Orangutan Foundation

Category: Forest Fires, Logging, Pondok Ambung Research Station, Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP) | Date: Nov 06 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

During September (dry season) the Sekonyer river, which flows through Tanjung Puting National Park (Central Kalimantan Indonesian Borneo) was very low. We are also noticing that the low tides, year on year, are getting worse. Some people believe the root cause of the low tide are illegal logging and illegal mining. 

Tanjung Puting National Park. Photo by Fajar Dewanto, Orangutan Foundation International 

When fire fighters from Tanjung Puting National Park (BTNTP), Central Kalimantan Agency for Conservation of Natural Resources (BKSDA Kalteng), Orangutan Foundation, Orangutan Foundation International, Friends of National Park Foundation tried to damped the forest fires in park the extreme low tide prevented the speed boat from getting through.

Tanjung Puting National Park. Photo by Fajar Dewanto, Orangutan Foundation International

Water level on the jetty of Pondok Ambung Tropical Forest Research Station. Photo by Devis, Orangutan Foundation

This is a worrying trend. Thankfully, October has had rain reducing the fire risk.

Thank you,

Hudi Dewe

Programme Co-ordinator Orangutan Foundation

Tags: Borneo, illegal logging, low tide, mining, Rainforest, water

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Category: Forest Fires, Uncategorized | Date: Oct 08 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

Dr Suwido Limin sent this email today with photos - we hope the rain continues to fall. Last week Orangutan Foundation sent out £5,260 to CIMTROP (Centre for International Co-operation in Management of Tropical Peatland) to support their ongoing efforts.  

Dear Jack, 

Fire situation particularly in Kalampangan is the worst during the el Niño this time.  

The TSA KALTENG team does work since 8 Aug 2009 to overcome the fires. In the period 18 to 27 September 2009, a fire broke out in Kalampangan is extremely worse and caused all of our reforestation areas and one tower burned down. This condition is very bad for us, and I personally felt very shocked, as if we were not able to handle it well. The entire team members were trying to extinguish the flames maximum. But due to limited manpower and people involved slightly, that we unable to fight the widespread fires.

Images: forest fires in Kalampangan, Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo CIMTROP©

In Kalampangan is very difficult to enter the forest areas due to the thick smoke and haze. The entrance access to the forest inside has been damaged, so two teams tried to enter through the canal using a wooden boat and the other team went through the Sabangau river by boat and then walking around 2 hours to reach the area. This is really hard work and high risk.  

Fire fighter Kalampangan, Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo CIMTROP©

Meanwhile, fires in the Sabangau could be stopped by Patrol Unit Team and some of TSA member. Nevertheless most of people don’t care and unaware with this disaster, probably caused they think that the forest/land burned is not their own personally so they do not feel loss.  There is only 1 tower that can be secured, while 2 base camps which founded from Helsinki and Hokkaido Univ, both have been burned. Until now (8 Oct 2009) some of team members had not returned from the forest inside (in Kalampangan area), they are still working extinguishes the fire at some point because the fire occurred at the bottom layer of soil (ground fire).

Kalampangan, Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo CIMTROP©

Since 4 days ago (2 Oct 2009) conditions in Central Kalimantan, Palangka Raya in particular, Kalampangan and Sabangau having occurred several times a heavy rain. This is very helpful, and the condition getting better. Hope that these good conditions continue, so that our environmental damage can be reduced. On behalf of Cimtrop and whole of members of the TSA KALTENG, I’m very grateful for the infinite care and support from various parties who have helped us financially. Forest and land is ours and for the life of our generations in the future.  

Best wishes,

Suwido H. Limin 

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Category: Forest Fires, Uncategorized | Date: Sep 24 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

Fires in Sabangau -CIMTROP© Images should not be used without permission 

We have just received the following communications from Professor Jack Rieley, a world expert on tropical peatlands, about the fire situation in Sabangau, which has worsened over the last few days. To help support the efforts of CIMTROP (Centre for International Cooperation in the Management of Tropical Peatland) the organisation on the ground tackling the fires, please use our general donation button and leave a comment stating your donation is for CIMTROP/Sabangau. 

