WWF has stepped in to battle annual fires in central Kalimantan, Borneo, which threaten the survival of an estimated 8,000 endangered wild orang-utans.
Every dry season more forest and peatland in the region is cut and burned to make way for plantations, destroying the forests and some of its wildlife, fuelling climate change, and sparking uncontrolled fires.
Beginning in July 2009, the last dry season was marked by a prolonged drought. This triggered wildfires that threatened to spread into vital orang-utan habitat in the Sebangau National Park area, where they could have easily killed the great apes or left them homeless. The park’s 568,700 hectares are made up of peatland, which burns easily when it dries out.
To help tackle any future fires, WWF has been working with local authorities to train and equip a community fire service called RPK. This has already proved successful. In August a joint team from WWF and the Park Office was on a routine fire patrol when locals alerted them to a fire burning above and below ground in a nearby peat area.
A spokesman for the local RPK said they are much better prepared to tackle fires since they have established proper forest fire-fighting techniques. “When the fire started, we extinguished it using techniques that we learned during training sessions conducted by WWF just before the dry season ,” he added.
WWF has also established and fully equipped a forest fire-fighting station in north Ulu Segama – a critical orang-utan habitat in the Heart of Borneo. And we are working with local people to strategically block local canals: this keeps water in the peat bog areas to reduce the risk of fire and allow plants to re-grow. In west Kalimantan, WWF has established two pilot projects in villages pioneering the use of improved farming techniques that do not require burning.
We hope to expand these projects. We are also calling for the government to support us with tougher law enforcement against those found guilty of setting fires as well as action to prevent further incidents.