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Buildings from the once vibrant Cabang Panti research station deep inside Gunung Palung National Park have collapsed. The research station, best known as a center for orangutan research for Harvard scientists, was abandoned in 2003 as a result of rampant illegal logging in the immediate area as well as management disagreements with the National Park. Since that time, Gunung Palung has become a rare success story in the fight against illegal logging, and researchers will soon be active at Cabang Panti again. The park has adopted a creative strategy that uses microlights to cruise over the forest canopy, locate illegal logging operations using GPS, and send in armed teams to apprehend loggers. By 2003, when the microlights were first used, logging in the Park had damaged 50 percent of the Park’s forests. Since adoption of this new strategy, illegal logging inside the park has gone from rampant to rare. Gunung Palung remains a jewel of biodiversity. It’s 90,000 hectares contain a wider range of habitats than any other protected area in Borneo, including one of the largest remaining areas of undisturbed lowland rainforest. The Park provides habitat for a host of endangered species, including clouded leopards, proboscis monkeys, sun bears, and the largest population and Borneo’s largest populations of wild orangutans. Kalimantan Barat (Borneo), Indonesia. Image: Danzer_033343. To discuss use of this photo, please contact Erick at erick@erickdanzer.com. For more information, please visit Erick's homepage at www.erickdanzer.com. @ Erick Danzer, all rights reserved. |