Thank you for your support,

Orangutan Foundation

An SMS message from Dr Suwido Limin, director of CIMTROP, sent earlier today (24^th Sept) from inside the major fire area in the upper Sabangau

  “Big fire started from our research transect, spread across middle of Taruna canal and trans Kalimantan highway up to dams 3&4. Fire speed is around 1 km per hour supported by strong wind all day. Now I am working at night with my team. The tree regeneration plot expected all burned but cannot see yet.” 

Above and below -with limited resources CIMTROP tackle the fires. CIMTROP© Images should not be used without permission

This was followed by another SMS from Dr Suwido Limin.

“Now midnight. We are operating 4 pumps. I am manning one machine with Agung. I will work until morning but very tired.“  

Training - CIMTROP© Images should not be used without permission

Email from Dr Suwido Limin sent to Jack Rieley (22^nd Sept).

 ‘I have just come from Kalampangan. On this afternoon, we started to implement a new method. The fires become worst again!  In Taruna and Kalampangan fires started on the afternoon of 20^th of September. Our team are still trying as much as possible to secure and save this area, but the fires spread very fast and the wind is moving rapidly so that we are being overwhelmed. Our team is working very hard, all day and night and one person was injured. We tried to secure two towers and several research equipments. Some areas of our reforestation project have been burned (eventuality).  I’m personally indeed truly sad with the worst situation. All of the TSA (fire-fighting team) power is limited and we are hardly able to extinguish the fires at this location. Neither can we enter and check inside the area (using the tower) because the road along the canal was burned and created many holes of embers.’   

TSA Training CIMTROP© Images should not be used without permission

Email from Dr Jyrki Jauhiainen (22^nd Sept), a research scientist at the University of Helsink, who was in the Sabangau area until a few days ago. 

‘Arrived back to Finland yesterday afternoon. Things may be really bad in our peat research sites now. Haze was bad until last Wednesday, but we succeeded to get our sampling done & gas monitoring sites established. Wednesday evening there was heavy rain and that cleared air and suppressed many of the surface fires. Things seemed to be under control again despite some wind breeze on Friday & Saturday morning. We left from Palangka Raya (PKY) on Saturday as the sky was still clear (probably that was the last Garuda flight for some time).  SMS messages from PKY have been sad: gas monitoring plot & equipment in Block-B Berengbenkel lost, Kalampangan open area plot lost, Japanese open area minitower likely lost, Suwido worried about fate of tall Japanese towers and base camp, Taruna village evacuated, Siemenpuu area likely lost, many firemen in hospital due to respiratory problems… Many of the above mentioned areas cannot be accessed due to thick smoke and now health of people is more important. Suwido must be quite depressed and tired.’ 

Please consider donating to help CIMTROP tackle these fires.

Tags: Borneo, Forest Fires, Indonesia, Orangutans, Sabangau

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Category: Forest Fires, Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutan Foundation Staff, Orangutans | Date: Sep 10 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, where our main programmes are based still remains extremely dry and fires pose a real threat to key orangutan populations. What this posts shows, is that if we have the resources to fight these fires they can be put out and controlled.

June sent through this news today…

‘There are fires in Tanjung Puting National Park and Orangutan Foundation are assiting the National Park authorities with logistical and transportation costs. Thankfully the fires that we were battling in Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve have been sucessfully put out. But it’s raining ash right now here in Pangkalan Bun, I kid you not. Haze is very bad.’

Professor Jack Rieley, a world expert on tropical peatlands from Nottingham University, also sent through this information he received from the field about the fires in Sebangau Forests.

