Located in the Berau District of Indonesian's East Kalimantan, one of the most remote areas in Borneo, the Kelay snakes through the limestone pinnacles of karst forest. In 1998 wildfires wiped out 12 million acres of forests south of Berau, decimating wildlife populations. Orangutans, which are now only found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, were especially impacted by the fires. Rising concern over the plight of the orangutan has led The Nature Conservancy and its partners to devise a plan for protecting their habitat. Our strategy is to create sufficient incentives for the forest industry, local government and forest-dependent communities to participate in conservation.
Starting in Berau, our first step was to ascertain how many orangutans are still in the wild. Fortunately, this area was spared much of the devastation from the forest fires and today harbors the majority of orangutans in East Kalimantan. However, the odds of these endangered great apes surviving long into the 21st century are diminishing, with habitat degradation and destruction from uncontrolled logging leading the list of threats.
After two weeks of reviewing maps and satellite images, and discussions with indigenous Dayak people, we narrowed down the survey area to three locations where significant populations of orangutans are thought to still exist. The closest village was Long Gi. The people of Long Gi are Punan Dayaks, famous for their blowpipe hunting skills and encyclopedic knowledge of the rainforest. My colleague, Andy Marshall, and I stopped first at the house of the village head, Pak Jackson. (Pak or Bapak is an Indonesian term used to denote respect, often to an older person.) After greeting us and haggling over prices, he arranged for our boat transportation, local guides and field assistants. 
Now, two days later, we were beaching our long boat and preparing to walk the final 3 miles through dense forest to our planned base camp, situated on a tributary of the Kelay. Not more than two hours into the hike, we came to a clearing in the forest, which led to a recently bulldozed logging road. I stood there incredulous. Our satellite images, not more than a year old, had showed the nearest logging road 17 miles away. That night, over dinner of fresh fish and rice, Andy mentioned that our cuisine wasn't turkey and stuffing, but nevertheless tasty. It wasn't until that moment that I realized it was Thanksgiving. While I had much to be thankful for, I wondered how much longer would the area's wild orangutans be so fortunate. Their world would be rapidly shrinking with the impending logging.
Stay tuned to see how this plays out…  
Scott Stanley
East Kalimantan Program Manager |
Join The Nature Conservancy on