Risks and Risk Mitigation

1. Site access is impacted by high rainfall, slowing down work

Action :

· Bridge construction to be complete by late January 2004

2. Seedling stocks are insufficient and/or insufficiently mature to survive planting

Action :

· Continue controlled experiment to identify relative survival rates for different tree species, modifying acclimatization conditions as required.

· Review seedling collection to temporarily reduce collection of less hardy stock

· Prioritise the planting of more vigorous stock, to maximize time for less hardy seedlings to acclimatize

· Begin controlled experiments on the impact of various types of organic and natural fertilizers in different soil conditions, to enhance growth rates.

3. There is high dependence on extensive labour compressed into a short period

Action :

· Over 60 conservation cadets will help with planting over the next 3 months as part of their conservation education program (estimate 2-3 hectares).

· Request forward plans from stakeholders e.g. Parks Office to ensure we have adequate resources at vulnerable periods

TANJUNG HARAPAN

The site here is an experimental one, looking at reforestation in swampy conditions. Work has been impacted by the recent floods which have killed over 1000 seedlings. We continue to clear the site, which is overgrown with sambiring grass.

Currently, we have stopped replanting, as the die-off rate is unacceptably high. Instead we are focusing our efforts on understanding the factors impacting die-off, and how to manage these more closely. At present, we are experimenting with the impact of different methods of planting in water-logged ground.

To ensure the work continues, in this period we have switched to planting in limited quantities (140 seedlings) only those trees with a known high survival rate in swamp conditions viz. Pulai, Medang and Ubar. These have been spaced far apart, to allow diversified planting with other species in between, once we are more confident they can survive. Continued planting allows plants beneficial to wildlife to be established sooner, and ensures better conditions (e.g. shade, forest litter) for later plantings.

We continue to expect to achieve our target, although with some delay.

Overall Target

Working understanding of suitable methods and species choice in swampy conditions.

10 hectares, to be planted by end May 2004. Currently 4 hectares planted.

Plants should be established by end October.

Risks and Risk Mitigation

1. Harsh natural conditions with high die-off rates, depleting seedling stocks and impacting the viability of continued reforestation

Action :

· Continue experiments to identify relative survival rates for different tree species, modifying species planted as required.

· Continue experiments to identify methods of planting at different water levels that would deliver acceptable survival rates

· Closely manage stock levels and seedling choice in planting.

· Attempt to gain early warning of adverse conditions e.g. by referring to the Indonesian Bureau of Meteorology 6-month advance weather forecast.

2. Inadequate understanding of the inter-relationship between soil, weather, and plant species in swampy conditions, leading to poor plant health

Action :

· Build up a network of local contacts with relevant expertise who can act as a reference panel

· Invite an independent third party to review work done and methods chosen, at strategic points in the project

· Check theory against results actually achieved in the field as much as possible

2. Orangutan Rehabilitation

GROUP OVERVIEW

Health

The group we are rehabilitating continue in good health despite suffering minor colds and sneezing due to heavy rain in November. To strengthen their constitutions, we have added vitamins and eggs mixed into the milk they get.

Food Self-Sufficiency

In late October, we reduced feeding to once a day, at 3pm for the following reasons :

· The orangutans have maintained a state of good health for several months

· There are currently many wild plants and fruits in season which they can consume such as Kariwaya, Jambu, Mahang, Ketiau flowers, palms, bamboo.

· Our observations during the month, carried out twice weekly, suggested that feeding twice a day was making the young orangutans unnecessarily dependant on us and unwilling to seek their own food.

A negative impact of this, however, has been that the two less advanced orangutans, Adong and Lady, have been returning to the post almost daily since mid-November, we suspect due to the reduced feeding. This is worrying as it may:

· Increase the orangutans’ levels of interaction with and reduce their fear of humans, rendering them potentially dangerous as well as vulnerable to poachers

· Reduce the time they are exposed to forest life and therefore impacts their skills

· Build bad habits e.g. stealing food and can create a dependency on being fed

· Have health impacts e.g. Lady drank sweetened milk coffee left by a guest on the verandah and stole some soap which could harm her if eaten

· Have flow-on effects on the more advanced orangutans e.g. Lady as the dominant orangutan may cause the others to regress if they follow her lead.

Action:

Since the situation has only been going on for two weeks, we will monitor to see if their behaviour improves. If not, we will consider possible measures to manage the situation, such as reintroducing twice-daily feeding but with reduced amounts such that they still have to search for food but have less time to return to the post.

On the matter of self-sufficiency, we note that, when wild or feral orangutans turn up at feeding, we never allow them to join in, as these other orangutans are already able to survive and there is no need to (re)create a dependency. Even so, the wild orangutans continue to interact well with our current group.

Monitoring and Observation

We expect to continue the twice-weekly observations of our current release group, keeping it at that rate such that there will be limited interaction between the observer and the orangutans being observed. The method we use is direct observation from a distance, following where the orangutan leads into the forest.

The main aim is to determine the young orangutans’ ability to find food, to interact with other animals and/or defend themselves as required e.g. when they meet with wild or feral orangutans or gibbons. Following the orangutans also allow us to gain information on the availability of food sources and other requirements eg nesting material in their home range.

Visitor Management

During this period, we had several tourists attend to watch the orangutans during feeding. We seek to explain to visitors the dangers of zoonosis, and the desirability of minimizing human contact while the orangutans are being rehabilitated. To promote greater understanding of the rehabilitation process, we hope to produce bilingual pamphlets in the near future which we can give to visitors.

