Browse by Tags

Bathin Sembilan children from Harapan’s mobile school became TV stars this week. They had parts in the first of two episodes of children’s series, Si Bolang, being shot in the forest. Si Bolang roughly means “Adventure Boy”. It is shown right across this nation of more than 230...

On a recent trip deep into the forest, we came across Pak Batyam and his family. They are jelutung tappers in Harapan Rainforest. They have been doing it for generations. As a sustainable activity based on non-timber forest resources, it is entirely in line with Harapan’s conservation and restoration...

It’s the middle of the dry season in Sumatra. Everything is dry and dusty. Fire is a constant threat at the moment. But all Gatot Mandarsih is thinking about is planting trees. He is one of Harapan Rainforest’s tree nursery officers. He helps to produce up to two million tree seedlings a...

Harapan’s patrol wardens, all local community members, are one of our greatest assets. In the field all day, every day, they have the most contact with the forest’s wildlife. Discovering what they encounter is vital for learning how wildlife uses the forest. The wardens were recently trained...

Seedlings are very important at Harapan. The man for that job is Usman. He is a member of the Bathin Sembilan indigenous community. They have lived in Harapan for generations. Pak Usman manages the Durian Dangkal community nursery. It can produce over 160,000 seedlings a year. With a team of five to...

It’s a macaque, and those teeth are very big. What more is there to say? Just enjoy the fantastic photo. Think how, if it wasn’t for Harapan Rainforest, this might not exist.

Harapan’s indigenous community is the Bathin Sembilan. They rely heavily on the forest to support their lives. It gives them materials needed to live day-to-day. They collect bengkuang leaves to weave sleeping mats, and rattan to fashion baskets. They collect damar tree resin and jelutung latex...

We know that the animals and birds in Harapan Rainforest are important for moving seeds around the forest. Hornbills fly for miles across the forest canopy, taking with them the seeds of fruit they have eaten. We want to find out which animals and birds eat what types of seed. This will help us as we...

Three of Harapan Rainforest’s forestry team and five staff from Sarolangun district forestry service recently went to Harapan Rainforest’s western border with Taman Bandung village, to conduct a boundary survey. They found good quality forest with a high density of trees and very good canopy...

Fifteen members of the Green Generation, a group of young nature lovers from various high schools in Jambi, recently spent New Year's Eve in Harapan Rainforest. As they normally live in a city of half a million people, they camped out in the forest, to make sure they experienced the forest close...

A really noticeable development at the Harapan Rainforest main camp has been the growth of our central nursery. Lines of metal poles support enough shade netting to cover half a football pitch. Fully equipped with an irrigation network, the rehabilitated nursery is big enough to hold up to half a million...

Thirty five pupils from Harapan Rainforest’s mobile school had a fantastic day out in the provincial capital recently - despite a 5am start and two and a half hours bogged down in the mud. Upon arriving in Jambi city – another three hours drive – they first visted a school to get a...

It was a very proud day for me recently as I presented the indigenous Bathin Sembilan children who attend our mobile school with uniforms. The school has been running for nearly a year and was set up to give the indigenous children in and around Harapan Rainforest the opportunity to get an education;...

The normally quiet Harapan Rainforest recently became a hive of activity when over 400 school children arrived in camp to assist in a day of tree planting. They came from eight different schools in the local area and also included the indigenous children who are taught through our mobile schools. The...

A film crew recently visited Harapan Rainforest to make a film. I was lucky to join them to learn about making the exciting conservation films we see on television or the internet. We spent the first few days with the Bathin Sembilan indigenous community; filming their daily lives and seeing how important...

The pangolin is a strange looking mammal; scaly, with a prehensile tail, and claws for opening termite mounds. I never thought I’d see one of these secretive animals in the wild. I got my first encounter last week in sad circumstances, and not just one but 40 of them! The governement wildlife...

We are currently holding discussions with one of the indigenous community groups living within Harapan Rainforest, at a place called Simpang Macan (Tiger Junction). This group of 27 families is based at Simpang Macan, but moves into the forest in search of fruit, rattan, fish and game from time-to...

It’s dawn. The frogs fall silent while gibbons tell everybody about their territories and the sunrise. The night-shift is over and the day-shift begins. I have now been at Harapan Rainforest for more than a month as Senior Technical Adviser, bringing the experience gained in 12 years of conservation...

One of the most amazing things about working in a tropical forest is the ever-present thrill of what I might encounter next. On our last field trip, myself and our six research assistants woke up just before dawn to the unmistakable, deep resonating growl of a tiger, less than 200m from our tents. It...

We were recently visited by a local indigenous community member with the exciting news that a hornbill nest had been found. This is part of a scheme that pays local community members for providing information on hornbill nests so we can then monitor their breeding behaviour. Thanks to Pak Ajer we...

Camera trap images are often of large charismatic mammals, but during the last 14 months of camera trapping surveys we have come to realise the value of this equipment for collecting information on birds too, specifically the galliformes or ‘gamebirds’. So far we have recorded the globally...

More than sixty members of our nearest Pramuka troupe recently visited Harapan Rainforest. Pramuka is the Indonesian scouting movement. They got to experience rainforest close up on the forest trail – where there are regular sightings of hornbills (including two of the nestboxes erected for them...

Harapan Rainforest is located on fairly flat land, which means we have few vantage points for viewing the site. To address this, our trained climbing team and representatives from Indonesian climbing organisation IndoRope are installing five viewing platforms this month, at the dizzying height of nearly...

Working with local communities and collaborating with local partners is key to Harapan Rainforest’s success. A film just released by a project partner, Jambi NGO KKI-WARSI, shows some of the activities that have been going on in villages around Harapan Rainforest over the past 3 years or so. ...