Biodiversity conservation in East Kalimantan, Borneo island

REA operates in the Indonesian region of the island of Borneo, which is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet and a powerhouse for the provision of critical ecosystem services, including clean water, climate regulation and nutrient cycling. The longevity of REA’s business is wholly dependent on its ability to maintain and enhance this biodiversity.

Plantation development in the tropics has the potential to alter local biodiversity and natural ecosystem functions. The group therefore believes that operational requirements for oil palm cultivation, that include land clearing, maintenance, harvesting, processing and delivery, should be guided by conservation principles designed to avoid or mitigate negative impacts and augment positive steps to restore or enhance original landscape level biological diversity. Currently a total of approximately 20,000 hectares have been set aside as conservation reserves within the group’s titled land bank, accounting for over 25% of the group's land areas.

The group takes seriously its responsibility to conserve and, where possible, restore or rewild the natural landscape in and around the group’s operations. The group’s conservation department (REA Kon) was established in 2008 and aspires to exceed, rather than just meet, all the requirements of the sustainability bodies by which the group is certified. REA Kon is organised into three functional areas: plantation ecology (evaluating the long term ecological relationships between planted blocks and conservation reserves); biodiversity management (understanding trends within and conservation management of natural species of the landscape); and communities and forests (collaboration with local communities in the conservation management of the group’s designated conservation reserves, including HCV areas).

REA Kon’s plantation, biodiversity and community-related conservation actions are reviewed annually to assess whether further refinement is required to improve their effectiveness and are enhanced by close technical cooperation with research scientists and experts from local and international institutions and universities, as well as with Indonesia’s environmental NGOs. These provide sound empirical information for valid, evidence based decisions on the current conservation status and effective management of biodiversity and HCV areas. REA Kon compares data sets over time to assess whether the department’s objectives are being met for enhancing species richness, diversity, and restoring natural ecological functions.

REA Kon works to expand its understanding of the composition and dynamics of the biological landscape within the group’s boundaries and continues systematic biodiversity point surveys, camera trapping, belt-transects and phenology plot monitoring as part of its assessment of the living landscape. Monthly programmes of forest restoration and enrichment are conducted in all conservation reserves (HCV areas) and other sites that are no longer designated for planting.

REA Kon maintains an automated weather station for monitoring temperature, humidity and rainfall for potential impacts on local biodiversity. It also checks water quality levels (pH, temperature, conductivity, and totally dissolved solids) which are recorded in four watersheds in the group’s forested conservation reserves to ensure that water resources remain free of contamination.

To address and mitigate the impacts of climate change, REA Kon is expanding the restoration or rewilding of degraded sites, including tree planting, across all of the group’s properties. The REA Kon nursery maintains a stock of some 4,600 seedlings for rewilding projects and, in 2021, more than 2,700 individual native fruit and timber trees were planted out in the conservation reserves, estate village emplacements and as gifts to local communities. Enrichment of degraded areas and increased carbon capture as forested conservation areas mature will lead to increasing carbon sequestration. Observational data gathered during 2021 demonstrates that the group’s endeavours as respects conservation, which encompasses a mixed-use landscape, have assisted in the survival and enhancement of a significant portion of the original biodiversity of the area.

REA Kon maintains a permanent database (Triage) of species richness, distribution and abundance with special emphasis on the status of any species of fauna or flora listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Any species not recorded in previous years is identified and its location entered into the database.

Based on camera trap photographs, herpetofauna and point count surveys, mist and insect nets, pit falls and incidental observation, in 2021 a total of 43 mammal, 141 bird, 35 reptile and 30 amphibian species as well as 33 species of butterfly (Lepidoptera) were identified.

Critically Endangered [CR] and Endangered [EN] species recorded by trail camera or incidental observation in 2021 include:

• Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) [CR] were found to have an estimated minimum population of 20 individuals comprising five adult males, seven adult females, four subadults and four infants in six different conservation reserves around the group’s estates
• Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) [CR] identified across five separate sites
• Bornean Gibbons (Hyllobates muelleri) [EN] observed in six separate sites
• Proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) [EN] consistently observed throughout the year at one wetland site at five locations
• Flat Headed Cat (Prionailurus planiceps) [EN], a carnivore observed, after an absence of several years, adjacent to the REA Kon field station
• Borneo Bay Cat [CR], Marbled Cat [EN] and Sunda Clouded Leopard [EN], all rarely observed carnivores.

A total of 17 previously unrecorded bird species were noted in 2021, including the Endangered White Crowned Hornbill and Vulnerable Great Argus (Pheasant). Monthly point counts for birds across specific sites in the group’s conservation reserves demonstrate a steady increase in species richness and suggest that a higher number of species can be expected with additional inventories. Recording and monitoring of butterfly species also provides information on the ecological health of the landscape.

Through camera trapping arrays and walking surveys along permanent transects, REA Kon identifies the location of each individual orangutan, the highest priority species. Wherever orangutan nests are encountered, at least two units of camera traps are set in order to identify individuals by their characteristics, such as size, sex and facial features, and assessment of their body condition and health, and the detection of infants. Camera trap monitoring provides information of spatial distribution of the species and superior population estimates, in addition to the accurate identification of individuals. In 2021 20 individual orangutans were identified within six of the group’s forested conservation areas (seven females, five males, four adolescents and four infants). No orangutan-human conflicts were reported, and one female carrying a small infant was photographed eating an oil palm fruitlet.

