What to do with illegal logs?

Dear Sherri Your point about using illegally felled wood is a good one and is something we have debated at length. There are essentially three options when dealing with illegal loggers:

1. Evict them and thus the fallen wood is left behind 2. Evict them and render the wood useless by sawing it into unusable pieces that can't be used. 3. Arrest and process the loggers. After their trial the timber, which is classed as evidence, can then be auctioned.

Option three is by far and away the best. Wood bought at a Police auction is transparently 'clean' and could be used for a good purpose. Unfortunately, this option requires full police involvement and happens infrequently. Our staff have general powers of "citizens arrest" but that isn't enough. The Police really need to be there at the time of the arrest but, not un-understandably, they are frequently reluctant to press charges against small time loggers who, after all, are just local people. Also, the wood needs to be sold, not given away, as the Police need the proceeds to cover the cost of the trial.

What we find - illegal logging raft

Option one is the worst, though this was the strategy we had to use when we were overwhelmed by illegal logging a few years ago. While the wood remains in the forest, someone will be tempted to get it out. Being hardwood the timber remains useable for years after being felled but there is no way either we or the Government could use it. It would appear we were either profiting from the illegal logger's efforts or, bizarrely, even robbing them. In the local context, where arguably double standards apply, we have to be whiter than white. We simply could not use illegal felled wood directly without someone holding it against us.

Cutting the wood into unusable pieces with police support

Option two is the method most commonly used. By chopping up the wood, the logger's efforts are in vain, resulting in a net loss to them (they hire the chain saws, borrow money for food and equipment etc.) However, without the teeth of a more severe punishment, some people may accept being evicted as a risk worth taking. That's where Jak comes in. He pushes the Police to at least hold the loggers in custody for some time, even if they do not actually end up in court. People here are scared of the Police and going to jail for an unspecified period of time is a terrifying prospect.

This year, we will be trying to fund large signboards along the major rivers, which the Police have requested, saying logging is forbidden and warning of the consequences. The Police always accompany us when the illegally felled wood is destroyed (see photo) but, when it comes to arresting people, they want to be in a position where it is 100% clear; there can be no excuses for logging in these places.

Do we admit the system is imperfect? Yes, completely. But is it about as good as we can get it at the present time? Probably.

Kind regards

Stephen

Protection Works

The Orangutan Foundation’s protection of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and Tanjung Puting National Park has been extremely effective in reducing the level of illegal activities. Because of the protective measures that we have in place, in 2007, we recorded just 12 incidents of illegal logging in Lamandau. This may seem high but without our monitoring and constant presence illegal activities would, without a doubt, be much more prevalent.

Jak the LECP Patrol Manager

Jak, short for Jakiruddin, Patrol Manager of Lamandau Ecosystem Conservation Partnership (LECP), who I have mentioned a few times in my blog, has only been working in this role since April 2007. Jak is excellent at his job. His strong leadership skills not only mean he is very effective at leading his team but he has also earned the respect and the confidence of external institutions that the Foundation works with, such as local Ministry of Forestry Department’s Office for the Conservation of Natural Resources.

Jak supervises the Foundation assistants who are assigned for the mobile patrols and to the guard posts, which are located on the rivers (the only way in and out of Lamandau, for us and illegal loggers). Every Thursday Jak brings logistical supplies and necessities to the network of guard posts for the week. He uses the VHF radio to organize his personnel in the different locations. It is fortunate that Jak is determined as he has received numerous threats from illegal loggers. Nevertheless, he continues to perform his task professionally and he will not step back just because of the intimidation.

The local Ministry of Forestry on patrol

Last year, on the Mangkong River, Jak and his team found a large quantity of illegal logs, an estimated one thousand cubic metres. The logs, which had been cut into approximate lengths of 2 to 4 metres, included the valuable timber species, Kempas and Meranti. The logs had already been made into a raft and were waiting to be floated away by the illegal loggers.

Photo above - the illegally cut logs made into a raft were found by Jak and his team

Police support - standing upon the rails made by the illegal loggers so that they can roll the logs out to the river.

The logs were destroyed by the local Ministry of Forestry and the Police in order to send a clear signal that illegal logging will not be tolerated. All access to the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve will continue to be guarded. The combined forces of the local Ministry of Forestry and LECP will add extra personnel for each of the current seven guard posts.

