This project is conserving a biodiverse peat swamp forest in Indonesian Borneo that was slated for conversion to palm oil plantations. Along with protecting this carbon rich ecosystem, the project supports the reintroduction of critically endangered orangutans into their wild habitat. By addressing issues such as poverty, hunger, and disease, the project is tackling the root causes of deforestation while improving the livelihoods of local communities. Due to its holistic approach, Rimba Raya is the first REDD+ project to be validated under the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard for contributing to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Indonesia’s rainforests are a biodiversity hotspot and the tropical peat swamps in Borneo are no exception. More than 50 endangered species, including Bornean orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pangolins, hairy-nosed otters, and Borneo Bay cats, can be found in the peat swamps on the island’s southern coast.

Unfortunately, Indonesia’s critical peat swamp ecosystems are rapidly disappearing, primarily to develop palm oil plantations. After years of extensive development, Indonesia is now the world’s largest producer of palm oil. The process of converting the land to a plantation involves logging and burning the trees and subsequently draining the peatland. As this happens, the massive amounts of carbon that are stored in the aboveground biomass and the deep layers of peat is released into the atmosphere. The draining of the peat swamps also leaves them far more vulnerable to fires. Fires set for agricultural purposes often get out of control, causing further devastation to Indonesia’s peatlands. Between 1990 and 2005 Indonesia lost about 2% of its forest cover annually. 

As Indonesia’s peat swamp habitat disappears, so do the animals that depend on it. It is estimated that palm oil development results in the deaths of around 1,000 to 5,000 orangutans every year. Over the last half century, substantial loss and fragmentation of their habitat has led Bornean orangutan populations to decline by 95%. 

Luckily, there are efforts underway to protect Indonesia’s orangutans and other vulnerable species. In Borneo, the world-renowned Tanjung Puting National Park houses one of the largest protected orangutan populations and Orangutan Foundation International leads ongoing orangutan conservation activities.

Wild animals are not the only beings affected by the loss of Indonesia’s peat swamps. Indigenous communities lose access to their land and resources, sometimes without their consent. Once their land has been converted, community members are left with few options but to work on the palm oil plantations where they face degrading conditions and are underpaid. Women often end up helping out on the plantations for little or no pay, and are tasked with more hazardous activities like spraying pesticides without protective gear. The development of palm oil plantations can also cause other harmful impacts for nearby communities, such as flooding, pollution of their water sources, and exposure to smoke from fires. 

This project is protecting over 225,000 acres of primarily peat swamp forest on Borneo’s southern coast between Tanjung Puting National Park and the Seruyan River. This particular area was slated by the government for conversion to palm oil plantations. By obtaining the land rights and establishing the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, the project prevented this destruction from happening. Along with safeguarding the ecosystem within the project boundaries, the Rimba Raya Reserve also acts as a physical buffer zone for Tanjung Puting National Park, preventing it from encroachment and exploitation.

Even with the reserve in place, peat fires, illegal logging, and encroachment by oil palm plantations still present very real threats. The project is taking steps to prevent and respond to these threats earlier by building a network of guard posts and fire towers, establishing fire breaks, funding daily patrols, and acquiring airboats and other equipment designed for combatting peat swamp fires. Local community members will be trained and hired as guards and fire fighters to support these activities. 

The project will also regenerate areas that were previously degraded. Nurseries will be created to produce native seedlings and villagers will be paid to plant them. An agro-forestry program will also be launched as part of these rehabilitation efforts. The fruit, nut, spice, and rubber trees will generate income and provide a reliable food source for communities as well as orangutans. To date, over 300,000 trees and 20,000 mangroves have been planted in the reserve.

Funds will also be used to support Orangutan Foundation International’s ongoing orangutan rehabilitation and release activities. This includes the reintroduction of 300 rehabilitated orangutans back into the wild. Three new orangutan release centers and six feeding platforms will be constructed within the Rimba Raya Reserve to provide a staging ground for their migration into the national park

Along with protecting the land itself, the project is also addressing the root causes of community-based deforestation in neighboring villages. Most villagers earn their living from fishing in the Seruyan River, but increased flooding has caused fishing yields to decrease in recent years. Many community members live in extreme poverty, unable to afford the day-to-day cost of living. 

Beyond the employment opportunities noted above, the project is creating alternative livelihood opportunities that will provide residents with a sustainable income stream. The project is building the capacity of local people, particularly women, to take on livelihoods in chicken farming, shrimp paste production, and handicrafts. Microloans provided by the project will remove the financial barriers that typically prevent those living in poverty from starting their own enterprises.

Along with supporting new income generating opportunities, the project also is also improving local quality of life by:

• Implementing a floating clinic that can deliver medical services to communities up and down the Seruyan River who do not have access to healthcare facilities.
• Distributing clean water filters to families and installing village-level water purifying systems to reduce deaths from waterborne illnesses. 
• Providing clean cookstoves that require half the amount of fuel wood as traditional stoves and generate less smoke and indoor air pollution. 
• Increasing access to education by providing scholarships to high school students, creating village libraries, and distributing reading glasses to community members with vision impairments. 
• Increasing production of fruits, vegetables, and fish by training farmers on sustainable production practices, providing aquaponics systems, and developing plantations of pineapples and other crops. 
• Providing solar lanterns to families and installing large solar generator systems in villages that lack electrification. 
• Organizing cleanups and establishing a recycle bank to reduce pollution in villages and enhance the water quality of the Seruyan River. 

