25 YEARS OF PROTECTING
Protecting rainforest is what we do
The Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) was founded 25 years ago to champion the protection of the Sebangau peat-swamp rainforest in southern Borneo. This forest harbours one of the largest populations of wild orangutans anywhere on Earth, as well as gibbons, wild cats and thousands of other rare and endangered species. Here, 215 tree species have been recorded in a limited survey area of 500km² – to put things in perspective, that’s more than twice the number of tree species found in the entirety of the UK, an area almost 500 times the size!
Sebangau was officially designated as a national park in 2004, bringing the area to the forefront of orangutan conservation efforts. However, whilst these protections prevent the forest from being further logged or converted for agricultural purposes, a legacy of illegal logging remains.
Although large-scale logging has not taken place here since the 1990s, a vast network of drainage canals continues to leach water from the peat-swamp, stripping it of its natural fireproofing. During the dry season, fires spread easily through the parched forest, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and destroying huge swaths of critical rainforest habitat.
Major projects
Fighting fires
Peatland fires behave unlike any other fires on Earth and are incredibly difficult to extinguish once they have taken hold. These so-called “zombie fires” can burn invisibly below ground for weeks on end, turning entire root systems to ash and decimating globally important carbon stocks.
We support a network of community firefighting and patrol teams in the Sebangau landscape, providing salaries, training, equipment and safety gear. Limited patrols take place year-round but with increasing intensity in the lead-up to the dry season, during which daily patrols are conducted by all teams across the National Park. This approach includes monitoring high-risk areas where fires are more likely to occur, allowing for quicker response times. We also supply patrol teams with thermal drones to help identify hidden fire hotspots, making sure that any outbreaks are properly contained and dealt with in their early stages.
In addition to supporting firefighting teams on the frontline, we deliver education and outreach sessions to communities, schools, youth groups, and local governance to raise awareness of the causes and impacts of fire. By engaging with local stakeholders and policymakers, we aim to promote better fire management practices and develop long-term solutions to keep Borneo’s forests fire-free.
Expanding area protections
Rungan: A New Conservation Frontier
In 2016, over 16 years after BNF was first established, we began to explore conservation opportunities in the Rungan landscape. Rungan is one of the largest relatively intact lowland forests in Borneo, representing a mixed mosaic of dryland and swamp habitat on sandy soils (known locally as ‘kerangas’ or heath forest). Virtually none of this habitat type is currently protected in Central Kalimantan and it is all seriously threatened; yet here lies a biodiverse, culturally important expanse of tropical rainforest – around 150,000 hectares in total.
Whilst Sebangau may represent the largest protected population of wild orangutans in the region (and possibly the world), Rungan is home to one of the largest as-yet unprotected populations in Borneo. Unlike the Sebangau National Park, which is a continuous block of nationally managed forest, Rungan is a heavily fragmented, multi-use landscape, spanning village forests, illegal mining sites, and palm oil concessions. We engage with a wide variety of stakeholders—from companies and government agencies to local communities—to manage the land sustainably, identify priority areas for conservation, and reconnect forest fragments.
Barito Ulu: The Heart of Borneo
In 2018, we launched a new programme of conservation activities in Barito Ulu, deep in the rocky Heart of Borneo. Here spring forth the headwaters of the mighty Barito River, which flows for over five hundred miles through cities and jungles, valleys and farmland, sustaining a huge array of cultures, commerce, habitats and wildlife. The montane forests of Borneo’s highlands are home to an incredible diversity of species and, until recently, have remained relatively undisturbed due to their inaccessibility. However, Barito Ulu is coming under increasing threat as mining, logging and plantation agriculture begin to take hold in this remote region.
The health of these highland forests is vital to ensure clean water supply, mitigate droughts and fires, and support ecological and economic stability in Borneo’s lowlands. We have begun to establish a collaborative conservation network with local community groups, NGOs, and government, industry and academic bodies to promote sustainable development and protect wildlife across the wider Barito Ulu landscape.
Supporting Indigenous land rights
Despite making up less than 5% of the world’s population, indigenous people protect an estimated 80% of global biodiversity. Borneo is home to around 300 indigenous cultures, most of which belong to the Dayak ethnic group. Under the Indonesian Government’s Social Forestry scheme, indigenous communities can apply for legal management rights over their ancestral forests. This legal recognition means that communities can continue to live off the land sustainably, without fear of losing it to extractive industries like commercial logging or plantation agriculture.
We are working to expand the regional Social Forestry programme by providing application support to villages across the Rungan and Sebangau landscapes. By empowering communities to influence decisions on land use and management, we can help to preserve their cultural heritage and protect the forests upon which they – and thousands of other species – rely.
Our work doesn’t stop there.
We protect what we can, but what if the damage has already been done?
Fortunately, the damage is rarely irreversible, and we have evidence-based restoration strategies at our disposal…
Next up in this series: 25 Years of Restoring
Written by Olivia Pilmore-Bedford, Communications Officer, BNF International