The mission of the Orangutan Foundation, and of Jak, is to see Lamandau totally free from illegal activities. With the participation of the surrounding communities we are determined to keep Lamandau's forest intact so it continues to provide a viable habitat for orangutans and a sustainable livelihood for the local people.

Working in Borneo

Wildlife Direct suggested I give you more information about my life working in conservation with orangutans, what it's like working as a conservationist, in the field, in Borneo compared with Africa. I will try to give you a better picture of what it is like working in Borneo, a "typical day" if you can call it that. Despite the impression you may have gathered from this blog, like many people in the world, I work in an office in the town of Pangkalan Bun and it feels like 90% of my time is devoted to emails and Excel spreadsheets. The Orangutan Foundation has a conscious policy of capacity building and investing in Indonesians, so I am the only expatriate employee. Indeed, I am the only westerner in town! I am responsible for project supervision and all English language communication, particularly reporting to donors. I have to make regular reports from the field to the overseas offices, disseminate information from those offices to the relevant people in Indonesia, and help with proposal writing and forward planning.

Naturally part of my job involves fundraising. I think like most field based people I get so convinced by the worth of the cause I struggle a bit to complete grant applications, especially those using buzz words, for example “Tell us about the multiplier effects of your planned project” (huh, we’re trying to multiply orangutans aren’t we?!) Crucially we have recently received large grants towards habitat protection work. For instance, the United Nations Environment Program with European Union funding supports our work in the Belantikan Hulu; this region contains the largest population of wild orangutans outside of a protected area. However, all of our orangutan rehabilitation work is funded from private donations and last year that cost over US$100,000. As the UK office has grown tired of telling me “Stephen, buying lottery tickets is not a sustainable fundraising strategy!”

The Orangutan Foundation office has a friendly relaxed atmosphere and is a lovely place to work from. There is a garden with a fish pond and mango, rambutan and banana trees, producing the most delicious fruit. The whole operations of the Foundation are co-ordinated from the office, we communicate by radio to all our field posts and my colleagues do a truly fantastic job. In the office there is Ully, the Office Manager; Astri, the Liaison Officer, who also helps me with this blog; Jak, the Patrol Manager; Teguh, the Guard Post Supervisor; Devis from Pondok Ambung and finally the Belantikan Conservation Programme team also work from the office. Tigor, who runs the Lamandau Rehabilitation Camps, works out of the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine facility (OCCQ). There are numerous powercuts in Pangkalan Bun and so those lucky enough to have a laptop, Jak, Asti and I, often giggle at the moans coming from the others when the power cuts out! When around the orangutans, or on patrol, we wear a uniform which helps the orangutans to recognise and distinguish between Foundation staff and other people who might pose a threat.

Top photo - outside of the office. This photo -inside of the office

Teguh and I are the only Christians. The rest of the people in the office are Moslem & our field staff are a mix of Christian, Moslem and Dayak – which is useful as it means someone is always willing to work on one or other of the religious holidays. Jak and Teguh are married with two children each, Astri is married, Devis is too young, or so we tell him, and everyone is forever teasing Ully about when she’ll get married. However, given her IQ is about the twice that of the rest of us (probably combined) when the time comes, I have no doubt she’ll be the one doing the choosing.

Today was a fairly typical day: I was at the OCCQ just after 8 am, as I had to give the vets some darts (injectable syringes for their blow pipe) that have just been donated.

I also wanted to check on a female orangutan, Mumsie, who had been brought down from Lamandau suffering from suspected anaemia - blood loss possibly with malaria. Thankfully she is fine and, all being well, will be returned to the forest in a few days. I then went back to the office. For most of the day I continued writing up our 2007 Annual Report which, as it also has to be in Indonesian, Astri and I did together. The head of one of Tanjung Puting National Park’s management units stopped by to discuss plans for 2008. It was then back to my desk briefly before heading out in the afternoon with Jak to check on a new guard post we are building in Lamandau.

The new post site

This post, which will stop people using a river to enter the Reserve, is part funded by the Australian Orangutan Project and I need to update them on progress. We got back to town at 6.30pm and, after having fed myself, I am typing this at 8pm. I’ll stop soon!

Apart from us here in Indonesia, there is the UK Office without whose support none of this would be possible. I give them more problems than they deserve and still they continue to back us up 100%. For that I can not thank them often enough.