By maintaining the reserve and tackling social issues such as poverty, hunger, and disease, the Rimba Raya project ensures that environmental conservation and community development go hand-in-hand.

This project is protecting and restoring one of the largest remaining peat swamp forests in Indonesia. Massive stores of carbon are locked away beneath the swamp’s surface, while the aboveground forest habitat is home to over 5% of all remaining Bornean orangutans. Along with conserving this critical ecosystem, the project is enhancing the quality of life of rural communities by creating livelihood opportunities, formalizing land rights, and improving public services.

With dense tropical jungles and winding rivers, the Southeast Asian island of Borneo is a treasure trove of biodiversity. Some of the world’s most endangered species are found here, including the last remaining populations of the Bornean orangutan, proboscis Monkey, and Bornean white-bearded gibbon.

Along with providing a critical habitat for wildlife species, Borneo’s ecosystems play an important role in the fight against climate change. Long regarded as unproductive ecosystems, scientists recently discovered that the region’s ancient peat swamp forests are one of the world’s best carbon sinks – 90% of which is stored underground. These unique blue carbon ecosystems were formed over thousands of years as waterlogged conditions prevented dead plant matter from fully decaying. The resulting layers of peat hold massive amounts of carbon. Though peatlands cover about three percent of the earth’s land surface, they are the largest terrestrial carbon store.

Over the past half-century, vast tracts of Borneo’s peat swamp forests were logged and converted for industrial agriculture, such as oil palm cultivation or timber production. As peatlands are cleared, drained, and burned to make way for plantations, their carbon stocks are released into the air. These irresponsible practices often cause further harm by triggering long-lasting peatland fires which spread quickly and are difficult to extinguish. Along with releasing tons of carbon, these fires churn out toxic smoke that is hazardous for local communities. 

The destruction of Borneo’s peatlands has been devastating to the wildlife that live there. The rapid decline of over half of the Bornean orangutan population in less than 60 years is largely attributed to the loss of peat swamp habitats. 

Indigenous communities who have lived in the region for generations are also affected by the loss of Borneo’s peat swamps. Along with destroying the forest resources that these rural communities depend on, commercial exploitation has led to land conflicts that jeopardize their customarily held land rights.

The Katingan Mentaya Project is protecting and restoring over 370,000 acres of carbon-rich peat swamp forest in Kalimantan – the Indonesian part of Borneo. This area represents one of the largest remaining intact peat swamp forests in Indonesia, making it a critical wildlife habitat. The project area is home to 14 species that are endemic to Borneo, including over 5% of the remaining global population of Bornean orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and Bornean white-bearded gibbons. 

Though the region remains largely undeveloped, about 11,500 families live in small villages surrounding the project area. The peat swamp forest provides important natural resources for these remote communities who rely on traditional livelihoods such as farming, fishing, and harvesting non-timber forest products such as gemor, honey, and medicinal plants. 

Without the project, this peat swamp would have been converted to fast-growing industrial acacia plantations, grown for paper and pulp wood products. By obtaining the legal license to the land, the project prevented this conversion from happening. As illegal exploitation of the ecosystem remains a risk, the project is taking extra measures to improve monitoring and enforcement. This includes establishing monitoring posts at the main entry-exit points to the forest, mobilizing forest rangers, and raising community awareness about the impacts of illegal resource extraction and unsustainable land-use practices. 

Along with protecting the intact peat swamp, the project is also restoring nearly 11,000 acres of degraded areas. Local communities help grow the seedlings in newly established village nurseries. To date, over 200,000 native tree seedlings have been planted and more than 1,000 acres restored. In addition to this intensive restoration, two economically-valuable local species will be planted to support community-led agroforestry and small plantations of local fire-resistant species will be established to prevent the spread of fires. 

Because fires represent such a serious threat to peatlands, the project is also taking other steps to detect fires earlier and prevent them from spreading to the project area. This includes developing early warning systems, establishing watch towers in fire prone areas, providing fire extinguishing equipment, training firefighters, rewetting peatlands, and educating local farmers on alternatives to slash-and-burn. 

The project also aims to reduce poverty and improve the lives of local communities. It is creating sustainable sources of income by developing community-based economic activities such as ecotourism, agroforestry, rattan weaving, and coconut sugar farming. To make it easier for local people to take up these activities, the project provides microfinance loans and training, develops small processing facilities, and assists communities to access value-added markets.  

In addition to community-based business development, the project is also improving sanitation and access to quality education and sustainable energy. This includes replacing river latrines with hygienic toilet facilities, creating floating health clinics, distributing books to elementary schools, providing scholarships to students, and installing solar panels in rural communities.