The works to protect Borneo’s unique and diverse habitats for the benefit of the people of Kalimantan and the island’s rich biodiversity. BNF works across three major landscapes to conserve, manage and restore rainforests; support sustainable community development, bolster children’s education and build local conservation capacity; ensure scientific research underpins decision-making; and to empower community-led conservation initiatives to protect habitat.
Borneo’s biodiverse peat-swamp forests support globally important populations of many endangered species, and are home to the largest protected orangutan populations in the world. They are at serious risk from annual fires that are the result of decades of exploitation and poor land-use decisions. These fires cause huge public health problems, are a major cause of increasing atmospheric CO2 levels and destroy large swathes of rainforest. In 2015 massive peatland fires raged for months, burning over 2.2Mha in Kalimantan, destroying the habitat of over 10,000 orangutans and creating a toxic smoke haze to which 69 million people were exposed.
LDF is supporting the Borneo Nature Foundation to address the causes of these fires in the critical Sebangau National Park by restoring drained and deforested peatlands and encouraging behaviour change amongst local communities, while simultaneously tackling fire impacts by improving local fire-fighting capacity and developing regional fire-prevention networks.
