The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, nearly the size of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, consists of 64,000 hectares of bio-diverse tropical peat swamp forest that contain as much as 1,000 plant and animal species per hectare and is one of the most highly endangered ecosystems on the planet. The project area and ongoing initiatives focus on environmental conservation, community outreach, and climate control. Rimba Raya is home to one of the few remaining relic populations of wild

orangutans Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ' ...

and is the largest privately funded orangutan reserve in the world. The area is also one of the world’s largest repositories of carbon. Rimba Raya is the world’s largest

REDD+ Redd is a Turkish rock band established in 1996 by tenor opera singer Doğan Duru and guitarist Berke Hatipoğlu under the name ''Ten''. They used to play at bars until they set up their own studio in 2004. Their first album, titled ''"50/50"'' ...

project -Reduced Emissions from (Avoided) Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The project developer, InfiniteEARTH, is an industry pioneer, delivering the world’s first REDD (forest carbon accounting) methodology in 2009. School kids in Muara Dua Village within The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve R

School kids in Muara Dua Village within The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve R

Floating Clinic at Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve

Location

The reserve is located on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

in the Province of

Central Kalimantan Central Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Its provincial capital is Palangka Raya and in 2010 its population was over 2.2 million, while the 20 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, where ever-expanding palm oil plantations have wreaked havoc on the forest and the communities and wildlife that depend on it. The project provides a critical buffer to the

Tanjung Puting National Park Tanjung Puting National Park is a national park in Indonesia located in the southeast part of West Kotawaringin Regency in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan (Central Borneo). The nearest main town is the capital of the Regency, Pa ...

, home to world-renowned Camp Leakey research center and is bounded by the Java Sea to the south, and the Seruyan River to the east.

Fauna

The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve provides safe refuge to 122 species of

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

and 300 species of birds. The reserve is most notably home to the

Orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genu ...

. This

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

is one of only three remaining species of

great apes The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ...

that once inhabited tropical forests in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, and

. Now they are found only in a few fragmented forests on the islands of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

Flora

The Rimba Raya Reserve is home to a wide variety of vegetation The various land classifications include:

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

and tidal/brackish water swamps near the coast line; marshy, grass-dominated wetlands;

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

and freshwater swamp forest associated with the Seruyan River and its many tributaries;

peat swamp forest Peat swamp forests are tropical moist forests where waterlogged soil prevents dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing. Over time, this creates a thick layer of acidic peat. Large areas of these forests are being logged at high rates. Peat ...

developing on peatlands of various depths (up to and exceeding 5 meters deep),

kerangas The Sundaland heath forest, also known as ''Kerangas'' forest, is a type of tropical moist forest found on the island of Borneo, which is divided between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as on the Indonesian islands of Belitung and Bangk ...

(heath) vegetation of various forms (tall to stunted) on sandy soils; and lowland mixed

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = f ...

forest on mineral soils. The diversity of vegetation is in part due to historical environmental disturbances, including: logging, burning, peat drainage, and natural vegetation conversion to agriculture. This has caused changes in the overlaying natural vegetation types, including: post-fire shrubland and regenerating logged forests.

Projects Initiatives

Community Outreach- Through Infinite Earth’s project development, several initiatives have been put into place within the communities that have historically depended (unsustainably) on the forests of Rimba Raya. These programmes work towards addressing all 17 of the United Nations

Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

. The main initiatives focus on the welfare of women and children living at the margins within this area. Rimba Raya’s REDD+ program has worked to provide alternative income streams for this forest dependent community. The mission is to keep the community from working in industries that are linked to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

. The REDD+ project has also provided: water filters, cookstoves, and is funding an initiative to provide subsidized healthcare to the local population. Biodiversity The Rimba Raya REDD+ project aims to eliminate the destruction of the forests and peatlands of

which houses more than 75% of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Along with eradicating local

, Rimba Raya works to preserve the

population within the reserve. Rimba Rayahas partnered with renowned Primatologist and Conservationist Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas to provide natural habitats for endangered

. The reserve also funds the

Orangutan Foundation International Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) has its headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Dr. Birutė Galdikas, one of three anthropologists (The Trimates) to study great apes under the guidance of Dr. Louis Leakey, OFI continues to res ...

and their Orangutan care center, which aims to reintroduce 300 wild born, rehabilitated orphaned

in its care, back into the wild with the safe confines of the Rimba Raya Reserve. Education A long term goal of the Rimba Raya Project is to provide all children in and near the concession with an education, providing supplies, uniforms, books and pocket money. Libraries have been constructed in several villages and 3-year scholarships are offered to hard working and dedicated children. Rimba Raya works with local governments to ensure a quality education and fair disbursement of scholarship funds, which have been provided by InfiniteEARTH since 2015. as of 2019, 35 schools are part of this Rimba Raya initiative. Floating Clinic In an effort to encourage better health practices, Rimba Raya has introduced a floating clinic, providing child nutritional programs and health services to 10 villages along the Seruyan River, within Indonesia's

Seruyan Regency Seruyan Regency ( id, Kabupaten Seruyan) is one of the thirteen regencies which comprise the Central Kalimantan Province on the island of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia. The town of Kuala Pembuang in Seruyan Hilir District is the capital of Seruy ...

. This initiative was introduced in 2016 and provides necessary rural health services which were previously inaccessible and unaffordable to villages in the Rimba Raya concession. The Floating Clinic provides access to nutritional programmes, family planning and prenatal services and offers regular health educational outreach programmes.

References

{{authority control National parks of Indonesia Geography of Central Kalimantan Tourist attractions in Central Kalimantan Protected areas of Kalimantan Biosphere reserves of Indonesia Seruyan Regency Articles containing video clips