Dear Friends,

First of all I would like to ask your apologies for being late in giving our report for January 2003 and thank you very much for continuing to support us.

There is some progress in Tanjung Puting lately. The local government has paid Rp. 510.000.000 to 51 villagers for land compensation. Some villagers still occupy Tanjung Harapan and Pondok Tanggui but the park director has promised to finalise this matter soon, hopefully by March 2003.

Most of the illegal mining and logging has been stopped by the police department from Jakarta. We hope their work will be continued by the local police department after they leave Pangkalan Bun.

We have reduced the number of FNPF staff since the end of December 2002. Currently, we are keeping only 3 staff as full time workers and 1 as a part timer worker. Drh. I Made Sugiartha has decided to work for FNPF after his probation period and he is right now doing some research on the possibility of setting up a new Orangutan and Sun Bear rehabilitation centre at a different part of the park. He has also received an opportunity to join The Earthwatch Fellowship in March to improve his knowledge in this field.

Ms. Yap Miow Yen from Malaysia has been working as a volunteer for our income and expenses report since last year and will compile a financial summary for us every quarter.

On this occasion I also would like to inform you that our dear friend and supporter who has been hosting our website, Mrs. Diane Stuemer, is fighting with cancer. It would be very much appreciated if you could join us in praying for her health.

We are also entering into a new MoU with the Park Authorities to do more conservation programs and to commence some new programs for community development. We expect to be back working full-time at the park shortly; we hope at that time we will receive more support from you to enable us to fulfill our common hopes and aims for the park.

Please find below the report from our staff.

Once again thank you very much for your support that has enabled us to continue to work in very difficult times. We look forward to a better future.

Sincerely yours,

Drh I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha
Director of FNPF.

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Activity report by FNPF staff - January 2003

Because we reduced staff by more than 50% in the prior period, we concentrated on working with the orangutans that we are taking care of and also on our Morinda Project. We still could only do limited work at the park and the village so we were only able to work part time to manage the Morinda Project. We are also using a villager to help on the Morinda Project.

Orangutan rehabilitation

The three babies that we are taking care of are in good condition. On January 27 Butet got light diarrhoea and flu. Drh Agus at the quarantine station has taken care of him and he is OK right now.

Morinda Project

Right now we have nearly 3000 Morinda citrifolia seedlings and about more than 30% of them are ready to be replanted. We have three villagers who have planted about 80 seedlings on their land and all the plants are growing well. Other villagers have informed us they may be willing to experiment with growing Morinda. We have also set up a market with the Yayasan Bebali in Bali for the Morinda grown in the village. The Yayasan intends to use the Morinda for natural dyes to support the local weaving industry in the islands around Bali. We plan to send at least one villager to Bali to learn about Batik dying with natural dye and hope to develop synergies with this group.

Water Project

On Jan 12 we brought the local Environment Impact Department and other local government staff to Tanjung Harapan village to provide them with information about mercury pollution in the area. From the lab report that we got on October 2002 from the Institute of Agricuture Bogor, the level of pollution is over the safety level. The mercury pollution on the surface water at Aspai area where illegal mining is still active was L 0,095mg/l, at the village it was 0.024mg/l, in the well at the village it was 0.014mg/l. We have informed the villagers to only consume water that has been processed with the filter that we made with them recently and not to consume the fish that they get from the river before we can confirm that the fish is safe for consumption.

That's all we can inform you about this month and we hope you will continue to support us to allow us to improve our work at Tanjung Puting National Park.

Sincerely yours,
FNPF staff.