Stephen has been at the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve for the last few days but he sent a message saying that the streets in Pangkalan Bun, where the Orangutan Foundation office is, are hazy with smoke and there is still a very high risk to the forests. For those of you who haven't seen Stephen's last post (Fires in Tanjung Puting National Park), because of the maintenance work on this website, please have a read. A big thank you to everyone who has donated to our appeal for buying fire beaters. Unfortunately the "lastest donations box" isn't working yet so we can't see who has donated but we will be thanking you as soon as we receive notification. Please help us with this appeal. Stephen has asked for a $2 donation from each reader. The beaters costs around $1.50 and the extra money will go towards buying hand sprayers which are used for dousing beaten, but still hot, embers. We need to be prepared so that if more forest catches on fire we can tackle them as quickly and effectively as possible. Thank you. On to more positive aspects of orangutan conservation! Please see the information and photos below from Togu Simorangkir of Yayorin (our Indonesian partner organisation) about the sustainable rubber cultivation that the Belantikan team have been establishing.

Over to Togu...

"We do not have a full-scale rubber cultivation. What we do is agroforestry with rubber as main plants. In the agroforestry system, we mix different plants in one area like vegetables, fruit tree, gaharu and rubber. This way, the community can enjoy the harvest from short and long harvest.

First, we provide training for community and after that we make one demonstration plot. Now some farmers already duplicate the system in their own lands. Attach are the pictures of training, nursery and maintenance of the agroforestry.

Training session

Nursery

Maintenance