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Forest and Habitat Restoration
Objective: Restore habitat alongside local communities and support the conservation of rainforest
KALIMANTAN
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- More than 70% of Indonesia's original forest cover has been lost
- Within the last decade, the wild orangutan population has decreased by 50%
- Logging, most of it illegal, is estimated to destroy over 2.4 million hectares acres per year
- Illegal gold mining removes the top soil; it will take centuries for the forest to recover
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From weed-infested wasteland...
Reforestation in
Kalimantan has a failure rate of over 70%, with more than 2
million hectares lost each year to fire, logging and land
rezoning. Imperata, one of the world’s 10 worst weeds, then
takes over, depleting the soil and increasing the risk of fire. |
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...to carefully nurtured seedlings
FNPF and local villagers
have cultivated > 60,000 seedlings representing 47 varieties of
rainforest trees. Seedlings are nurtured for 12-24 months, to
ensure vigorous root, stem and crown growth that will help them
survive in poor sandy soils |
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...to young growing
As at February 2007, we
have reforested 100 hectares of rainforest, and we target a
further 100 hectares within a year. Currently, our mature sites
have a stable survival rate in excess of 80%. Our methods have
been refined over three years, and successfully modified for dry
lowland forest and peat swamp forest. Our reforestation program
is considered the most successful in Central Borneo.
In all our work, we keep
in mind the different layers of a rainforest and the need for
maintenance. A year before planting precious hardwood seedlings,
we establish fast-growing endemic pioneers and nurse trees such
as idat, gerungging and bamboo to improve the soil and restore
the microclimate. Once rainforest seedlings are planted, we
maintain the sites for 3 years, until seedlings are strong
enough to survive on their own.
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