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British Babes in Borneo
Volunteers  L-R Farrah Naz, 28, UK – doctor Aileen Baker, 49, UK – nurse Francis Roberts, Malaysia Suzanne Colpman, 25, UK –architect student Helen Frudd, 42,UK – secondary school teacher Population Density Data Collection Population Density checks continued and this group saw a lot of animals in action!! Among them short-tailed macaques chasing a lizard and teasing a mangrove cat snake, a mother orang-utan teaching its baby to swing. Though we didn’t see elephants this month, we saw a Western Tarsier!!! Absolutely amazing!!!! Other wildlife on the list: 12 orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, long-tailed macaques, water monitor lizards, crocodiles, copperhead racer Birds: oriental pied hornbill, wrinkled hornbill, rhinoceros hornbill, black hornbill, white crowned hornbill, bushy crested hornbill, stork-billed kingfisher, blue-eared kingfisher, common kingfisher, oriental darter, storm’s stork, large heron, purple heron, night heron (hiding during the day), red & black broadbill, white bellied fish eagle, juvenile serpent eagle, imperial pigeon, greater coucal. Night life: Western tarsier, baby crocodiles, cricket frog, buffy fish owl, red & black broadbills, night heron, Malaysian blue flycatcher.  Our group was invited to a village wedding on the day we planned for our community project - wonderful surprise Tree Planting The tree planting session this time included clearing of water hyacinth to be made into mulch, collecting dried leaves for mulch, collecting and planting seedlings as well as planting seedlings at the tree planting site.   It seemed such a waste to get rid of the beautiful plants as they were in full bloom. Two huge boatloads of water hyacinths were cleared from the ox-bow lake and brought to the tree planting site. It was super tiring and we had mud in our hair, on our faces and every inch of our clothes! The comment of “I’ve never been this muddy in my entire life!” was repeated again and again…. Well, beats paying for a mud beauty treatment!  It was drizzling on the day we went to collect seedlings. But the group  was very gung ho and collected 82 seedlings in a single session from the boardwalk area. The volunteers planted 21 trees at the tree planting site. The leaves collected by the volunteers and that of the previous month were brought over and used as mulch. The previously dumped water hyacinths were already drying up to cover the rest of the weeds in the area.Rumble in the Jungle  It was an interesting trek for the volunteers and they came back delighted about the squishing and sloshing session through the mud the entire way. Helen was bitten by a leech and was really amused that everybody was stuck in so much mud, nobody could help her. It was Francis who finally walked over, “in his own sweet time” to help her pull it off.Education Programme  This is the 3rd module of the ongoing education programme.Module objectives: To have the children explore the various sources of rubbish. To have them understand that they contribute towards rubbish in the river and in the environment affecting the wildlife and the health of the river and their lifestyle. The volunteers used the cloth river to good effect and collected a variety of rubbish to demonstrate the lesson objectives. What they could not find, they drew on cards and the children could choose their rubbish and throw it in the river. By the end of the session, the river was quite a horrendous sight compared to the previous lesson where the river was full of happy creatures. School Project This group had to continue the fence building activity and took some time getting used to the parang. But once in motion, we had a couple who started getting really good at it.  Aileen was even named “parang queen” but it is Helen showing off her nicely "chopped" plank here As rubbish seem to magically appear at the garden site, we also made 2 signs (held by Suzanne) that says “dilarang membuang sampah” and tied a rope border  Labels: community development, conservation, Habitat Restoration, Kinabatangan, Orang-utan, pygmy elephant, Sukau, tree planting, Volunteer |
posted by Fareea @ 8:44 PM
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A Mighty Kinabatangan Flood
Volunteers Deborah Lemish, Australia Ben Wasserberg, UK Verity Stephens, UK Karen Hammond, UK Alison Hunniset, UK Sally Wigzell, UK  "OK Volunteers! We are just about to arrive at the jetty. It is a simple wooden jetty which has a plank leading up to our boat. Please note the floating log at the end of the plank - step carefully to get into the boat." I was all enthusiastic as we turned into the lane towards the jetty and started off on our H&S briefing. We got out of the van, took our bags and headed towards the ... jetty? "umm... change of plans guys, the jetty is ... uh... not there..." After three days of torrential rain, the rivers of Kinabatangan rose a few meters and totally flooded its banks. This is one of the bigger floods we have seen since 5 years ago. Our volunteers were lucky to see this interesting natural phenomenon.  Habitat Restoration The flood meant no actual tree planting this month. At the worst point of the flooding, our tree planting site was chest deep in water :) and it didnt subside for about 20 days. However, we made good starting off a nursery by collecting seedlings of fast growing, fruiting, floodplain trees. 75 seedlings were collected over 2 days and put into black poly bags before being placed at the proposed nursery site at the lodge. This nursery would supplement the income of the local staff as they plan to sell them to guests at the lodge who would like to plant a tree at the lodge's tree planting site.  Education Programme This month we explored the life forms in the river and what made the children happy because of the river. Children came up with a variety of activities, sights and wildlife that they enjoy and love by the river. Then we talked about what happens when the health of the river deteriorates. The children were asked to enact several scenarios and talk about the consequences.   