Palangkaraya’s airport is closed and all the hospitals are full. Schools are closed and the fires and the smoke are getting worst. Fortunately Dr Suwido Limin, of CIMTROP, reported this morning that the research area in Sebangau is safe from fire, as Suwido’s team have been sucessful in their operations to protect from fire. They are working still to install water pumps in another three locations.

Tags: Borneo, Fires, Indonesia, Orangutans

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Category: Forest Fires, Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutan Foundation Staff, Orangutans | Date: Sep 01 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

This is what June (Orangutan Foundation Programmes Manager) reported yesterday.

The fires are about four hours from Camp Buluh, an orangutan release camp in the Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve and they are about 10 hectares wide. Currently there are 12 “Manggala Agni” (Forest Fire Prevention Brigade) fighting the fires since they were reported on Thursday night. There are also three teams assisting from our EC-Lamandau Programme and Pak Jakir, Patrol Manager has also been with them since Friday. They are currently using three machines to draw out water from the river to put out the fires.

Today, June is in Lamandau with the fire-fighting teams and so hopefully we’ll receive an update on the situation when she returns.

Thank you Gerhard R, Helen N, Jenny O, Brigitta S, Tal B and Matthew K for your recent donations – your support is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Cathy

Tags: Borneo, forests, Orangutans, Wild Fires

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Category: Forest Fires, Orangutans | Date: Aug 27 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

We have just heard from Ashley Leiman, Orangutan Foundation’s Director, who is currently in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo that, as of today (27^th August 2009), the local Department of Forestry has sent out fire fighting teams to localized fire hot spots.

The area where our field programmes are based has received virtually no rain for seven to eight weeks and all the rivers are extremely low. Ashley, who was calling from the Orangutan Foundation office in Pangkalan Bun, said “there is the smell of smoke in the air”. Orangutan Foundation has guard posts equipped with fire fighting equipment and our employees are alert and ready to take action if necessary.

Over two weeks ago we launched an appeal on behalf of our partners, CIMTROP (Centre for International Cooperation in the Management of Tropical Peatland), working in the Sebangau Forests.  Thank you to everyone who responded so quickly and generously, your donations will be directed to CIMTROP, who are working around the clock to tackle the raging fires.

Orangutan Foundation is now widening this fire appeal to include other forest areas at risk.

Tags: Borneo, Forest Fires, Indonesia, Orangutans, Wildlife

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Category: Forest Fires, Orangutans, Uncategorized | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

The link below has been sent to us by Dr Suwido Limin, Director of CIMTROP (Centre for International Co-operation in Management of Tropical Peatland). It is a short video on YouTube showing footage of the fires in Kalampangan, Sebangau Forest.  It highlights just how dangerous CIMTROP’s work is.

A huge thank you to Care For The Wild International for donating £3,600 through Orangutan Foundation to CIMTROP and to Orangutan Aid for donating £150. Thank you to our members, who have been very generous in donating to CIMTROP through Orangutan Foundation. Thank you David B for your donation through this blog.

If anyone is thinking of donating through Wildlife Direct please leave a comment stating your donation is for the Sebangau Fires.

Tags: Borneo, Forest Fires, Orangutans, Sebangau

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Category: Forest Fires, Orangutans, Uncategorized | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

Some images sent through from Dr Suwido Limin, Director of CIMTROP, Centre for International Cooperation in the Management of Tropical Peatland. The work that Dr Suwido and his team are undertaking is very dangerous and Suwido has to provide insurance for his team (also expensive and not easy to get). His men are working away from roads and operate 24 hours a day transporting heavy equipment manually or by motor cycle to where it is needed. It is even more dangerous in the dark. As Dr.Suwido Limin reports, this is a hazardous job. “Peat fires are unique as they spread below the surface, on average 20-30cm below ground but sometimes as deep as 60cm, which makes fighting them both dangerous and unpredictable. You can put out fire in one place and then flames suddenly shoot up behind you.”

