Conservation education in orangutan reserves

The Bornean orangutan is currently threatened with local extinction at various sites, despite being officially protected in both Indonesia and Malaysia. They are only found in remote areas, and are threatened by illegal hunting and conversion of their remaining forest habitat to plantations.

Two key sites in Sarawak are Batang Ai National Park and Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, where WCS has an on-going programme of orangutan surveys. In early 2004, the WCS research team in the Park came across two orangutans which had been shot, and the bodies of two more were discovered by the local headman. Research is clearly not the only priority.

Local communities can play an important role in translating research findings into stewardship action, especially if they have ownership of the data collection and subsequent management. Community liaison, interpretation, extension and education can improve orangutan conservation.

The conservation education programme

The current programme for people living in and around Batang Ai National Park and Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary was designed on the basis of experience gained in the area by the Sarawak Forest Department's Education and Interpretive Unit. We also visited each community before starting the programme.

The programme aimed:

• To establish and maintain stakeholders' sense of ownership of the reserves and the research findings.
• To reinforce traditional values which protect and respect orangutans.
• To involve other institutions in implementing education and enforcement initiatives.
• To improve communication between stakeholders and government, and to reinvigorate the Special Parks Committees.

At the beginning of this project, we held a workshop for WCS educators and park rangers from Batang Ai and Lanjak-Entimau on teaching conservation  education,  and developed a series of appropriate conservation education activities tailor-made to the different groups of stakeholders in and around the project area.

These activities included discussion of orangutan ecology and conservation, sharing results of scientific surveys, games, and drama based on traditional stories.

WCS and Sarawak Forestry Corporation jointly organised activities at more than sixty longhouses, and included school students if there was a school nearby. Representatives from the district offices were invited to these longhouse programmes. A conservation education workshop was also held for six schools near the Batang Ai National Park in collaboration with the State Education Department.

A train-the-trainers workshop for Sarawak Forestry Corporation's Protected Areas staff and WCS was held in March 2008.

Pointers for the future

Long-term evaluation is needed. A comprehensive evaluation section is important to assess the impact of the project and will be done later in 2008.

Workshops should be done with more extensive work with communities on wildlife problems in general, eg. helping villages to manage crop pests.

Developing a programme for rural communities can involve urban groups like schools. This has greater conservation impact as it reaches out to both rural and urban target groups.

Trying to change attitudes via conservation education really means changing the way people value wildlife, and this takes time.

Managing authorities need to couple conservation education programmes like this with firm management action, such as through enforcement, protected areas management, community conservation and human-wildlife conflict.

Local communities have low motivation for conservation if the management authority do not involve them in managing their local protected areas.

Acknowledgements

We owe the opportunity to do this project to the local communities who participated, who have opened their doors of their longhouses to our team.

We thank the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK, for funding the first year of this project, and the British High Commission in Malaysia for their invaluable support and guidance.

Our gratitude also goes to United States' Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for funding the second year of the project.

Last but not least, we thank our partner in conservation, Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) for their involvement and effort in this project.