Forest Science News Issue 1(3): November 2005 The Nature Conservancy-East Kalimantan Program Samarinda and Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
Table of Contents Hunting for pets and parts in the Berau District A hike through Sungai Lesan Slowing down on the information highway Will we end up swimming to work? Green office program, Samarinda The Nature Conservancy-East Kalimantan Program TNC-East Kalimantan Program Jl. Kuranji no. 1, Vorvoo Samarinda, 75123 East Kalimantan, Indonesia
Phone: +62-541-752924 Fax: +62-541-733675 E-mail:
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Keeping you informed on forest science issues
Forest Science News Photo on front page: One of the caves near Tebo in the Sangkulirang limestone formation in East Kalimantan. Photo by Matt Struebig. This newsletter informs about the latest findings, results , and plans from the TNC terrestrial science te am. On a monthly basis, I and other contributors will provide updates about exciting discoveries, progress in our monitoring and measures work, our training programs, scientific collaboration with the forestry and plantation industries, and upcoming surveys and explorations. Science is often considered to be the realm of grey-haired, thick-glassed oddballs in white lab coats. Here we show you how exciting and important our work is and how we contribute to the overall goal of preserving the last great places on earth. I hope you find this information useful and inspiring. Erik Meijaard, editor
Hunting for pets and parts in the Berau District Anne Miehs Hunting is common in tropical forests. Rural communities hunt for food, trophies, pets, traditional medicines and trade. Hunting is increasingly considered as a major threat to biodiversity conservation, yet few studies have examined its impacts in East Kalimantan and research is greatly needed in this area. During my two-month volunteer period with The Nature Conservancy, the number of pets and animal parts I stumbled across in the Berau distr ict surprised me. The first was a pet hornbill that was being kept in the Lesan Dyak village (Fig. 1). Young hornbills are often collected from nests for this purpose, while adults are killed for their tail feathers, which are used in traditional Dyak costumes and ceremonies. I later observed a number of Dyak hats containing hornbill feathers for sale at the local Berau Festival. Figure 1.Slow Loris (Nycticebus coucang) Figure 2. Male Wreathed Hornbill (Aceros undulatus) Birds are very popular pets in Indonesia because of their song, aesthetic value and the status they bring to their owners. Protected and threatened species are thought to be particularly prestigious and birds can be observed in cages hanging outside the front of many houses in Berau. While there are no known pet markets in East Kalimantan, individual traders are known to set up small stalls along roadsides or to sell their harvests from door to door. One such stall was set up for a few days outside the Bakso Restaurant next to my accommodation in Berau city and the birds traded came from Sulawesi, Java and even Wahea in East Kalimantan. Primates also make popular pets. I observed a gibbon chained to a structure in the town of Berau and our Dyak field assistants took us to see a pet slow loris, which had been captured in a plantation and was being kept in the Lesan Dyak village (Fig. 2). Sadly this was the only slow loris that two out of our three field assistants had ever seen, indicating their rareness in the area. Slow lo rises are also utilized in traditional medicines throughout Indonesia and the Dyaks believe that if a slow loris “dies” on a
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Forest Science News Friday and a man grinds up its bones and drinks them in a potion, he will be able to marry five wives and they will all be content to live under the same roof in peace. Many other wildlife species are utilized in traditional medicines in Indonesia including leaf monkeys, sun bears, pangolins, freshwater turtles, fruit bats and elephants. Even fetuses such as deer fetuses are sought after and a Chinese Pharmacy in Berau is well known for its cures for impotence. Erik Meijaard is planning to conduct a study on the trade of animals and animal parts in East Kalimantan in conjunction with other local and international partners. Furthermore, starting next year TNC will start monitoring hunting in and around areas like S. Lesan and Wehea to develop guidelines for sustainable management of game populations.