Orangutan Foundation sent out £3,000 to CIMTROP last week. Thank you to Mara, of Hong Kong based Orangutan Aid, for your offer to donate US$200 and to thank you to Orangutan Foundation ambassador and member, Helen who donated £70 towards tackling the fires through Give As You Earn.  We will keep you updated this situation.

CIMTROP team tackling the fires. Photo by CIMTROP

Fires at Sebangau Forest, Central Kalimantan. Photo by CIMTROP

Motorbikes are needed to carry equipment and access the fires. Photo by CIMTROP

Photo by CIMTROP 

For more information read the press release below.

PRESS RELEASE. RAGING FOREST FIRES THREATEN WILD ORANGUTANS IN BORNEO 

Forest fires are breaking out in the Sabangau peat-swamp forests in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, threatening the lives of the estimated 8,000 wild orangutans living here.  This is exceptionally worrying during times of extreme drought caused by El Niño. This year Borneo is once again firmly in the grip of such a drought. During previous El Niño years several hundred thousand hectares of primary rainforest burnt in this area, destroying the habitat of thousands of orangutans and other endangered plants and wildlife. According to Dr. Suwido Limin, Director of the Indonesian peatland conservation organisation CIMTROP, management of the forest by forestry companies over the last forty years has led to the loss of forest rights for local people. In order to restore the local community’s engagement with the forest, these rights need to be returned.

Dr. Limin has witnessed out of contol fires many times before and is concerned that 2009 will see a repeat. He has spent the last twenty years studying and protecting this unique ecosystem and knows very well the risks involved. “These fires have started as a result of human actions; newcomers to the area have attempted to follow traditional Dayak farming methods for land clearance but they lack the experience to control the fires they start. When peat dries out it burns very easily and at great temperatures. Once these fires take hold, they burn and burn and can be almost impossible to put out until the rains come again. In that time huge areas of forest and irreplaceable peat deposits may be lost”.

Peatland fires are not only a major threat to the natural environment and the many species that live here but also to the health of the local population due to smoke inhalation. Nationally, huge clouds of smoke are blacking out the sun, affecting air and sea traffic and potentially causing millions of dollars of lost revenue. On a global scale, they are one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute significantly to rising global temperatures and hence climate change.

To try and prevent this happening, CIMTROP run a rapid-response fire-fighting team (locally known as the Tim Serbu Api, or TSA) to tackle fires as soon as they are reported and before they get out of control. The team monitors an area of 100,000 hectares and is made up of local people who have received training and equipment from CIMTROP and are ready to be called upon when fires break out. But, as Dr. Limin reports, this is a hazardous job. “Peat fires are unique as they spread below the surface, on average 20-30cm below ground but sometimes as deep as 60cm, which makes fighting them both dangerous and unpredictable. You can put out fire in one place and then flames suddenly shoot up behind you.”

One fire hotspot is Kalampangan which borders both the NLPSF (the Natural Laboratory for Peat Swamp Forest), an international research site established by CIMTROP, and Sabangau National Park – home to the world’s largest orang-utan population. CIMTROP’s fire-fighting team have been battling fires in Kalampangan non-stop for the past ten days and will continue to monitor the fires until the rains come. Local residents report the fire took hold incredibly quickly, raging through the tinder-dry vegetation, decimating all in its path and burning down into the peat. Here orangutan sleeping nests can be seen in trees shrouded in smoke and rhinoceros hornbills fly through the haze overhead. On the ground, the TSA create fire breaks and pump water from nearby canals and bore-holes onto the fires. Bore-holes often need to be twenty meters or more deep to access sufficient water to tackle the fire, taking up to six hours and teams of three or four trained workers to dig. Extinguishing just one square metre of burning peat takes two to three hundred litres of water.

