outrop_newsletter_march_2011

THE ORANGUTAN TROPICAL PEATLAND

PROJECT

Issue 1 March 2011

Welcome to our newsletter!

Amazing camera trap photos! Already this year has seen some of our best camera trap photos to date. The Sa-bangau Felid Project, in place since 2008, is using camera traps placed around the forest to gain an insight into the number of felids present and some of their behav-iour. The four species of wild cat found in Sabangau are: flat-headed cat (P. planiceps), marbled cat (P. marmorata) leopard cat (P. bengalensis) and the enig-matic clouded leopard (N. diardi). Both the clouded leopard and marbled cat are listed as vulnerable on the ICUN red list and the flat-headed cat as endangered. Sabangau is proving to be a stronghold for the Bornean clouded leopard. It’s fan-tastic to see these pictures as the cats themselves are rarely seen. Having said that, one was spotted near camp at the beginning of January. You never know what might be around the next tree.

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Contents The OuTrop Story Our research Orangutans Gibbons Forestry Katingan Survey Dam project HCVF Survey Volunteers 2010 OuTrop Objectives New Staff Contact details Partners and Sponsors

The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project is registered in the UK as a non-profit organisation. Company No. 06761511

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Welcome to the newsletter from OuTrop. In this and forthcoming editions we will bring you all the latest news and research from the Sabangau peat swamp forest here in Central Kalimantan. In this issue we will give you an overview of some of our work in the forest and look back at the highlights from last year, including our volunteer project and surveys we have car-ried out at remote sites for biodiversity and HCVF.

The Story So Far OuTrop was founded in 1999 by two graduate zoologists who were originally introduced to Sabangau and tropical peatlands by Professor Jack Rieley during the 1993-96 University of Nottingham research expeditions. We had earlier iden-tified Sabangau as home to the largest orangutan population in the world and wanted to develop these seasonal expeditions into a full-time research and con-servation project. Our initial aims were to raise awareness of the importance of Sabangau and other peat-swamp forests for orangutan and biodiversity conserva-tion, and to encourage sustainable management, protection and restoration of this vital habitat. OuTrop has grown in personnel and scope over the past 12 years but our objectives remain the same. In 1999 the situation was bleak. Illegal loggers were cutting trees all over Saban-gau, a year earlier 10% of the forest had been destroyed by massive fires and the peatland was being drained, hunted and exploited unsustainably. During our 12 years of work here we have surveyed orangutans across this vast landscape, documented rampant illegal logging, supported habitat protection units, fire-fighting teams and hydrology restoration and replanting activities, and brought over 250 research students and volunteers here. We are proud to be a part of the conservation of the Sabangau Forest. Our long term partners are CIMTROP, led by Dr Suwido Limin at the University of Palangkaraya, who manage the Natural Laboratory of Peat-swamp Forest. This critical area of 50,000 hectares is the site of our research work and is pro-tected by the TSA Patrol Unit – a team made up of concerned and committed people from the local village of Kereng Bangkerai; managed by CIMTROP and funded by OuTrop and our supporters. The TSA stopped illegal logging in 2004, keep the area free of disturbance and have facilitated education, awareness and community support projects. Our research focus has expanded over the years to take on dedicated projects on Bornean southern gibbons, clouded leopards and red leaf monkeys, and we now have a permanent staff of 15 research coordina-tors and assistants from Kereng Bangkerai, many of whom are now experts in orangutan and gibbon survey techniques and botanical identifications. The Setia Alam base camp is now recognised as a major centre for peat-swamp biodiversity research, and OuTrop as specialists in peat-swamp forest ecology. Our primary focus is research to support conservation, and therefore our projects include the implementation of a rigorous biodiversity monitoring program for Sabangau in partnership with Sabangau’s conservation management agencies; and undertaking HCVF surveys throughout Central Kalimantan to support REDD and CCBA objectives at the landscape level and local NGO and Adat pri-orities at the village and community level. We are pleased to be involved in ape research and conservation, including contributing to regional and national Orangutan Action Plans; the 2004 Orang-utan PHVA and the 2008 Indonesian Gibbon Conservation Workshop. We remain dedicated to helping the people of Central Kalimantan protect their natural heritage and would like to thank all our supporters on their behalf.

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Research Projects

T H E O R A N G U T A N T R O P I C A L P E A T L A N D P R O J E C T

Orangutans Our flagship project has been ongoing for eight years now, following wild orang-utans in their natural habitat. We know and study 40 individuals, with long-term objectives to understand orang-utan behaviour and ecol-ogy in tropical peat-swamp forest habitat, with special focus on (i) feed-ing behaviour, energetics and health and (ii) social networks, relatedness, communication and dispersal. By identifying factors such as the effect of logging damage on their health or assessing the minimum area needed to protect viable populations, we are helping to protect this species. It’s tough work following orangutans in the flooded and dense peat-swamp forest, but we were rewarded in 2010 with the birth of a new baby boy orangutan, Fio, to his mother Feb, our most followed and best-known in-dividual. We started following her when she was just leaving her own mother in 2003, so to see her give birth to her first baby was very exciting for us all.