Community Project Having finished work on the mural with the past 2 groups, we began work on the school garden this month. We were shown how to use a parang to sharpen the edges of planks and then spike them next to each other as a temporary fence. While it looked easy with the demonstration by Martin who took only 5 slashes to make the sharp edges, the volunteers took much longer and had a good work out by the end of the day.  Wildlife Population Density Data Collection Population Density checks continued and this group saw pygmy elephants 5 times!! Other wildlife on the list: Orang-utans, including a mating couple and a very angry male, proboscis monkeys, pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques, wild boars, leaf-nosed pit viper, Waggler’s pit viper, mangrove cat snake, copperhead racer, water monitor lizards. Birds: oriental pied hornbill, wrinkled hornbill, rhinoceros hornbill, black hornbill, white crowned hornbill, stork-billed kingfisher, blue-eared kingfisher, oriental darter, storm’s stork, white-chested prinia (night), large heron, heron (night), red & black broadbill, paradise flycatcher, white bellied eagle, imperial pigeon, Indian cuckoo. Night life: Baby crocodiles, cricket frog, green tree iguana, flying lemur, fruit bats, water monitor lizards, mangrove cat snake. Labels: community development, conservation, Habitat Restoration, Kinabatangan, Orang-utan, pygmy elephant, Sukau |
posted by Fareea @ 8:50 AM
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| By Louise Sullivan, United Kingdom September 2008 volunteer Deciding what I wanted to do in Borneo was easy. It definitely involved orang-utans, and it definitely involved pygmy elephants. After surfing the Net through many tours (all of which seemed very uninvolved), I finally came across a project where I could get involved in research, community work, tree planting and have a chance at seeing both the Orang-utan and Pygmy Elephant in their natural habitat. The two weeks also involved staying at the most eco friendliest lodge on the river! This seemed so much better than volunteering time in a zoo or park. Booked!!! I felt very involved right from the start. We were all introduced to each other at the hotel and then taken to dinner where you got a chance to find out about your fellow ‘projecteers’ and their reasons for coming to Borneo to volunteer. On the bus journey across Sabah to Sandakan our guides explained all about the history of Sabah, the terrain, the project, our participation, the country’s development, the palm oil and the native animals. The details of what we were going to be doing and how this was helping the conservation effort were all explained further on short stops on our boat journey down the Kinabatangan river to Sakau. Data Gathering The first morning of data gathering arrived. I was very lively and excited for 5.30 in the morning, but the thought of a small motorised boat through the jungle to find animals was just too much for me to stay calm and blurry eyed! That first morning was one of the me  morable visions of my life, the mist was just starting to lift from the river with the rays of sun breaking through. You could hear the animals and birds. It did take a couple of trips to try and remember not to just look at and photograph the wildlife, there were GPS co-ordinates, identifying and counting to do!!! Ooops!!As the data is gathered and inputted onto a data sheet it builds a story of the animals lives and movements, allowing researchers to monitor how their numbers are doing and how much they rely on the forest for survival. The sun rising through the rainforest. Tree Planting There was also the tree planting project, this involved clearing away weeds and bushes for space for the tree saplings to live in. These new sap  lings also needed soil nutrients, in the form of leaves, from the lodge! So the odd hour here and there was spent gathering and bagging as much of the leaves from the Lodge grounds as we could. We also gathered as much of the rivers choking water hyacinth as the boat would carry to use as fertiliser too! This was an amazing two days. We got 11 or 12 trees planted. It gives you a great sense of achievement to know that you have planted a tree that may one day have a Pygmy Elephant walking under it, or an Orang-utan sitting in its branches. Incredible!!Planting trees in the cleared spaces between the forest joins up the corridors to enable the animals to move freely. Animals are vulnerable without trees to protect them, especially the apes and monkeys. Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go, lalalala lalala Hi Ho!! :) School Visit  During to the two weeks we also had a day at the local school in Sakau to meet the children and teach them more about the fragility of their rainforest and why we were there. This was September 1st, my birthday J. As well as working directly with the children, we also painted the whole front of their school building with a mural of endangered animals. This has really brightened up the school. Everyone had a great day and again the sense of achievement was brilliant. The rest of the school children must have been very surprised to see their new brighter school building on the Monday morning. Personally this was the most memorable birthday I’ve ever had! Maybe my panda should have been drawn tucking into a cake!!! One Macaroni Penguin (right) with student (left). One of my favourite pictures from the trip. Rumble in the Jungle This afternoon (or was it morning?) definitely involved donning wellington boots! It was a trek through the rather wet rainforest on foot, getting ‘said wellingtons’ stuck in the mu  d or filled with water! We didn’t come across any apes, monkeys, deer, elephants etc, but did happen to find a tortoise and lots and lots of leaches!!! I probably frightened off any wildlife with all the ‘leach screaming’ and moaning! But it was fun looking back! It felt like a rescue when the boats arrived to pick us