Alim, a long-term TSA team member, is enthusiastic to talk about their work and what they need. “We use water pumps and special fire-fighting hose to carry water from the water bores and canals to the burning areas. At the moment, we have twenty TSA rapid-response fire suppression team members, all fully trained specialists in fighting peat fires. They work alongside ten more people split between the River Patrol Team (Tim Patroli), which carry out daily patrols along the boundary of the NLPSF using the Sabangau river, and the TSA Ground Patrol Unit who use motorbikes to monitor the forest from the land. All our teams keep in contact with each other using two-way radios. Of course, it would be great if we could have more equipment so we can cover more ground. Ideally, I would like sixty permanent TSA members so we can set up more fire-fighting points working simultaneously in this fire hotspot while also allowing the team to get some rest! We need more water pumps, lots more hose and permanent bore-hole sites so we can channel water to burning areas more easily. Unfortunately, one of our patrol bikes was destroyed in the Kalampangan fire making patrolling much harder.”

Dr. Limin is proud of his team and their dedication in such difficult conditions. In 2006 they battled successfully for five months to save an area of pristine forest, and he expects a similar commitment this time around. But he echoes Alim’s calls for more equipment and personnel. “It is difficult to maintain funding for the TSA over the long-term because major fires occur maybe once every three or four years. We need to have the capacity to guarantee income and operational costs for the TSA and Tim Patroli and have funds permanently available for immediate use when fire hits. Disasters do not wait while mitigation strategies are discussed and put in place; they hit hard and fast, with little warning. We rely on donations, and are very grateful for the financial support we receive, but at the moment we simply don’t have the resources we need to tackle all the fires that are starting.”

Tags: Borneo, carbon emissions, Fires, forests, Orangutans, peat

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Category: Forest Fires, Oil Palm Plantations, Orangutans, Sumatran Orangutans | Date: Jun 23 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

This article was published in the Independent newspaper today and covers the urgent situation in the Tripa Swamps, Aceh Sumatra. Read the full article with photos ‘Oil boom threatens the last orang-utans’.

‘A famous British company, Jardines, is profiting as the lowland forest – which shelters the few remaining orang-utans – is razed to make way for massive palm oil plantations, reports Kathy Marks in Tripa, Indonesia.

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Perched halfway up a tree near a bend in the Seumayan River, a young orang-utan lounges on a branch, eating fruit. In the distance, smoke rises from an illegal fire, one of dozens lit to wipe out the virgin rainforest and replace it with oil palm plantations.

It’s burning season on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, where vast tracts of vegetation are being torched and clear-felled to meet the soaring global demand for palm oil. The pace is especially frenzied in the peat swamp forests of the Tripa region, one of the final refuges of the critically endangered orang-utan – and a company owned by one of Britain’s most venerable trading groups is among those leading the destructive charge.

Prized for its productiveness and versatility, palm oil is used in everything from lipstick and detergent to chocolate, crisps and biofuels. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest palm oil producers – but they also shelter the last remaining orang-utans, found only on Sumatra and Borneo islands in the same lowland forests that are being razed to make way for massive plantations.

In Indonesia, one of the largest palm oil companies is Astra Agro Lestari, a subsidiary of Astra International, a Jakarta-based conglomerate which is itself part of Jardine Matheson, a 177-year-old group that made a fortune from the Chinese opium trade and is still controlled by a Scottish family, the Keswicks, descendants of the original founders.

Conservation groups are targeting supermarkets in Britain to alert consumers to the effects of the palm oil explosion. But The Independent can reveal that Jardines, registered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange, is implicated through Astra Agro in ripping out the final vestiges of orang-utan habitat.

Environmentalists are dismayed by the activities of Astra Agro, one of the main companies operating in Tripa under permits that were awarded during the 1990s by the notoriously corrupt Suharto government. They point out that Tripa belongs to the nominally protected Leuser Eco-System, renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, and claim that the plantation businesses are contravening a logging moratorium as well as engaging in illegal practices including burning land.

Greenpeace UK says: “It’s scandalous that a British company is bankrolling the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands. We need to see big firms like Jardines withdrawing investment from companies involved in rainforest clearance.”

