Support Indigenous forest protection in Borneo

In November, our field technicians for the Baram Heritage Survey completed their sixth month of data collection before a much deserved holiday break. The last three months have seen our team really hit their stride, with a bevy of new animal and bird sightings. Our team found footprints for the Borneo Bay Cat, one of the rarest felines in the world. They found dozens of magnificent helmeted hornbills, which were upgraded to critically endangered in September of last year, meaning they are one step away from becoming extinct in the wild. They found bears and binturong, pangolin and porcupines, and many spectacular species in between. 

This evidence codifies what the Indigenous communities we work with have been telling us for decades: the Baram region is a precious ecosystem that must be protected from the logging and palm oil interests that threaten land and people. Now more than ever, we need to support Indigenous-led solutions to biodiversity conservation in order to safeguard these critical species. 

We also started collecting data for the social component of the survey, interviewing community members about how they envision the future of their land. This has shown us that the vast majority of community members have no interest in industrial development, and would much rather see their forests protected for generations to come. As one villager put it: “City people get everything they need by simply pressing a button on an ATM machine. But we survive through our sweat and hard work. Our land is our life. The forest is where we find our happiness.” 

Although Sarawak is experiencing another lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, our team and technicians are safe, and we remain hopeful about the coming months. Our field technicians are able to continue their patrols and our international research team is hard at work crunching all the data. We are so grateful for your support in helping to make this happen — we could not have done any of this impactful work without our wonderful supporters. Thank you. 

In solidarity,

Jettie.