For more than 25 years, we’ve been working to protect and restore some of our planet’s most important ecosystems.
Borneo is home to an astonishing 6% of all global biodiversity, whilst its peatlands represent one of the largest land-based carbon stores on Earth. These environments shape our climate, support communities, and nurture species found nowhere else.
25 years of conservation is something to celebrate – but what comes next is crucial.
Dream with us
This is our vision for Borneo 2050: a future where forest, wildlife, climate, and communities thrive together.
By 2050, we want to make deforestation a thing of the past.
Wildfire will no longer be a looming annual disaster. Instead, community firefighting teams – supported by drones, climate-risk modelling, and real-time monitoring – will stop fires early and effectively.
New forest protections and management strategies will be agreed, benefitting people and wildlife alike. Together with responsible businesses, we’ll identify key areas for protection and take steps to prevent and minimise ecological harm.
We will continue to back Indigenous voices, securing land management rights for local communities, and preserving ecosystem services. Thanks to our sustainable livelihoods programme, fewer people will need to resort to extractive industries like logging or mining. Instead, communities will be empowered to develop forest-friendly business initiatives, from ethical eco-tourism to permaculture gardens.
We don’t just want to stop forest loss – we’re aiming for genuine forest gain.
Drawing on decades of experience, peatland-rewetting and community reforestation initiatives will help fragile these ecosystems bounce back stronger and healthier than ever before.
By 2025, our habitat restoration efforts will have achieved an ecological tipping point, shifting from emergency rehabilitation to long-term maintenance and enhancement. With appropriate funding secured, over the next 25 years we hope to block all major logging canals, re-flooding the peat-swamp forest and restoring its natural hydrology so it remains moist and fire-resistant year-round.
Assisted by drone technology to rapidly replant native trees and fast-growing canopy species, local communities will remain at the heart of our reforestation efforts, restoring degraded lands in a fraction of the time it once took.
Replanting will take place at scale across multiple landscapes and habitats, from peatlands to mixed heath rainforest. By 2050, the trees we planted twenty, thirty years ago will have matured into a flourishing forest ecosystem, supporting a myriad of rare and threatened species. Throughout our restoration areas, forest sensors will monitor biodiversity recovery, soil health, and water cycles in real-time, ensuring ecosystems are not just restored but thriving.
Borneo: A bastion for climate stability
Borneo’s peat-swamp forests are one of the most significant carbon stores on Earth – and we plan on keeping them that way.
Although drainage and degradation risk turning these vital ecosystems into a ticking time bomb for the climate, our intensive programme of peatland re-wetting will ensure that gigatons of carbon stay locked away in the soil – effectively ‘defusing the bomb’ and shielding global climate systems from further destabilisation. In 2050, Borneo’s peat swamps will be resilient, re-flooded, and fully functioning as one of Earth’s most powerful natural climate buffers.
Borneo is home to thousands of unique species – and by 2050, we want them all to be flourishing.
Over the next 25 years, we’ll forge even stronger collaborations with our partners on the ground to preserve Borneo’s unique and precious biodiversity. We will continue to expand local research capacity, driving important new discoveries to inform effective conservation management. Borneo will be recognised as a priority region for wild cat conservation, with clear strategic protection plans outlined for each of the island’s five species.
Restored forest corridors will reconnect fragmented habitats, allowing species to roam freely, linking populations to preserve genetic diversity. As we succeed in reversing the trend of deforestation and population decline, vulnerable species like the Bornean orangutan, white-bearded gibbon and bay cat will no longer be classed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Borneo’s rainforests will stand as a beacon of resilience and renewal, sheltering a thriving web of life from the tiniest ants to towering dipterocarp giants.
The future of Borneo’s forests depends on the people who call them home.
We want to expand community management initiatives so that Indigenous stewardship becomes the norm, not the exception. Communities will decide how their natural resources are managed, using a powerful blend of traditional knowledge and modern conservation science. With increased local capacity and growing returns, sustainable business ventures will continue to grow and become increasingly self-sustaining, expanding into new markets. Poverty will decline, and pressure on forest resources will fall with it. As ecosystems become more resilient, the communities that rely on them will benefit from increased food security, protection against natural disasters, and green job opportunities.
The children growing up today will be the scientists, teachers, policy-makers, and guardians of tomorrow. Through education programmes, scholarships, outreach, and global partnerships, we will inspire and equip a new generation who understands the priceless value of nature.
In 2025, conservation leadership will be deeply local, grounded in culture, and supported by world-class science and technology. Borneo’s researchers will contribute global insights, helping other regions restore their forests just as Borneo has restored its own.
A future worth fighting for
Our vision for Borneo in 2050 is bold, but not beyond reach. It is grounded in 25 years of science, experience, and strong community collaboration.
This is the future we and our partners are working for. And we need you with us.
Join us as we continue to protect, restore, and reimagine Borneo’s rainforests through science, education, and community-first action.
Together, we can turn this vision into a reality.