Phenology monitoring as prescribed by the Ministry of Forestry in permanent measurement plot transects revealed at least four Endangered tree species in 2021, including the Critically Endangered timber species, "Kayu Resak" (Venula venulosa). REA Kon collects fruits or seedlings of all such Endangered tree species for regeneration in its nursery and replanting in its restoration and rewilding sites. REA Kon has also cultivated and replanted large numbers of economically valuable Ironwood (Eusideroxylon zwageri) and several other valuable timber species such as "Red Balang" (Shorea balangeran).

In addition to replanting degraded areas with local tree species, seedlings of native shade, timber and fruit trees (such as ihau (Dimocarpus longan var. malesianus Leenh) and Maritam (Naphelium Ramboutanake Leenh)) are also produced and distributed to local villages, schools and emplacements within the group’s estates. Rambutan, jackfruit and durian trees planted by REA Kon in 2008 now produce abundant edible fruit to benefit wildlife as well as the workforce and guests to the estates.

Working with the Provincial Government’s Natural Resource Protection Agency (BKSDA), the REA Kon community team engages with, and conducts joint presentations and socialisation projects for, the group’s employees, local villagers, school children, as well as departments of the Provincial, Regency and District authorities. Although the activities of the outreach teams again had to be limited due to Covid during 2021, communication and education was maintained through smaller group discussions and workshops, distance learning and the distribution of conservation leaflets and posters to explain the group’s activities, its conservation policies for Endangered species and species diversity, and to provide guides for identifying local birds and amphibians The community team has been requested to provide a long term collaboration in conservation education and management.

Encroachment

Managing encroachment into conservation reserves poses a significant risk to the viability of endangered species and their forest habitats. REA Kon monitors the boundaries of its conservation reserves which are clearly marked with signboards to identify their status as protected sites. Joint patrols of forest conservation areas are conducted with the Forestry Service, Land Compensation and Claim Department to monitor and swiftly respond to illegal intrusion into conservation areas. The group also has access to the Netherlands-based Satelligence system which generates bi-weekly updates to an online platform for monitoring the status of, and changes to, forest cover and land clearing activities (of areas greater than 1 hectare) within and around the group’s estates. The aim is to track land cover change over the broader landscape in which the estates are integrated, including the concession areas, the entire FFB supply base, forest areas and all other land cover types within a defined area surrounding the concessions. This facilitates rapid investigation of illegal activities within the estates and smallholder areas. The area of interest for monitoring purposes includes all of the group’s concession areas and areas outside the concessions totalling 229,898 hectares, thereby covering the entire FFB supply chain including all independent smallholders and other out growers). Any encroachment identified is investigated and, as necessary, processed by local government authorities. REA Kon then takes steps to restore the original forest vegetation, having evaluated the most suitable method for restoration. The sites are allowed to regenerate either naturally or through intervention by careful rewilding.

The results of monitoring (shown below) are used as a reference point for conducting ground checks and taking the necessary control measures. 

Deforestation monitoring 2018-2021

During 2021, there were indications of non-compliant deforestation or land clearing taking place outside REA’s concessions covering an area of 2.71 hectares. The monitoring results showed multiple indications of deforestation in the vicinity of 22 locations of independent smallholders but that proved not to be within independent smallholder locations. On receipt of land-clearing alerts in an identified area of interest, REA conducts direct field verification to ensure that the areas are not within those of a registered smallholder supplier.

Fires in and around the company concessions are an ongoing threat to habitats and operations during periods of dry weather, and the project with Satelligence provides the company with an effective additional tool to monitor incidents and work with local communities to raise awareness and reduce such risks. In 2021, there were 22 incidents (fire hotspots) recorded within the company concessions that were reported to the RSPO and 42 hotspots detected in the area of interest outside the group’s concessions. REA routinely conducts direct field verification after obtaining hotspot alert reports to ensure that potential fires do not occur in the area of third party FFB suppliers. Based on the results of direct field verification, none of the 42 hotspot alerts triggered in 2021 involved third party FFB supplier locations.

The group is working with the local government and communities to develop a network of trained community groups to promote fire prevention and develop firefighting capabilities. In 2021, fire prevention and firefighting training courses were conducted in three local villages and courses are being extended to a further eight villages in 2022. The community groups are intended to encourage efforts to reduce the traditional reliance on fire for clearing village land and work in parallel with other group funded community development initiatives to promote forest and habitat conservation.

Collaborations with external institutions

The group has recently signed a long term collaborative agreement with the University of Cambridge to promote research into sustainable oil palm management and the conservation of biodiversity in oil palm landscapes. The group also collaborates with research projects undertaken by the University of Ohio. These collaborations involve local research institutions in Indonesia as well as the communities in and around the group’s operational locations.

REA Kon also collaborates with staff and students of Prof. Dr. Rudy Agung Nugroho Science Faculty, Universitas Mulawarman (Samarinda), and provides support for undergraduate and graduate research projects, thus building local capacity in field biology and conservation. Students receive meals, lodging and transport for internships in conservation outside of protected areas.

As regards specific projects, REA Kon collaborates with senior scientists (Prof Dr. Sri Suci Utama Atmoko and Dr, Tatang Mitra Setia) of the Biology Faculty of the Universitas Nasional (UNAS) in Jakarta in monitoring resident orangutan and hornbill populations within the estates managed by REA. REA Kon and the estate management team at CDM management also work closely with the KEE (Kawasan Ekosistem Essential), a provincial government initiative for the protection of endangered species in the CDM-Mesangat wetlands area. REA Kon works with the European Crocodile Networking Group (experts on Asian crocodile species) to monitor and assess the endangered species in the company-managed portions of the wetland.