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May 5, 2008

Reviving a rainforest to give orangutans a home

Rainforest seeds revive lost paradise. A nice easy bit of good news for a Monday from the Guardian (U.K.)

Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world's tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass.

But from this ruined landscape a fresh forest has been grown, teeming with insects, birds and animals, and cooled by the return of moist clouds and rain. It is a feat that has been hailed by scientists and offers hope for disappearing and ruined rainforests around the world.

The secret was to use more than 1,300 species of local tree and a fertiliser made with cow urine, says Dr Willie Smits, the Indonesian forestry expert who led the replanting. 'The place became the scene of an ecological miracle, a fairytale come true,' says Smits, who has written a book (Thinkers of the Jungle: The Orangutan Report) about the project....

...Planting finishes this year, but already Smits and his team from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation charity claim the forest is 'mature', with trees up to 35 metres high. Cloud cover has increased by 12 per cent, rainfall by a quarter, and temperatures have dropped 3-5C, helping people and wildlife to thrive, says Smits. Nine species of primate have also returned, including the threatened orangutans. 'If you walk there now, 116 bird species have found a place to live, there are more than 30 types of mammal, insects are there. The whole system is coming to life. I knew what I was trying to do, but the force of nature has totally surprised me.'

The goal is to re-introduce orangutans into the wild.

Jungle Diary: Herbert Ullmann’s research trip to Borneo for the orangutan project. The book's publisher visited Borneo to check it out.

Samboja Lestari : Creative reforestation has satellite views.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 12:45 AM | Permalink