Orang-utans are vanishing at an alarming rate in Borneo but in Sumatra their situation is even more precarious. The Sumatran orang-utan – more intelligent and sociable than its Borneo cousin and with a unique culture of tool use – is likely to be the first great ape species to go extinct.

There are believed to be just 6,600 individuals left, mostly living in unprotected areas of Aceh province. Their lowland forests remained relatively undisturbed during the long-running separatist war in Aceh, but since a peace agreement was signed in 2005, it has been open season.

The primates are now splintered across 11 pockets of jungle, with only three populations considered viable. Another three, including Tripa, are borderline viable. Elsewhere, the orang-utans – which use sticks to extract insects from trees and seeds from fruit – are effectively extinct. As their territory shrinks, along with their food supplies, the apes are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. Farmers shoot those caught raiding crops; babies are captured and sold as pets. Adults discovered in oil palm plantations may be hacked to death with machetes.

In Tripa, more than half of the 62,000 hectares of ancient forest has gone. As well as being home to endangered species including the sun bear and clouded leopard, the peat swamps acted as a protective buffer during the 2004 tsunami. They also hold gigantic carbon stocks which are now being released, exacerbating climate change. “If you can’t save Tripa, what can you save?” asks Denis Ruysschaert, forest co-ordinator for PanEco, a Swiss environmental organisation.

Sumatra is a beautiful island, with jungle-clad mountains and picturesque villages where long-horned water buffalo wander. But it is difficult not to be shocked by the colonisation of the landscape by one short, stumpy tree: oil palm. The monoculture is a desolate sight, stretching for miles, relieved only by charred hillsides dotted with tree stumps – cleared land awaiting yet more oil palms. Trucks rattle past, laden with the prickly red fruit from which oil is extracted. In Aceh, they call it the “golden plant” – the cash crop that is lifting the province out of poverty and helping it rebuild after the tsunami. “Recently there’s a frenzy to plant oil palm,” says Fransisca Ariantiningsih, who works for Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (Yel), an Indonesian conservation group.

On Sumatra’s west coast, a small-time farmer, Raluwan, is nursing his seedlings. Ten families, he explains, have logged and burnt 100 hectares of land. Each hectare will yield four tonnes of fruit, fetching 800 Rupiah (47 pence) a kilo.”I used to grow chilli, but palm oil is a very economical crop,” he declares. “You don’t need much pesticide or fertiliser.” Raluwan knows orang-utans live in the nearby forests. “I don’t care,” he says. “I’ve got to feed my family.”

However, many are missing out as the industry grows to meet demand from Europe, the US, China and India. Most plantation workers are migrants from Java and in Tripa, communities that depend on the swamps for water, fish and medicinal plants are suffering.

Kuala Seumayan is hemmed in by plantations. Villagers say they no longer have space even to bury their dead. “Since the forest has been chopped down, it’s difficult to get food,” says one elder, Darmizi. In the Seumayan River, youngsters dive for freshwater clams while children squeal and splash in the placid brown waters. It’s an idyllic scene, but something is missing: the sights and sounds of the forest. The only wildlife consists of a hornbill and two long-tailed macaques. Indrianto, a forestry manager, says: “This used to be all peat swamp, with many trees and animals. Now it’s all oil palm. Before, I heard animal calls. Now I hear only chainsaws.”

By chance, we spot an orang-utan in a solitary tree. Tripa has just 280 apes left. The young male, its fur glowing in the afternoon sun, curls one arm lazily over an upper branch.

A black slick floats on the water: sludge from one of many canals dug to drain the swamps. The arduous procedure is considered preferable to planting on fallow land, which would require negotiations with landowners. This way, the companies also get to sell the timber. As you fly over Tripa, the scale of destruction becomes clear. The green tangle of the forest, in all its riotous variety, abruptly gives way to giant rectangles, laid out with geometrical precision and studded with thousands of palms.

Riswan Zen, a spatial analyst for Yel, last flew over in 2007. “So much forest gone, and all in two years, my God,” he says, gesticulating at a satellite imaging map. “If nothing is done, there’ll be no forest left in one to two years.”

