Bukit Piton, the lost home of the orangutan?

This is a replanting/reforestation project in Bukit Piton Forest Reserve – a degraded forest due to unsustainable logging practices and 2 sets of drought induced fires in the past. Bukit Piton was discovered to house a high density of orangutan population. In attempt to save these orangutan from extinction, our replanting project aims at including longer term of forest management and maintenance to ensure that each tree planted grows successfully against threat of weeds, grass, creepers and climbers. In these latitudes everything grows very quickly, unfortunately also the climbing plants. These plants can inertly wrap the young free-standing trees fairly quickly. As a result, they wither or even be killed. This is the main reason why on going and long term maintenance work is required until the trees are big enough to provide shade. As soon as shade is created, the growth of the climbing plants slows and the newly planted trees are less at risk to die.

Ultimately the reforestation at Bukit Piton Forest Reserve goal is to enrich the living habitat of the endangered Borneo orangutan and other wildlife. Although previous NGO have initiated tree planting activities since 2007, there are still empty patches of open space to be planted to close the gap between the forests. At the same time, not all tree planted in the past survived due to short term forest management and maintenance. This is the main reason why we started with a small plot but with at least 5 years maintenance work. To date we have planted 40'000m² of trees and hope to increase the number to 100'000m² by 2021 (final round of maintenance work expected to complete by 2026)

By supporting the Bukit Piton – The Lost Home to the Orangutan? Project, you help:
1) Save the Borneo Orangutan population from being pushed to the brink of extinction.
2) This project will enhance the carrying capacity of the forest in supporting high density of orangutan population in Bukit Piton. This would mean the orangutans will be able to have more space to roam for food and shelter.
3) Provide richer communities of plants and animals - Reforestation by planting wild fruit trees and dipterocarp trees is an invitation for the wildlife to come back to home ground. In addition to that, continuous long term forest management (eg: removing weed, creepers and replanting saplings that has been eaten or knocked down by the wildlife) will increase the value of this once severely damaged forest.
4) Support the locals –you provide work opportunity for the local contractors to execute the tree planting and maintenance work.

The funds will be used to finance the ongoing 40'000m² maintenance work for year 2021.This is to ensure that the trees planted do not die due to being strangled by creepers or destroyed by wildlife/weather. If some trees die it will be replaced to a new seedling.