Protect Endangered Species

How coffee agroforestry is helping orangutan populations recover in Indonesia

Forests cover a third of the Earth and shelter most of the world’s diversity of life on land. For the billions of people who depend on them for food, fuel, and livelihoods, forests are essential. But forests are under serious threat from human activities. Unsustainable practices like illegal logging, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure developed without nature in mind are rapidly degrading forests and causing landslides, floods, and fires that threaten both ecosystems and communities.

In Indonesia, these pressures are intense as expanding palm oil plantations, logging, mining, and increasingly frequent fires are carving away at critical habitat. One charismatic primate that suffers the consequences of deforestation is the endangered Bornean orangutan.

But here is the good news: Sustainably grown coffee provides an alternative source of income, helping to reduce deforestation and protect orangutans.

Agroforestry for orangutans

In the Indonesian forests of Borneo’s West Kalimantan, orangutans compete for disappearing habitat with palm oil plantations, mines, and logging concessions. These activities threaten orangutans with habitat loss, poaching, and human-wildlife conflict. Restoring orangutan habitat, especially the Berubayan-Batu Nyambu Biodiversity Corridor (BBNBC), is critical for population recovery, as this area connects orangutans with neighboring populations. For the endangered Bornean orangutans, whose survival depends on connected, healthy forest corridors, every lost acre matters.

To help safeguard orangutans and their critical forest habitat, experts at WWF collaborated with local communities to identify solutions that support both wildlife and people. During the search for sustainable solutions, one unexpected ally emerged from beneath the forest canopy: coffee.

Sustainably grown coffee can help restore soil, protect habitat, and support local livelihoods, turning a global commodity into a tool for conservation. Agroforestry is a sustainable farming practice that integrates native trees and other crops with coffee plants, enriching the soil and increasing carbon stocks in the land. Agroforestry coffee not only improves the quality of the land and prevents deforestation but also provides diversified sources of income from the various crops, creating more stable and sustainable livelihoods for farmers: a win for both nature and humans!

Coffee and community

To promote coffee agroforestry as a sustainable income alternative, WWF organized training sessions for community groups from Sebadak Raya and Beringin Rayo villages that border the priority conservation areas. WWF also organized a visit to the Forest Farmer Group – a community coffee cooperative in Kayong Utara District – bringing together 20 members from surrounding villages. During the visit, participants learned about best practices in coffee plantation management, production processes, business operations, and marketing.

To further increase community capacity, WWF conducted training in natural resource processing for women’s groups in three villages. In these sessions, local women learned to process natural forest materials like dog fruit, taro, and bamboo leaf into consumable products like crackers and chips, helping supplement household incomes.

Inspired by these trainings and visits, villagers returned home motivated to improve their own coffee cultivation practices. Through shared knowledge and community building, local Indonesian communities are now developing successful and sustainable coffee agroforestry businesses.

Coffee for conservation

By addressing local community needs, WWF is ensuring that essential orangutan habitats like the BBNBC remain intact. Training communities in sustainable livelihoods such as coffee agroforestry improves local incomes while reducing the need to clear forest land. This success story demonstrates that effective conservation must work with local communities, not around them. When done right, protecting nature and supporting people go hand in hand.

How you can help!

As human activities continue to threaten forests and the species that inhabit them, WWF is helping to protect endangered species like the Bornean orangutan. By supporting WWF’s projects and sharing them with your family, friends, and colleagues, you can help us expand this work and accelerate conservation programs, benefiting ecosystems, local communities, and the planet we all share. Together, we can protect orangutans and other precious species around the globe!

Links:

• Read the full article here
• Learn more about how WWF is protecting wildlife

eDNA reveals snow leopard presence in Bhutan’s mountain rivers

Scientists uncover rare wildlife during high-elevation river sampling

WWF scientists knew that hiking through snow leopard territory doesn’t guarantee a sighting. These elusive cats are masters of camouflage, often invisible even in the places they’re known to inhabit. That is what makes monitoring them, and other elusive wildlife, such a challenge.

Recently, a WWF team trekked through rugged terrain above 14,000 feet near Mt. Jomolhari in Bhutan’s Eastern Himalayas to explore biodiversity in the region. Along the way, the team encountered blue sheep, yaks, and Himalayan marmots—but no snow leopards. That wasn’t surprising. What came next, however, was.

The river that revealed the invisible

The team collected liters of water from the high-elevation waters of the Paa Chhu River to conduct environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling. What they discovered was astonishing.

From those samples, scientists detected the presence of 19 mammal species—including snow leopards and Pallas’s cats. This marked the first time these species were identified in the region using river-based eDNA. The findings represent a breakthrough in wildlife monitoring across remote, high-altitude landscapes that are nearly impossible to access by traditional means.

Beyond their monitoring dreams

eDNA works by detecting microscopic traces left behind by animals as they move through the landscape— fragments of fur, skin cells, waste, and more. Detecting snow leopards this way was a long shot, but that was the point. If successful, it would revolutionize how we can monitor biodiversity in hard-to-reach areas. By sampling at high elevation near snow leopard habitat, the team increased the odds—and it paid off. The results confirmed the presence of snow leopards and many other mammals, proving that eDNA is a powerful tool for conservation.

Why it matters

Detecting snow leopards through eDNA demonstrates the remarkable potential of this technology to uncover biodiversity in places where traditional monitoring is difficult or impossible. It offers a non-invasive, safer, more efficient, and cost-effective way to track elusive species, opening new doors for conservation across the Himalayas and other remote regions.

Bhutan has now officially opened its first environmental DNA (eDNA) laboratory, marking a new era of monitoring and research for the region’s rich natural history.

How you can help!

As biodiversity faces growing threats, innovative research initiatives like eDNA sampling are more important than ever. By supporting WWF’s projects and sharing them with your family, friends, and colleagues, you can help us make faster, more effective conservation decisions, benefiting ecosystems, local communities, and the planet we all share. Together, we can protect snow leopards and other precious species around the globe!

Links:

• Read the full article here
• Learn more about how WWF is protecting wildlife here