A hike through Sungai Lesan Erik Meijaard. Email:
[email protected] Once we hit the unsurfaced road to Sungai Lesan the Javanese chatter and laughter in the back of car dies down and soon the bumping car sends everyone to sleep. We turn onto a track which narrows until the car can’t go any further and we wake from our reverie and get out of the car and unload our gear. It is boiling hot once we start to chop our way through the wall of ferns that lie in our path. This path should lead us onto our rapid forest assessment and search for orangutans or fresh nests. For now, there is not much here: a few birds, a lone gibbon calling, and some Rhinoceros Hornbills flying over. The torn bark of an Albizia tree is the first sign that orangutans were here. A few old nests further confirm that at least some orangutans use this logged-over area west of S. Lesan (see Map). Soon, the going gets tough with a dense stand of skin lacerating bushes on most of our way. Clearly, we are not going to make it to our intended campsite by a river. Going up another steep slope and almost dislocating my shoulder in a stumble, I mumble to myself how much I dislike this work. However, my mood changes as we go down through some nice forest, I just love being there. Later we set up camp on a ridge and Mack and Pur find water in the nearby valley (nr. 1 on map). After a quick meal of boiled noodles and sweet coffee we settle down for the night. Chirping cicadas, whistling frogs, the “oeeee” of an unidentified owl, Indonesian jo kes, and the rich smell of rainforest mingling with the smoke of clove cigarettes; I am a very happy man here. Apart from a midnight ant attack, resulting in many painful bites, a Bearded Pig almost charging through our shelter at 2 am, and a tropical storm at 4 am, it is a pretty uneventful night as far as things go in the rainforest. It always takes me a day or two to get used to the forest. Although we hike up and down hills, and get bitten, scratched and poked by the forest, I am very much enjoying myself. We see some nice squirrels (I will spare you the Latin tongue breakers), hear the stunningly beautiful Garnet Pitta and generally learn a lot about the forest on this side of the Lesan. Also, I get many chances to talk to with the team, hear their ideas, their conservation vision, and also their complaints. Not in the office, but here is where I tend to hear what is really happening in the field. What I don’t get to see are orangutans, although a few nests indicate what they do outside the fruiting season. Now I am chilling out by a lovely bubbling forest stream. I’d better go and lend a hand getting our shelter ready. On the third day we find evidence of illegal gaharu (= the expensive Eaglewood) harvest. (nr. 2) A group of nonlocal people have recently set up camp in one of TNC’s old camp sites and generally made a mess of it. Worse news is that they have logged a considerable number of gaharu trees. They clearly lack the experience to detect trees that are fungus-infected and thus produce gaharu, because they have simply cut down all trees in the vicinity before checking them. This activity causes considerable damage to the forest, and it shows us that we really need to get the area management and patrolling in place. We tidy up the camp and burn the rubbish before moving on. The going is tough in this part of Lesan, appropriately named ‘Heart Attack Hill” (nr. 3), one steep climb after the other and I sweat myself to near complete dehydration. I feel as fit and dry as a 1,000 year old mummy in the Saharan desert, and undergo the ultimate humiliation of asking Nardi to carry my backpack. Back in the camp a few litres of water and some sweet black coffee bring me back to life. Along the way we see more sign of bark feeding; it’s the height of the lean season for orangutans. Still we see very few new nests. I discuss this with the team and the consensus is that there are probably fewer orangutans in Lesan than previously estimated. To be honest, I don’t really care about numbers. Orangutans are notoriously hard to count. What matters is that they are here, and with the overall population trends in Borneo, they are very worth saving. If TNC won’t do it, no one will. The team is very motivated but we need to step up our efforts, with a clear management vision, and in collaboration with our fellow stakeholders. 2
Forest Science News
Rorekatimbu Rahmat Saleh and Ismet Khaeruddin Email:
[email protected] With a peak of 2,600 m asl, Rorekatimbu is the highest mountain peak in Lore Lindu NP. To reach the peak, we need to ride a 4WD vehicle along a stony, muddy and steep dirt road that we need to pass by for about 1.5 hours from the crossing of the Palu – Napu road to the east. Puncak dingin (or cold peak) is a famous area for nature lovers in Sulawesi because of its forest structure, bird species, wildlife and the pretty stable temperature of about 9oC. Changes in forest structure are clear when we ascend the mountain, from lower montane forest formations to the upper one along the way to puncak dingin. Beside a reduced number of tree species, the peak of Rorekatimbu is characterized by a bryophyte community, enriched by lichens. Some of the mosses hang on tree branches while others grow on forest floor that face predominant direction of sunlight. These are typical features of upper montane forest formations. Typical big trees in such forest formation include species of Gymnospermae, including Agathis celebica, originally a species from Sulawesi which has now also spread to Java, the Moluccas and the Philippines, Phyllocladus hypophyllus, Podocarpus imbricatus and Podocarpus neriifolius. During our trip we also found five species of Rhododendron, which are members from the Ericacea family. Recently Wiriadinata, an Indonesian botanist, confirmed that some of these Rhododendron species are endemic to Lore Lindu National Park. Two of the species of Rhododendron that have recently been identified from the Park are R. bloembergeni with a white, relatively big flower and R. zollingeri with a small orange flo wer and silver lepido at the bottom.