There are two other things that are probably worth saying about my work with orangutans; firstly, unlike just a few short years ago, the sense we have now is no longer of trying to stop orangutans from falling over the brink into extinction but in pulling them further away from the brink. Not everywhere – certainly not across their entire range – but in specific places we are well on the way to saving orangutans, and we should all feel good about that. Vigilance and on-going dedication is still needed; the fires of late 2006 threatened to undo all the gains we had made. Nevertheless, better to focus on the positives than the negatives.

Orangutan in Tanjung Puting National Park (photo by Mark Fellows)

The second thing is that, partisan as I may be, the Orangutan Foundation is honest, and that is almost entirely due to the culture Ashley Leiman, the Orangutan Foundation Founder and Director, has established for the organisation. Of course, we’ll tell you our successes, but we’ll also be honest in saying when things don’t go well: in the middle of last year we managed to stop a palm-oil plantation from being established along Lamandau’s borders. But the year before, we failed to stop Tanjung Puting from losing some 5,000 + hectares.

In my blog I talk about my work with orangutans but it is not just saving orangutans. What is really great to think about is the incredible biodiversity (proboscis monkeys, gibbons, kingfishers and hornbills -I could go on and on!) found in their habitat that is also protected as a direct result of conserving a flagship species, the orangutan.

Going to great heights for orangutans!!

I think I wrote before that all Orangutan Foundation guard posts are equipped with solar power and radios. The solar power sets we buy locally are brilliant. The panel is made overseas but the battery, charger, cables and lights are all made ‘in country’. The battery should last three to five years and the lights as long. Setting up the system takes less than two hours and is literally as easy as wiring a plug. Indeed, one set was put up using nothing more than a pocket multi-tool!

Solar power set

Radios have been installed at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine, the Foundation office in Pangkalan Bun, and in all the Tanjung Puting National Park and Lamandau Wildlife Reserve camps and guard posts, making a tight network that helps us to effectively monitor the protected forests and support both the people and, in case a vet needs to be called, the orangutans too. The Field Assistants have daily (and sometime hourly!) contact with the other camps and guard posts. The system is very robust, practical and sustainable.

Late last year, the Foundation refurbished TPNP’s guard post on the Buluh Besar River. The final task was installing the solar power and radio sets. Mr Teguh, the Post supervisor, and I went down there on the Foundation’s new “kelotok” (traditional motorised long-boat); a longer but much more pleasant journey than the one we had in the speedboat during Teguh’s look-see interview (see post: Wet & Wild and that's just getting to the guard posts).

Buluh Besar River - TPNP (note the radio mast in the background!)

The solar power set was installed quickly and easily on the afternoon we arrived. The night there was great too; playing cards with the Assistants, bathing in the river and watching proboscis monkeys on the river bank. The location is unbelievably scenic.

The problem was the next day’s job was nowhere near as much fun. A radio needs an antenna and the antenna needs to be up high. Frequently we put the antenna on top of a tree but, on the Buluh Besar, the National Park had previously installed a radio mast, which is naturally where the antenna had to go. The only question was who was going to climb up. The guys justified their selection of me on the basis of my being the only one without family!

Things I do for orangutans!!

Camp Mangkong

A quick blog to let you know about a very good day. But first the background. About a month or so ago we removed some illegal loggers from the Mangkong River and subsequently we built the guard post there – the post which flooded.

I accompanied a follow-up patrol to make sure there was no more logging taking place upstream. Well there was definitely no logging but, even better, we found what appeared to be an ideal orangutan release site (see photos below). I won’t bore you with all the factors that come into play when choosing a release site but suffice it to say “location, location, location” isn’t everything! You have to have forest, access and a clearing for the buildings plus a few other things. Anyway, we saw this site and all said “perfect”.

The Patrol Team, who monitor illegal activities, are seperate to the Camp's staff, who monitor the released orangutans in Lamandau and they are separate again from the staff at the Orangutan Care Centre Quarantine (OCCQ) where the orangutans start the rehabilitation process. One of my jobs is to try to integrate all the different branches of our operations, so last week I went back up the Mangkong with Mr Tigor, the Camp's Manager, a couple of his staff and staff from the OCCQ.

Foremost among the OCCQ staff was Mr. Sehat, he is someone I truely admire and he has an absolutely magical way with orangutans. At the OCCQ he is the "dominant male" – bar none. I once watched an orangutan trying to wrestle a tub of fruit from one of the other assistants. Mr. Sehat happened to be walking past. Immediately, the orangutan let go, sat down meekly and gratefully accepted his allotted share. There is no force or aggression in his manner, it is simply will power and years and years of experience. Sehat once carried a sub-adult male weighing some 70 kg (154 lbs) from his enclosure to a traveling crate just so the orangutan would not have to be anesthetized.