Tripa, designated a priority conservation site by the UN, could hold 1,500 orang-utans if the forest was allowed to regenerate. Prospects seem slim, although Indonesia – one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, thanks to deforestation – claims to be committed both to saving the orang-utan and combating climate change.

Fewer than a quarter of Indonesian producers have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global organisation promoting sustainable practices. (Astra Agro is not among them.) Even in Aceh, where Governor Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader, has proclaimed a “Green Vision”, authorities seem unwilling to crack down on the powerful oil palm companies.

So far, Jardines, whose colourful history inspired a series of novels by James Clavell, has resisted pressure to rein in its Indonesian subsidiary. In a statement to The Independent, Jardines – whose interests include the Mandarin Oriental hotels and Asian branches of Starbucks and IKEA – said Astra Agro’s plantations “function in full compliance with … environmental impact studies”.

Astra Agro says it plans to develop only half of its 13,000 hectares in Tripa because of conservation concerns, and it denies any illegal activity.

Ian Singleton, a Briton who heads PanEco’s Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme, has no doubt that oil palm is the biggest threat to the orang-utan: “I see the orang-utan as a test case. Are we serious about trying to conserve the planet’s eco-systems? If we are, let’s prove it by saving a species like the orang-utan. We know where the orang-utans are; all we have to do is protect the forests. If we’re serious about conservation, this is where we start.”

At a glance: Jardine Matheson

*Founded by two Scottish traders in Canton, China in 1832, it was the first British trading company to smash the East India Company’s Asian monopoly.

*Founder William Jardine was known as “the iron-headed old rat” for his toughness and asperity.

*The company’s fortunes were founded on smuggling huge quantities of opium into China, creating millions of addicts.

*When the Chinese fought back, Jardine persuaded the British government to launch the First Opium War against China.

*Astra Agro, a subsidiary of the company, claims that “concern for the environment” is “an integral part of all the company’s activities”.

Tags: oil palm, sumatran orangutan, Tripa

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Category: Forest Fires, Guard posts and patrols, Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutan Foundation Staff, Uncategorized | Date: May 26 2009 | By: orangutanfoundation

Last week the Central Kalimantan Agency for Conservation of Natural Resources (BKSDA) held motivation training sessions for their Forest Fire Brigade. They asked Orangutan Foundation staff to facilitate with this after the dedication they showed when tackling the recent fires that broke out in Sungai Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.

Pak Eko Novi, the Head of BKSDA SKW II Kalimantan Tengah, awarded a Manggala Agni (Forest Fire Brigade) Pin, to our staff at Danau Burung Post (Bird Lake Guard Post) because of their dedication and participation in tackling the fires.

Isam represented other KPEL (Partnership for Local Economic Development) staff (Sias, Amat, Fendy, Aris dan Jakir) at the award ceremony. It is hoped the award will help motivate other staff, BKSDA staff and the local community to have more responsibility and participation concerning the conservation of the Sungai Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.

At last week’s training session we aimed to build team cohesion and lift the spirits of the Forest Fire Brigade. We hope it will instill a sense of honour and the brigade will feel proud about their duties and their job. Fire fighting is not just a “job” but is “dedication” for nature conservation.

Pak Hudi leading the motivation and team building session.

The team building and motivation sessions included various games:

Carry a Bomb. Each team must carry a bottle (as a bomb) with limited tools from one place to a target. The aim is to encourage teamwork, strategy, and role distribution within the team.

Courier. Each team must deliver a message (a stick) from one place to another place only using their neck’s. This game has aim to build team work, strategy and the “quick think” response.

O-O Game. A pair of participants must save themselves from plastic rope that binds their hands. This game has the aim to build problem solving strategy.

Thank you,

Pak Hudi

Programme Coordinator, Orangutan Foundation UK

Tags: Forest Fires, Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutan Foundation

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