25 July 2002

Since the project started late last year we've done about three and a half months of fieldwork. Mum, what is so exciting is… after hiking more than 100 km of survey trail, we have found a large orangutan population! There are at least 1,500 orangutans in the forests around the mountain 'Gunung Gajah' (the Elephant Mountain). This might be a 10% addition to the world's known population of orangutans, and at places the density is as high as in famous Indonesian national parks. The Berau population might be one of the three largest populations of orangutans in the world! Sometimes I can barely believe it… But I remind myself that more surveys are needed to find out more details about the range of this population and also if other forest areas still have orangutans.

To find suitable survey sites, we have looked for large undisturbed forests on satellite maps, and asked around in the villages where people have seen orangutans. To get to the predetermined site on the map, we (me, the other team leader Bhayu Pamungkas, and 18 local assistants) leave the city early in the morning on a truck loaded with rice and food cans and research equipment for 2 weeks in the forest. We travel along logging roads in the cool morning air, and when they end, we hike into the untouched forest, sometimes for several days. By a river we build a camp using tree poles, and a tarp as roof. We wash and get cooking and drinking water from the river.

Bhayu and I have been teaching and supervising a team of local field assistants to do the survey. Early every morning, while listening to the gibbons calling, we leave camp to hike through the forest. A handheld GPS points out the direction for us. The forest is still cool, but as always very humid, and after only a few minutes our shirts are soaked in sweat. In front, a team member is cutting a trail for us through the dense undergrowth. We hear the forest sounds, but we rarely see the orangutans or any other wildlife. Every night, though, the orangutans make a nest by bending branches high up in the trees, creating a platform to sleep on. This is how we, as most surveyors, count the apes - by the nests, not the animals.

At the survey sites, a couple of assistants cut a 1 km long trail, called the midline. Along this midline, we randomly place 8 perpendicular and 500 meter long trails, which we call transects. Along the transect we count the orangutan nests. To spot every nest we have to walk very slowly and be alert all the time, which is difficult. Whenever a nest is spotted, we measure the distance from the trail, the tree size, identify the tree species and estimate the age of the nests into 5 age classes. This data is necessary to convert the number of nests to the number of orangutans, using a specialized computer program.

No land in Berau District is yet under protection, and all the forest is owned by timber concessions, including The Nature Conservancy survey sites. Therefore, we need to educate and cooperate with all sorts of different stakeholders. This is going to be a difficult process, which has only just started. Still, the local government in Berau realizes the value of this orangutan population, not least as an attraction for future tourists. And the foresters with one logging company are very excited about having orangutans in their forests. These are some hopeful looks into the future for the vast forests of Berau district, and the orangutans living deep inside them.

The plane is getting ready to land... I have to go. I will write again soon, Mum.

Love, Linda

P.S. I've included some pictures as well. Be sure to share them around.