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Forest rangers from Gunung Palung National Park cruise over the rainforest in a microlight looking for illegal loggers. These aircraft are the centerpiece of a creative strategy to combat illegal logging that uses microlights to cruise over the forest canopy, locate illegal logging operations using GPS, and send in armed teams to apprehend loggers. The strategy has produced a rare success story in the fight against illegal logging. By 2003, when the microlights were first used, logging in the Park had damaged 50 percent of the Park’s forests and forced closure of its Cabang Panti research center. Since adoption of this new strategy, illegal logging has gone from rampant to rare. Elsewhere in Borneo, illegal logging is still at crisis levels. The Center for International Forestry Research has recently reported that 70 percent of timber flowing from Indonesia is now illegal, while the WWF has estimated that most lowland forest in Borneo will be gone by 2010. Gunung Palung is 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_033092. 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. |