is reassuring but I have to question the use of the word “little”? I could joke that I too would handle them with a telephone directory, but I totally accept your point that spiders are part of a healthy ecosystem. I just wish they weren’t part of mine! A couple of years ago, on an orangutan survey, I felt something on my arm. To my horror I discovered it was one of the long legged spiders shown in the photo below (can you identify it F.J. PECHIR?).
Now, in a perverse kind of way, I had always wanted to know what I would do if I had a big spider on me: would I freak out, throw a blue fit and probably get bitten? Or would I freeze? That experiment has now been conducted and I can tell you the instinctive reaction is to freeze. At least until your friendly, local field assistant flicks it off. I would like to be able to tell you I then cracked a joke and carried on just as Indiana Jones would do. That, however, is a club I am not a member of. One of the sayings (gross generalisations?) you hear about spiders in Borneo is “if they climb walls or sit in webs, they are harmless. If they run on the ground or have burrows, they are bad”. Photo number 2 is a bird-eating spider. You guessed it: it lives in a burrow, is incredibly aggressive and is huge. The first one I ever saw was picked up in the car headlights as it crossed a road! I do not know how many birds they catch but they are certainly partial to mice.
The photo of the stag beetle is thrown into as a challenge to any palmetto bugs out there! I also thought you might be interested to see some pictures of Camp Leakey, the original study site of Dr Galdikas. When you are in Camp Leakey you do get a sense of history; some of the orangutans she talks about in her autobiography “Reflections of Eden” are still there today. The release of rehabilitated orangutans at Camp Leakey ceased in 1995 but many of the ex-captive orangutans, or their offspring, still wander in and out of Camp. Observing the ex-captive orangutan’s behaviour provides an insight into orangutan intelligence that couldn’t be gained from wild orangutans. The apparent ease with which they imitate human behaviour (washing laundry, opening locks on doors) confirms just how intelligent this great ape really is!
It’s all about team work! I know I promised I said I’d write more about orangutans soon. Tomorrow I’ll make good on that promise, as this afternoon I have to go to the Orangutan Care Centre Quarantine. There will be a story soon!
Thanks as always for your encouraging comments. I’m just going to respond to a couple questions from my last few posts -sorry to be brief. I haven’t seen Orangutan Island but I can see why its so popular. Orangutans are fascinating to watch - highly intelligent and very charismatic! We aren’t affiliates of Orangutan Island, it is located about 400km east of us and is the only other rehabilitation centre in Kalimantan. Chris, thank you very much for your support of our work, I agree Wildlife Direct is great way to keep people (and our members) informed. Thank you for your questions and I’ll try to answer them. I would like to keep my blog just about my Orangutan Foundation work. Orangutans are much more interesting after all! For those who might not know Dr Biruté Galdikas, here’s a brief introduction. In 1971 Dr. Biruté Galdikas commenced her study of wild orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park, with the encouragement of the late, renowned Dr. Louis Leakey. Dr Galdikas is one of the world’s leading experts on orangutans with her study well in to its third decade now. Dr. Galdikas founded the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) in 1986. The Orangutan Foundation (who I work for), was established a few years later in 1991, as an international chapter of the OFI. The Orangutan Foundation is a separate, independent organisation, working closely in certain areas with OFI for example; the protection of Tanjung Puting National Park and the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine facility. Dr Galdikas is a professor at the Universitas Nasional in Jakarta and at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. When she is back in the field we meet up to discuss shared work plans, whether it be organising orangutan releases or the protection of Tanjung Puting National Park. However, a lot of my work is separate from OFI, such as the Lamandau Stephen
I apologise for the lack of orangutan news recently. I was at my desk for all of last week because every year, during January, we have to write up the previous year’s activities and prepare the work plan for the year ahead. These reports are then submitted to the Government. It is not without its interesting moments, but essentially it’s a bureaucratic exercise that certainly doesn’t involve watching orangutans. And it hasn’t been the easiest time to do all this. The reality of life here is that if it is not a power cut it is a fuel shortage. I am typing (thank you laptop) this by candlelight – we have had no electricity since 5pm and it is now 9 pm. There is virtually no diesel in town, which is why the electricity generating station is only operating part time and kerosene has already run out. Indeed, even in Jakarta families are being rationed to 1 litre per week which is nothing when kerosene is the main cooking fuel. In our camps and guard posts the Assistants are having to cook on wood fires, something we hate having to do. The lack of diesel is providing a challenge for our forest patrols. Only journeys that are essential can be made so we have to prioritise our work carefully in order that we can maintain our high profile monitoring and vigilance. The forests need protection fuel or no fuel. The fuel shortages don’t just affect my work life but my home life too. Recently I was asked about snakes. Snakes, while certainly not my favourite animal, I can cope with. Spiders, however, give me the heebie-jeebies. The other day I went into my bathroom and saw a huge black huntsman above the door. I fled – naturally. Then there was a power cut -great timing. That night, I went back into the bathroom, with a candle, to wash and wouldn’t you know it the spider had disappeared. And that’s what I hate about spiders: they just appear and then disappear. And my bathroom is next door to the bedroom and trying to find a spider with candle in hand isn’t fun. I still haven’t found it!
The spider!! We not only have fuel shortages but we are also experiencing high seas and so very few supplies are getting through. The price of nearly everything; rice, soy sauce and even cement has increased. The weather has been completely unseasonable with very little rain falling this month. The rivers are unbelievably low. February normally heralds the start of the fruit season, but without rain the fruit will wither on the branches. Life is tough in the field, inflation is on the way up and, for the orangutans, there could be lean times ahead with the rehabilitants having to rely on supplied food, which is funded entirely by the Orangutan Foundation. We’re laying plans and there is a general upbeat mood; to be honest things can really only get easier! More real orangutan news soon. |
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