Photo taken of Mr Sehat on an earlier orangutan release.

To continue, if Mr. Sehat agrees with something we know it has to be alright and he took one look at the selected site and asked grinning, “Why haven’t we found this place before?”. Ukim, one of the other assistants, sized it up perfectly – and with the brevity typical of a Dayak. He looked around and said simply “it’s never been burnt”. Fires destroy the natural seed bank in the soil (rainforest trees are not adapted to cope with fire). Even if an area has been logged it will recover but once it is burnt, recovery will be much, much slower. Mr Tigor was equally enthusiastic and he had even started pacing the layout of the new site. For my part, it was reassuring to know that everyone was in agreement, this was a perfect release site. You can expect to hear more about the Mangkong Camp and the orangutans, who will make their home there, in the future!

Volunteer programme

Committed, enthusiastic, slightly nutty (it helps!) and hard working - our volunteers. Another year's volunteer programme has ended and again it has proved to be invaluable to our field operations. The programme has been running successfully for seven years. Each year, between April and November, we have up to four teams coming out to work with us in the field. Volunteers pay £600 for six weeks which covers all their living expenses but also importantly pays for all the construction and material used during the programme. All of the money received from the volunteer programme stays in the field.

For the past few years, the main target area of the programme has been the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Projects have included the construction of guard posts, building release sites for ex-captive orangutans, marking out boundaries and assisting with reforestation programmes. In 2008 we hope to build two new orangutan sites in Lamandau in order to relieve pressure at the OCCQ. All of the teams in 2008 will be concentrating on constructing one of the release sites and we hope to raise funds for the construction of the other site.

Vicky Dauncey, the volunteer co-ordinator for this year has sent us a taster of what the last two teams got up to....

Map - to help to get your bearings!

Team 3 - Our focus on this team was to construct a guard post in Sungai Mangkung, Lamandau. We experienced a lot of rain!!

By the second week there was no dry land except the pondok and the building site but the upside to this meant it was cooler in the day and so it made the physical work less demanding. Morale stayed high during our work in Lamandau despite the flooding (in the last few days the water entered the pondok!).

Volunteers and Orangutan Foundation staff at Sungai Mangkung, Lamandau

Eventually we were forced to leave without finishing the post. This meant that we had a few days, on the beach, at Tanjung Keluang, planting saplings and cleaning the area of rubbish. This was funded by the Forestry Department and we worked with two forestry department staff whilst we were there. Living (sleeping in hammocks) and working at Tanjung Keluang was an incredible experience and one I hope the volunteers will not forget.

Team 4 - The first week was spent in Sungai Buluh Kecil, TPNP. Re-planting an area destroyed by fire. First we had to check an area that had been previously planted and replace dead saplings. This was particularly physically tough as the terrain is swamp. After six days the volunteers were exhausted and, although proud of their work, they were happy to leave!

Sungai Buluh Kecil, TPNP

Two rest days were spent in PKB and during this time we visited the OCCQ. The OCCQ really brings home the importance of building the guard posts and release camps in Lamandau and really helps to motivate the volunteers.

After the rest we went to Lamandau to finish the guard post at Sungai Mangkung, that was started by team 3. In comparison to the first week this seemed like light work and it helped that we were working in a beautiful location and that the water had receded!

Pak Sariamat, Pak Matjuri, Ibu Opit are long standing staff members and highly valued on the volunteer programme. Thank you for your continued hard work.

If the Volunteer Programme interests you please visit the Orangutan Foundation website www.orangutan.org.uk

Logging

One of our readers recently wrote in saying “I would like to hear more about the logging practices and implication toward the rainforest.” We have no wish to lecture and have tried to make our blogs stories about life here in Borneo rather than fact-filled documents. However, because logging is such a big issue for us, we reasoned more people may be interested to learn more about the how and whys of logging. So here goes: Logging takes many forms and differs in the regions involved; there are good and bad examples of timber harvesting. We accept that controlled logging is a less damaging land use than mining or clear cutting for oil palm plantation establishment, and also that the potential for sustainable, low-impact forestry exists. For that to occur however, there needs to be:

1) A market for sustainably harvested wood

2) The timber company willing to manage its forest concession with long term goals in mind, not just short term profits.

