FIRES SPREAD TO WILD ORANGUTAN HABITAT

Our teams have been tirelessly battling fires within or around our two orangutan rehabilitation centers, Samboja Lestari and Nyaru Menteng, for almost two months. Both of these facilities are surrounded by human settlements and fires set by people, reached our centers with devastating impacts.

We now face another serious challenge with fire outbreaks occurring across our Mawas Conservation Program in Central Kalimantan. The area engulfed by fire is already estimated to have reached 15,442 hectares in Block A (12,009 ha) and Block E (3,433 ha).

The BOS Foundation Mawas Conservation Program protects 309,861 hectares of natural peat forest inhabited by approximately 3,000 wild orangutans together with a plethora of other important endemic wildlife species.  This is one of the few remaining strongholds for wild Bornean orangutans in Indonesia.

Significant preparations were put into place to prevent fire and respond rapidly to forest fire outbreaks in this area. But the challenges are overwhelming and minimum infrastructure and limited access to the hot spots makes fighting fires incredibly difficult. Unfortunately slow response from related parties has led to extensive areas of forest lost to fire.

After lengthy coordination with the Provincial Fire Fighting Command Post, our team have now managed to receive adequate support to extinguish fire that spread in the Kapuas and South Barito Regencies.

As an integral part of the Mawas Conservation Program, the Tuanan Research Station was built by the BOS Foundation to conduct non-invasive research on wild orangutan behavior and the impact of habitat degradation on wild orangutans and biodiversity in general.

Fire broke out in the area situated near the Tuanan Research Station, only 500 meters from Tuanan itself.
 

As if struggling to fight fires in this area isn’t enough of a challenge, our team in Mawas has had to battle significantly increased illegal logging activities, which may well possibly be the cause of forest and land fires. Illegal logging has been on the increase and we have frequently informed and reported this to the authorities, but so far without response.

Our team in the field has been working day and night to ensure the safety of wild orangutans and their habitat along with our partners: Universitas Nasional - Jakarta, Zurich University, and Rutgers. With the ongoing prolonged dry season, it is clear that we will continue to fight fires until the rains arrive.

We thank you for all support from the Kapuas Conservation Forest Management Unit (KPHL), Kapuas Manggala Agni Fire Brigade, Central Kalimantan Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), and the good people of Tumbang Mangkutub and Tuanan villages.