Matt Adam Williams spent a year in the Sabangau Forest with OuTrop. He is now back in the UK and is assisting with our exciting initiative Rainforest: Live. This event is in its second year and is coming back bigger and better than 2014! In our latest blog, Matt tells us all about Rainforest: Live. We don’t know about you, but we are excited already!
A year ago to the day I was enjoying my final weeks in the jungle in Indonesia. Before coming back to the UK, I spent several days in base camp and the rainforest, soaking up the atmosphere and trying to pack in as much wildlife as I could.
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| Vulcan, adult male Bornean orangutan, in Sabangau. Photo by Matt Adam Williams/OuTrop. |
I miss the rainforest every single day. There’s no alarm clock quite like the whooping of gibbons, no sight at four o’clock in the morning quite like a plate-sized spider glimpsed with your head torch sitting on your bedroom ceiling. There’s no smell quite like that of fresh orangutan poo dropped several feet away from you. There’s no feeling like the hot, humid jungle air against your skin as you stumble after a fast-moving red langur monkey.
So, I’d love to go back to the jungle, but right now I’m looking forward to the next best thing, and I hope it can give you a flavour of living in the jungle too.
On 19 June Rainforest: Live is returning.
I helped to launch Rainforest: Live last year when I was in Sabangau. Over a period of 24 hours, nine organisations from across Southeast Asia used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to share live wildlife sightings, straight from the jungle, with people around the world.
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| Sabangau Forest, Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Andrew Walmsley/OuTrop |
This year, it’s back, even bigger and better. We’re welcoming new organisations, as well as reconnecting with some old friends.
We will also be exploring new parts of the world. CREES Foundation will help us bring sightings from Peru, while Fauna and Flora International will be helping us delve into jungles of Africa. While these places may be pretty different in terms of the wildlife, they share similar characteristics – they are the richest habitats on earth and they are all under threat.
Rainforest: Live is designed to give you a glimpse into what it’s like to live in a rainforest. And it’s hoped that it will remind us all of the treasures in these places and the reasons they’re worth protecting.
If, after the 19 June, you agree, then maybe you might like to donate to one of the organisations involved in order to support their incredible work.
You can get involved by following the organisations below on Facebook or Twitter, and by using the hashtag #rainforestlive. And, if you want to see all the sightings in one place, we’ll be using storify to pull them all together.
I hope to see you on Twitter or Facebook on 19 June for #rainforestlive!