up on the soggy bank! What did we expect in the rainforest!!! :)Prior to our jungle trek our lodge host Winston gave us a boardwalk tour with lots of amazing stories of his time as a soldier in the jungle. Winston talked us through what we could touch, eat, shelter under, drink from, get high from and use as medicine, as well as a list of ‘not to’s’ that weren’t that easy to remember!!! He also gave us a sample of leaves to eat. Doug trying out a yummy leaf! Another of my favourite pics! Bush Cooking Cooking in the jungle is fascinating, (even if it wasn’t quite the  jungle, but the lodge grounds… near enough!!). But who would have thought that you could use bamboo as a cook pot! Not me! We collected some herbs and leaves from the boardwalk and got to work chopping and stuffing. The meatisaurus’ had chicken (no poisoning monkeys on this trip) and the veggies had potatoes (wild yams had we been lost in the jungle). The food was absolutely delicious! If only we had fresh bamboo at home to stuff and throw onto the open fire. It would be much more fun than the average barbeque!!!Lessons Learnt There were many interesting facts learnt during my time on the project, a few include: o Sakau Rainforest Lodge is the only one in the area to use electric boat motors through the smaller outlets of the river o Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South East Asia o Pygmy Elephants are on average three feet smaller than their Asian cousins and have bigger ears and shorter tails o You can use bamboo to cook your hotpot! o The female hornbill is sealed into her tree trunk hollow to nest and rear her chick, relying on the male hornbill to bring food for up to four months o How to remove a leach o Probiscus Monkeys are only found on Borneo o Sabah is home to the largest flower in the world (Rafflesia) o That Ludovic and Zoltan are not afraid of crocodiles (they took a swim in the river!!!) Labels: community development, conservation, Habitat Restoration, Kinabatangan, Orang-utan, pygmy elephant, Sukau, Volunteer |
posted by Fareea @ 8:26 AM
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Volunteers
Kate Peden, 38, Education Consultant, UK Tony Hepworth, 67, City Councillor & Educator, Australia Josie, Artist, France Ludovic Gomez, 30, Staff at Old Folks Home, France Sangita Talati, 34, Holland Sunil Talati, 41, IT Consultant, Holland Doug Kington, 28, UK Jackie McGeough, 39, Ireland Carol Bryson, 57, Retired Teacher, UK Mike Carrol, 57, Retired Aviation Engineer, UK Louise Sullivan, 36, UK Zoltan Nemes-Nagy, 40, Official Photographer, Hungary This being a very international group didn’t put any challenge on group dynamics. In fact, they got along fabulously. All duties were shared and distributed equally. Nobody took time off as long as there was work to be done and in fact, they would chase us for more work! Each evening, some would sit around our “WOX table” and play games with rounds of drinks (the girls were hooked on gin & tonic). Others would quietly spend time reading and writing.  Wildlife Population Density Data Collection We continued documenting the GPS locations of various endangered wildlife.  The group saw 5 wild orang-utans, one of which was a dominant male eating a durian, and a mother and baby pair.  There were 2 groups of pygmy elephants, a small group of 3 and a larger group of 15;  seven of the eight species of hornbills were seen as well as host of other animals: the mangrove cat snake, green pit viper, pygmy squirrel, various insects, kingfishers, storm’s stork, red leaf langur, silver leaf langurs… We also saw a Samba dear, something that the guide has only seen once in his previous 4 years.  This data was then entered into a larger database, a consolidation of all the previous and future data, which will be used to tell the change in population density of the wildlife on the river and tributaries that we cruise on. Other wildlife protection and research organisations would also use them for their analysis, research and documentation purposes. Education Programme Primary school students of the Sukau Primary School (S.K. Sukau) participated in the first module of our education programme that will continue till end of next year. This module emphasised the fact that the students’ entire life revolves around the river. They were asked to demonstrate how they use the river and the activities that they do around the river.
Kate led the session, supported by Tony, Mike, Sunil, Sangita, Ludo, Doug & Jackie. The children played games and sang songs. They were also cajoled into drawing and colouring the scenes where they use the river in their daily lives. It was a very good morning at the school which ended with kids singing the newly learnt song way into the afternoon!   Community Project Our volunteers did a fantastic job of painting the mural. Louise, Carol and Josie led in the designing of the mural. They took several days to copy images out of books and transferring them to larger pieces of paper. They then practised several times before the “big day” and drew the outlines of the animals on the wall. All of us chipped in and painted the animals and the landscape. It was very satisfying to see the completed mural.  Tree Planting Our group did a fantastic job at cleaning up the weed choked area where trees were planted by the previous group. It took a whole day just to clean up the bulk of the climbers and tall grasses. We also collected a lot of dried leaves from around the resort as well as water hyacinth floating in the river to use as mulch. We did a good round of maintaining what the previous group planted before we moved on to plant our own trees. It was very satisfying to know that we have contributed to the plants of the previous group and comforting to know that the next group that comes in would be looking after the trees that we have planted.  Labels: community development, conservation, Habitat Restoration, Kinabatangan, Orang-utan, pygmy elephant, Sukau, Volunteer |
posted by Fareea @ 8:26 AM
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