My
name is Jennifer Brousseau and I am from the Borneo Nature Foundation, a
non-for-profit research and conservation organisation working in
Indonesian Borneo. We are running a Forest Ecology Field School this
year from the 30th June - 27th July and we are looking for enthusiastic
individuals to join us for four weeks in the Bornean rainforest learning
the basics of ecology research and how to protect the rainforest. I
have attached a flyer along with this email, including the link to
follow to find out more information about this course. If you have any
further questions about the course, please email join@borneonature.org.
Here
is an important message to share from one of the directors of the
Rungan Forest Ecology course, primatologist and orangutan researcher,
Dr. Wendy Erb:
Hi there!
I’m
Dr. Wendy Erb, one of the lead instructors for the IFR Rungan Forest
Ecology field school with the Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF), and I am
contacting to explain a bit more about this exciting field school
opportunity over the summer! We are currently offering a discount of
$300 off the tuition if you sign-up before March 15th!
The
Rungan Forest Ecology course takes place at the Mungku Baru Education
Forest, a 5,000-hectare forest managed by the local Muhammadiyah
Palangka Raya University and Mungku Baru community. This area comprises
peat swamp and dry lowland rainforest that provides critical habitat for
one of the largest populations of orangutans outside of protected
areas. BNF is working hard to build a foundation for forest and
biodiversity conservation in this important ecosystem, and we are
looking for motivated students to help us at this critical initial
research stage to secure long-term protection for this area.
During
the course, students will learn about the unique biodiversity in this
threatened ecosystem as well as the culture and livelihoods of the
indigenous Dayak Ngaju people that live alongside and depend on the
forests. Not only will students learn from Indonesian and international
research specialists from a wide range of fields, but they will also
live and work alongside members of the local community. As an
anthropologist who has been studying Indonesia’s wild primates and
working with indigenous communities since 2005, I will share my
knowledge and experience adopting an interdisciplinary approach that is
needed for effective and ethical conservation solutions for endangered
primates and local people. Students will learn the theory and practice
of biodiversity survey techniques, including acoustic monitoring and
camera trapping, and help us work to identify and catalog important –
and potentially undescribed – species in this relatively unexplored and
threatened area of Borneo. You will join me in searching for and
following orangutans, gibbons, and leaf monkeys, as we start the work of
habituating Rungan’s primates to the presence of researchers, the
foundation of the long-term primate behavior research program I aim to
establish here. With support from Dr. Van Veen and I, students will
conduct a brief research project, which might focus on gibbon calling
behavior, small mammal abundance and distribution, ethnobotany, and much
more!
These
are just a few of the many activities students will participate in
during their four-week Rungan Forest Ecology course with BNF. During the
course, students will acquire in-depth knowledge of diverse natural and
social science methods to deepen their understanding of effective
conservation research and equip students with the tools to initiate
their own future studies or initiatives. We hope will join our team to
learn together and help study one of the last remaining unprotected
forests in Borneo. Our team would be happy to answer any questions you
may have about the course or the region, and we look forward to hearing
from you soon.
Sincerely,
Dr. Wendy Erb