3) Good law enforcement.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has set up an international labelling scheme to oversee all these processes. All forest products carrying the FSC logo have been independently certified as coming from sustainably-managed forests that meet the internationally recognized “FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship” which include environmental and social responsibility. Sadly, FSC forests are few and far between – there are none in Central Kalimantan where we are based and only five forest areas, in the whole of Indonesia, have certification.

In most places where logging occurs, the largest trees, trees on which orangutans and other wildlife depend, are removed. As each tree falls it flattens others. Roads and camps do further damage. And that’s in a legal logging concession!

An estimated 73-88 % of all timber logged in Indonesia is illegal. With Asian, European and North American markets being the major recipients of illegally logged wood products . Illegal logging occurs everywhere, it is indiscriminate and is a perennial problem for Indonesian forest managers. A survey in the year 2000 found illegal logging inside all of Indonesia’s national parks.

The illegal logging that the Orangutan Foundation has experienced follows a process where an area of forest is surveyed for valuable trees. This is known as "cruising". Once a site with good potential is selected, teams of men are sent in. They establish a camp and begin felling the trees identified on the survey. The fallen trees are cut into logs of approximately 4m lengths.

To extract the logs, many kilometres of railways are built, each one using hundreds of trees and breaking the forest canopy. The logs are moved down wooden railways to a river, stream or canal (illegal logging canals drain peat swamps, drastically increasing the risk of fire) where they are floated to a larger river. Once the logs reach a large river they are joined together and towed to market behind boats. Sometimes, if there is dry ground, the logs are lifted straight into trucks and driven away. Once at a port or large town, a 'buyer' or dealer usually purchases the logs before processing them. He will pay off the loggers on the basis of species type and volume. Valuable timber species will be loaded onto ships or barges for exporting outside of the province and other less valuable timber trees are used locally, for instance in house construction. Logging barons have made millions of dollars from illegal logging.

Guard post in Tanjung Puting National Park

I am proud to say the Orangutan Foundation has had great success in tackling illegal logging and the key to this has been the building of guard posts on rivers. These posts deny loggers access to the rivers which are used to float the logs out – if you can stop people getting in, you can stop the wood coming out. The posts also act as bases from where we can patrol a much larger area of forest.

We are aware the problem will never go away entirely because the trees are so valuable. The temptation to log will always be there. We have rangers in our network of guard posts monitoring the reserves to prevent illegal activities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is expensive and labour intensive, but it works and if this is what it takes to save the forest and orangutans then this is what will shall continue to do.

The Last stand of the orangutan - State of emergency: Illegal logging, fire and palm oil in Indonesia's national parks. Is an interesting and informative report by UNEP and is well worth having a look at.

Sorry for the lack of photos - here's a few to lighten this post!

Protecting Lamandau for people and orangutans.

After my last post about releasing Kath and Jutak into wild I thought it would be appropriate to tell you more about our work in the Lamandau reserve. Seeing orangutans being released back to the wild is incredibly rewarding and one of the most satisfifying parts of the job but it also comes with a huge responsibility. We have to make sure that we can provide long-term protection to the forests, and this is where the challenge really begins!

New guard post in Lamandau built by participants from our volunteer programme

The Lamandau Ecosystem Conservation Partnership (LECP) is an exciting new partnership for the Orangutan Foundation. It has been funded by the EC to maintain functioning tropical forest ecosystems in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, which support sustainable rural development. The Partnership comprises the local Ministry of Forestry for Central Kalimantan, Yayorin and the Orangutan Foundation.

Our focus is the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. It is important not only because it is an area of high biodiversity and a release site for orangutans but also because of its economic importance for local people. Local communities have the right to the sustainable use of non timber products.

Rattan - non timber product

We believe that in order to provide real protection for Lamandau we must work with local communities. We and our partners are working to achieve the following:

-Improving the protection of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve from illegal activities.

-Improving the education and awareness of communities around the reserve on the importance of conserving forests.

-Facilitating efforts to increase the economy of communities around the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve in a sustainable manner.

-Reforestation of Lamandau Wildlife Reserve to improve its capacity as a conservation area.

Last week LECP participated in the Development Exhibition that was held by Regional Government Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan. This exhibition was held in order to celebrate the 48th anniversary of Kotawaringin Barat. LECP with dozens of organizations and institutions had exhibition stands.