Gibbons Gibbons are much harder to study than orangutans because they travel so quickly through the canopy and are difficult to habituate. We are therefore very proud of our gibbon behaviour project, which is one of very few long-term studies of these primates in the world. Ours are southern Bornean gibbons, and we monitor their population size, distribution, social behaviour, diet, development and health; study how energy intake is governed by food availability; investigate their singing behaviour and effects of changing climatic conditions

on this; and on a wider scale investigate the effects of anthropogenic disturbance and conservation measures on the gibbon population; and compare gibbon behaviour, diet and nutrient intake with that of the sympatric orangutans. To date the project has collected over 3000 hours of focal-animal follow data on 27 individuals.

Forestry research We study the botanical composition, structure and dynamics of the forest through a number of ongoing research projects. Together with CIMTROP botanists we have built up a comprehensive inven-tory of 317 species of plant in the Sabangau peat-swamp forest, and this is used as a baseline to support other research projects, such as primate feeding records, studies of regeneration, succession and restoration; and assessing botanical diversity at remote monitoring sites. Our long-term plots are used to study fruiting phenology and productivity, and record biomass accumulation post-logging.


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OuTrop have completed two sets of biodiversity surveys over

the last year in the Katingan peat swamps, just west of Saban-gau. These swamps in Katingan cover an area of some 200,000ha and are currently classified as “Production Forest”, with no real protection status. Our surveys confirm that this area is important for flora and fauna conservation, with many threatened species present in the area. Hope that protection may be achieved comes in the form of a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) project, run by PT. Starling Asia. While the primary aim of REDD+ projects is to reduce carbon emissions and, in doing so, make profit by selling carbon credits on international markets, there is also a very clear potential for positive biodiversity impacts. In par-ticular, REDD+ helps to make forests worth more alive than cut down and is intended to generate sustainable ways to fund

forest protection. Because peat-swamp forests, such as Katingan or Sabangau, contain so much carbon, they are prime targets for REDD+ projects. Another key remit of REDD+ projects is to demonstrate that they bring about additional biodi-versity benefits, as compared to the ‘without-project’ or ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. This is achieved through adherence to the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance Standards, acceptance to which hinges upon satisfying a number of biodiversity criteria. Achieving “Gold” standard involves demonstrating exceptional biodiversity benefits, such as protecting populations of endangered species like the orang-utan. With our expertise in peat-swamp forest biodiversity, OuTrop will make an important contribution towards confirming these benefits exist and sup-porting REDD+ in achieving its massive potential for tropical peat-swamp forest protection.

By Dr Mark Harrison, Project Development Leader.

Biodiversity Surveys to support REDD in Katingan

Restoring Hydrology by damming canals Sabangau is a dual ecosystem – rich tropical forest standing atop a thick layer of carbon-rich peat. The peat and forest are interlinked, so if one part of the ecosystem is damaged it affects the other. The peat layer is riddled with hundreds of small canals that were dug ten years ago by illegal loggers for floating out timber. They now drain the forest rapidly at the start of the dry season and the dried out peat quickly degrades, undermining mature forest trees and re-leasing CO2. Dried peat is highly combustible and forest fires are a major threat every dry season. In 2010, 379 dams were built on 9 canals in the northern Sabangau by a team of local com-munity members coordinated by CIMTROP’s TSA. Damming these canals is the highest priority conservation issue for Sabangau and one that OuTrop takes very seriously. Working with the CIMTROP TSA and Community Patrol Team we have mapped the canals and de-signed a suitable damming system to meet the overall objective of reducing water flow rates, preventing further access and allowing the canals to silt up naturally – all targeted at restor-ing natural hydrology conditions to maintain the crucial peat layer.

HCVF surveys in Bawan

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In July 2010 some of our volunteers and researchers had the opportunity of exploring a different area of forest from a recently expanded camp near Bawan, north of Sabangau. A very different forest type to our usual peat-swamp, Bawan is an area of forest with a shallower peat depth and much less water! Much of the surrounding area has suffered from log-ging and burning. Logging is still in evidence around the edges of our designated research area. The sound of chainsaws in the distance was a common occur-rence. The camp will be used as a continuously staffed patrol post to help the community of-Bawan to protect this region. With the help of our dedicated volunteers OuTrop surveyed the area, looking at densities of gib-bons and orangutans, setting up camera traps, carrying out projects on frogs, butterflies and moths, and conducting a bird survey. What emerged is that this area of forest has a wealth of bio-diversity. The inhospitable desolation surrounding the forest means that this remaining area is so important for maintaining the myriad plants and animals that call Bawan home. Bawan is an amazing place, both the forest and the village that was so welcoming, and we hope to return there soon to continue our work.

