Habitat Protection

The rainforests of Borneo are being cleared at an alarming rate, threatening wildlife, indigenous people’s livelihoods and contributing to climate change. We work in threatened landscapes to save critical habitats from destruction, and protect orangutans and other endangered wildlife.

We are working to protect rainforests from deforestation, to save wildlife and prevent the loss of forests with cultural and economic importance for local communities. We do this by identifying unprotected forests which have High Conservation Value (HCV), through field research, satellite imagery and socio-economic surveys.

HCV forests include areas with important biodiversity; areas with High Carbon Stocks (HCS), for example peat-swamps and tall forests in the Heart of Borneo; areas with important natural resource functions that benefit communities; and habitats that are under-represented in the protected area system, such as the kerangas forests in Borneo’s lowland interior.

These forests are often within multi-use landscapes, so it is essential we engage with all stakeholders, including companies and government agencies to ensure sustainable landscape management and spatial planning. It is especially important to engage with communities to ensure their voice is prioritised in land management decisions and that their traditional forest uses are recognised.

We ultimately work to achieve land designations which ensure the effective long-term protection of large rainforests, wildlife and support sustainable local livelihoods. We currently focus our habitat protection work in the kerangas forests of the Rungan Landscape, in the tall dipterocarp forests of the Heart of Borneo in Murung Raya, and the peat-swamp forests in the Sebangau National Park.