Regent Kotawaringin Barat being shown our stand

Regent Kotawaringin Barat, Mr Ujang Iskandar, officially opened the exhibition. He stopped by at the LECP stand and observed some of LECP activities that were displayed on the walls of the stand. Regent KoBar was very pleased with what has been done by LECP, especially when we gave him the picture of his house, which was taken from a helicopter while we were doing an air survey!

Children taking part in our environmental quiz

During the exhibition, we organised a quiz and played some movies with an environmental theme. We had 100's of visitors participating but the children were the really excited ones because we gave away prizes if they answered the quiz questions correctly.

We hoped, by taking part in this exhibition, the LECP project will be known by Kotawaringin Barat community. By learning about us they will hopefully like the work that we are doing, and afterwards support all of our activities!!

We really appreciate that Wildlifedirect has given us this opportunity to raise awareness about the orangutan, its rainforest habitat and our about work. Thank you Faye B and Sheryl B for supporting our work with your generous donations. We are making a difference with your help!!

Wet & wild - and that’s just getting to the guard posts!

Being a new arrival to Wildlife Direct, we thought we would start by introducing some of our key staff, as they will be contributing blogs in the future. However, after the week just gone, another idea presented itself; we have had a few adventures with our guard posts! To put it all in context, it helps to know why and where we have guard posts. Here in southern Borneo, the terrain is very low-lying and dominated by peat swamp. There are very few roads anywhere, and access into the swamps is always by river. Therefore, if you control river mouths you can protect the interior swamps from loggers and hunters and that is why we have guard posts on the major rivers into Tanjung Puting National Park and the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. The posts are operated in conjunction with the relevant forestry officials (Park staff for Tanjung Puting or ‘BKSDA’ staff in Lamandau).

All the posts have solar power, radios, sleeping rooms, a kitchen and toilet. In an effort to reduce the amount of wood we consume, we no longer use iron wood shingles for the roof and all recent posts have been made from what we call “thin cement”, where cement is plastered over tightly stretched chicken wire in a modern version of daubing. The added advantage of cement is it is cooler. Really, the posts are quite comfortable.

Unless they are flooded….

Our newest post was built by a team of exceptionally hard working volunteers led by Vicky Dauncey (more from her later). The post was sited on a river called the Mankong, on the north east edge of Lamandau. Upstream from the post we plan to build an orangutan release camp – despite being previously commercially and illegally logged the forest there is beautiful. It is a perfect site for orangutan rehabilitation. But best, the camp is built on stilts!

The Mankong has risen a staggering eight metres! When the volunteers were building it, I worried it was dangerously high – if someone fell off the veranda they would have fallen three metres onto the river bank, with the water level being a further three meters below that. There’s no danger of falling off now – you can swim into the post.

The rainy season has well and truly started but rainfall has not been exceptional. Yet the main Lamandau River, of which the Mankong is a tributary, has started to flood. About a quarter of the town of Pangkalan Bun, where our offices are based, has flooded and the water is now just 10cm below the window sills on the Mangkong Guard Post. The guard post staff are sleeping on a (hastily erected!) platform or even in a canoe. The expression “canny weather for ducks” doesn’t quite capture the sense of it when you know there are crocodiles in the water!

Jak, our Patrol Manager, is dealing with that one – basically by sending sympathetic comments over the radio and relaying positive weather forecasts to the post staff, who I must say are taking it with remarkably good humour. Indeed, rather better than me on Thursday’s trip to Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP), some 40 km east of Lamandau.

To get to our guard posts on the Buluh Kecil and Buluh Besar rivers (Little and Big Bamboo Rivers) in TPNP you have to cross the sea. Normally, the sea is calm in the morning but choppy around midday and in the afternoon. We left later than planned. We had to buy a lot of supplies for the posts and, because we are recruiting a new supervisor, we wanted to take him with us to meet our suppliers.

The journey was brutal. We did not get away until around 10 am by which time a westerly breeze had picked up. Westerlies are bad because they come straight across the open sea, kicking up the waves. Speedboats tend to slam into waves when it is choppy making for an uncomfortable journey anyway, but when the waves are coming from the west they are side on, meaning you have to zig-zag to stop from being rocked. When the waves are big and from the west, they break over the boat. And that’s what we faced on Thursday.

All round it was less than fun. We were drenched. The journey took an hour longer than it usually does and the engine stalled when we were swamped. That is bad enough, but imagine if this is the first time you have been to the posts and you are on a “look-see”/job interview….

Fortunately, the new supervisor took the job!