Eighteen volunteers joined us from all over the world last year. Some joined us in Bawan, and some in Sabangau. Six research projects were completed, covering a range of fauna; night time walks looking for frogs and finding a wealth of nocturnal crea-tures; hanging traps for butterflies and moths, baited with fer-mented banana (yum!); dawn outings to record gibbon song; full forest exploration surveying orangutan nests. There have been so many highlights I don’t have space to write them all! Independence day in Bawan, where all of OuTrop were invited to the ceremony; weddings and Idul Fitri celebrations in Kereng; amazing wildlife, from wild orangutans to giant stick insects; a fantastic boat ride around the islands at Nyaru Menteng, not to mention Tanjung Puting!; river trips to remote sites where we all got soaked; ferocious games of badminton and only slightly competitive card games. All-in-all it was a wonderful six months and we would like to say a huge THANK YOU so much to all for helping OuTrop carry out its research. To enquire about the volunteer programme see our website,:

www.orangutantrop.com/volunteer/volunteer.html

Volunteers 2010

Photo by C. Wood


THE ORANGUTAN

TROPICAL

PEATLAND

PROJECT

“Working to

protect the peat-

swamp forest

since 1999”

OuTrop objectives

New Staff We are also joined by Jess Smallcombe, who is heading up our communi-cations and fundraising team. Jess worked with us last year with our vol-unteers in Bawan and Sa-bangau. “ I’m really happy about returning to Borneo. The experience I had in the months I spent in Sabangau last year was fantastic. The people are lovely, the work ex-citing and the animals brilliant. I will, how-ever, be hanging up my field boots for a little while to work in the office (although I might manage to sneak off to the forest every now and again!). Heading up the communications and fundraising team for OuTrop will present me with a new type of challenge”. If you would like to contact OuTrop about donating to us or have any questions about the project, please contact Jess on [email protected].

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Bernat Ripoll, from Bar-celona, is the new Re-search Team leader work-ing in Sabangau. He is responsible for all field research at camp; the pri-mate behaviour research, as well as the camera trap

and forestry research. He is working along-side Udin and with each of the four research coordinators to ensure they have what they need to do their job. Currently he is training and coordinating the three new interns. Berni is a biologist with an MSC in Primatol-ogy. He worked in Sabangau in 2007-2008 as the gibbon behaviour field manager for 9 months, locating and following gibbons in the forest, recording details of activity, feeding, vocalising and social behaviour. Previously he was in Argentina, working as a research field assistant habituating, locating and fol-lowing individuals, sampling the feeding and recording social behaviour of two different species of howler monkeys. Now he is starting this new experience enjoy-ing every day being back in the Sabangau Forest.

The OuTrop aims are: To conduct research important to conserva-

tion management of tropical peat-swamp for-est and its biodiversity.

To monitor changes in habitat and popula-tions, and provide these data to conservation management agencies.

To improve our understanding of peat-swamp forest ecology and the ecology of flagship species including the orangutan, gibbon and clouded leopard.

To restore natural peat-land hydrology and degraded lands. To raise awareness about the importance of peat-swamp forest and the threats

facing its conservation. To support local grassroots conservation initiatives and promote conservation in

harmony with local communities. To improve local capacity to study and manage tropical peat-land habitats.

This newsletter aims to keep you updated regularly on all events at Sabangau. We will introduce you to staff members and the wildlife of our forest in future newsletters.

The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project works to protect one of the most important areas of tropical rainforest in Borneo - the Sabangau Forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. We monitor the distribution, population status, behaviour and ecology of the for-est's flagship ape species, carry out biodiversity and forestry research, and work with local partners to im-plement conservation solutions. Our research and eco-volunteer program is a focus for conservation efforts and provides much-needed employment for the local community of Kereng. OuTrop also support CIMTROP TSA team who pro-tect the forest from illegal logging and fires.

www.orangutantrop.com [email protected]

Keep an eye on our blog for all the latest news and stories of the research, animals and life at camp…

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Contact OuTrop Directors Simon Husson Managing Director Director of Conservation and Biodiversity Research [email protected] Helen Morrogh Bernard Founding Director Director of Orangutan Research [email protected] Susan Cheyne Director of Gibbon and Felid Research [email protected] Laura D’Arcy Director of Forestry Research [email protected] Karen Jeffers Director of Operations [email protected] Jalan Semeru 91 Palangkaraya Central Kalimantan Indonesia

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