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Forest Science News Slowing down on the information highway Erik Meijaard. Email:
[email protected] My recent field trips reminded me how refreshing it is to be away from my computer. No emails, no crashing Windows, no urgent requests, no superficial reading of material that actually required much more attention. And so much time to talk and reflect and strategize. What a relief! Back in an office environment I find myself frantically trying to get a presentation together, ArcView is not cooperating, and in the end I spend pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday working. Why should I put up with such nonsense? Very likely the majority of people in next week’s workshop will be preoccupied with their own laptops rather than paying attention to my, oh so important message on failing orangutan conservation. Besides, my tomatoes need pruning, I would like to go swimming with Emily, the lamb chops with couscous do need a little preparation, and I would quite like to watch Holland beat the Czech Republic again. I am sure the question has been asked many times before: Are computers really adding that much value to our work and lives? I am not going to answer this. What I do know, however, is that ignoring all our electronic gadgets for a little while won’t harm us. For the next few months I have the following intentions: 1. I will only downlo ad, open, and answer emails once a week, probably on Wednesdays. If it is really urgent, call me or send an SMS at: (+62)-(0)812-5514006. Also, if you are not in a hurry, feel free to send me a letter. One of those with a stamp on it. 2. On Fridays I will not use my laptop at all. Instead I will read scientific papers, and spend time talking to others in the office. Maybe I will even get a comfortable reclining chair, with a little table next to it for a mug of coffee. I will just sit there and think about our program. And I am sure I won’t be wasting my time. 3. I will never again spend more than 1 hour mucking around with software. If it doesn’t want to do what I want it to do, I will either pass it on to a specialist, or choose a more simple option that does work. That will save me a lot of stress. 4. And finally, I will ne ver again br ing my laptop to a meeting or workshop. If the discussions and presentations are not interesting enough, I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I will let you know in a few months how my experiment went. And I ask you to pay attention too. Did you find that my new schedule slowed you down in your own work (and was it really that bad?). Did you get really annoyed with me because of my slow response? And did I come up with some refreshing new ideas or activities on how we can improve our the effectiveness of our conservation programs?
Will we end up swimming to work? Edi Sudijono. Email:
[email protected] A 2-hour rain storm on October 3rd caused a major flood in Samarinda, inundating parts of the TNC office and many surrounding streets (see photos). Such flo ods have increased in frequency and severity over the last few years. It is unlikely that the increase is caused by deforestation in East Kalimantan. Instead we think that the continuous housing and industrial development in Samarinda’s water catchment areas, including the removal of entire hills and in-filling of rivers with waste are leading to a significant reduction in off-flow capacity, and thus incre ased flooding in low lying parts of the city. Better city planning is needed to prevent a worsening of the situation.
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Forest Science News Faces to names
After a hard day at the office: Purnomo, Jumali, and Nardiyono (from left to right) take a well-deserved nap on the drive back to Berau. The survey team spends lengthy periods in the forest, where work is arduous and sleep sub-optimal, to say the least. It’s the people of this team that provides us with the core information on what is happening in the forest. Photo by Anne Miehs.
Miscellaneous •
Recently the survey team observed the rare Bornean endemic Polyplectron schleiermacheri or Bornean Peacock Pheasant in Wehea, East Kalimantan. A male and female bird were seen crossing a logging road during the day time and lingered at the road verge for about 15 minutes before moving off. It is rare to get such prolonged observations of this species and we will publish the information in a local bird journal.
Science activities planned for November 2005 • • • • •
Work on 2015 goals and ecoregional assessments In conjunction with the Idul Fitri holiday at the end of the fasting month, Erik Meijaard will visit some islands offshore East Kalimantan for bird surveys. From ca. 21 November to 5 December the survey team will investigate the as yet undiscovered orangutan population at the Upper Segah River. We analysis of the nest decomposition data Develop 3rd mammal and bird identification test
October Publications (main publications and reports) Meijaard, E., B.B. Pr akoso, and Aziz. 2005. A new record for the Bornean Bay Cat (Catopuma badia). Cat News. Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. Issue 43 Meijaard, E., Sheil, D., and Daryono. 2005. Flat-headed Cat (Prionailurus planiceps) record from East Kalimantan. Cat News. Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. Issue 43 Nardiyono, 2005. Bornean Orangutan Action Plan Workshop. Pontianak, October 12 – 14, 2005. Workshop Proceedings (in Indonesian). TNC. Tanjung Redeb, Indonesia. Meijaard, E. (ed.). 2005. Suiform Soundings. Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos Specialist Group. Issue 5(1). September 2005. http://www.iucn.org/ssc/pphsg Meijaard, E., Taylor. R., and Stanley, S. 2005. High Conservation Value Forest Workshop, 23-25 August 2005, Sanur, Indonesia. Summary of Workshop Proceedings. TNC and WWF. Samarinda, Indonesia 5
