Community Conservation has joined some exciting work with villages bordering a wildlife sanctuary in Borneo. Borneo, Malaysia is a biodiversity hotspot, treasured by people all around the world for its abundance of wildlife, including orangutans.
For four years, the Smithsonian Institution and Sarawak Forestry Corporation have been working on wildlife surveys in Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in Borneo. The sanctuary area is home to one of the largest populations of orangutans, as well as Sunda pangolins, bearded pigs, and Bornean banded langurs.
Local men from the longhouse communities were hired to act as research assistances, doing much of the camera trapping. There is a big opportunity to work with these Iban communities to manage these forests to better support orangutans and other wildlife.
Community Conservation is partnering with Olivia and the Smithsonian on this work, overseeing community conservation activities and facilitating workshops for Iban farmers and protected area staff.
You can read all about our executive director’s most recent trip to Malaysia and the status of the project here: https://communityconservation.org/return-to-malaysia-in-2024/
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Orangutan Team Captain Fred Allendorf is a conservation biologist who is the Regents Professor of Biology Emeritus at the University of Montana. He is also a long time supporter of Community Conservation.