INDIVIDUAL ORANGUTAN PROGRESS

A summary of our observations is as below. Full details are available on request.

DANIEL

Post Quarantine Socialisation

On 15^th October, we moved Daniel from Quarantine into the socialization cage. The cage is located in a small clearing surrounded by forest; it is hidden from view but only 50 mtrs from the ranger post to ensure Daniel can easily be supervised by the vet and our staff. Daniel cried initially on being moved, but adapted quickly to his new surroundings; he appeared comfortable hearing forest sounds and seeing the forest denizens. Because of this confidence, we kept him caged for only 3 days instead of the more usual 1 week. Thereafter, we gave him limited freedom, letting him out in the mornings, still under supervision, to explore the area around the cage, before putting him back into the cage in the evenings.

Forest Skills – Nest Building

Daniel has been remarkably quick picking up forest skills. He made his first rudimentary nest, after observing our rangers doing the same, within 7 days, on 22^nd October. Thereafter he continued to refine his nest-building skills and currently builds a new nest several times a week. Remarkably, since 27th Oct, Daniel has been sleeping regularly outside the cage, in a nest of his own making in the trees.

Forest Skills – Climbing

His climbing skills are coming along very well. In the first five days he was climbing no higher than 3-4 mtrs in the surrounding trees; within 2 weeks, he was regularly at heights of around 8-12 mtrs. He is also better able to gauge weight and distance and now rarely falls while climbing. Early on, he once fell from a height of 3.5 meters while swinging from tree to tree. We were very worried; however he picked himself up immediately and swung off to try again.

Confidence and Exploration

In the first week, Daniel generally stayed within 5-10 meters of the socialization cage. Within two weeks, he was moving as far as 30 meters away from the cage. Since late November, he has been regularly at the 1^st feeding platform, 50 meters distance.

Food Self-Sufficiency

He is making good progress in searching for food. Initially, he was only eating 2 types of fruit, namely Jejambu, dan Ubar (Eugenia sp). Currently, is eating not only fruit, but also plenty of young leaves, pith and occasionally flowers, rattan and insects. He is currently eating from over 12 tree species, in particular Arang para, Ubar, and Bentangur.

Social Skills

Daniel appears comfortable with other orangutans.

On 15^th October, the first day he was moved into the socialization cage, the cage was approached by Yanari, the dominant male in the area (age approx. 29 years). To prevent any incidents, we drove Yanari away from the cage, but were pleased to see that Daniel showed no signs of fear, merely watching Yanari calmly.

On 21^st October, we found Daniel’s cage open and Daniel; our staff located him some 50 mtrs away, in the company of a young wild male orangutan whose cheekpads were just starting to grow. We believe the wild male came across Daniel, opened the cage and Daniel followed him; prior to that, Daniel had not been further than 5-10 mtrs from his cage. When the male saw us approaching, he made a lip squeak and left.

Since 23^rd October, Daniel has been socializating with the existing group of 3 orangutans; since 24^th November, he has paired up with Butet (see section on Butet).

BUTET

Forest Skills and Food Self-Sufficiency

He continues to progress well. His forest movement skills are firmly established. Food-wise, at present, he only drinks milk when he attends at the feeding platform and avoids the fruit we provide, showing a preference for fresh forest produce that he seeks out himself. We observed him eating a wide variety of fruit, flowers, leaves, roots, pith and bark during the month.

Between 26^th October and 28^th October, Butet did not attend the feeding platform. On the second day he was missing, we went in search for him, and encountered several fresh orangutan nests (1-2 days old) approximately 100 mtrs from the feeding area that suggested a mother and child pair viz. a small and a large nest at the same spot in the trees. On 29^th October, Pak Ledan found Butet around 6 am. His condition was fine, and we take this as a positive sign that he is comfortable fending for himself foodwise. That afternoon, he showed up for feeding, but ended up eating wild mahang fruit approximately 50 mtrs from the feeding platform. Again, we see this as a good sign that he is not dependant on the food we provide.

Social

Butet is comfortable interacting with other orangutans such as with the wild juvenile males that occasionally turn up at the feeding platform, although he avoids Yanari, the dominant male. Since November, he has paired up with Daniel. On 24th November, Adong, Lady and Butet met up with Daniel near the post. All four played together; at 3pm Adong and Lady wet of the feeding. Butet stayed back, then started off and invited Daniel to follow by moving slowly from tree to tree, waiting for Daniel to catch up. Daniel did so, following slowly but surely. Finally, Butet descended to the ground, followed by Daniel, who climbed up onto Butet’s back and was thus carried to the feeding platform. Since then, they have generally stayed close together.

LADY AND ADONG

Food Self-Sufficiency

Lady’s abilities have improved; we observed her eating from a variety of food sources in the month, and taking water as required from the streams. As a result, she is growing well and her fur is becoming longer and thicker. However, she is lazy and since feeding was reduced, she has been attempting to return continually to the post.

Adong remains lazy at searching for food; in our twice weekly observations, we found him mainly playing, preferring to wait for feeding. Rather than search for fresh food, we have observed him eating the leftovers from the previous day’s feeding. Like Lady, since feeding was reduced, he has been returning frequently to the post.

Social

Lady and Adong’s social skills are making slow progress. They now sleep together less frequently in the same next. However, both continue to avoid other orangutans in the area, both male and female, preferring to keep their distance. Lady is somewhat better than Adong in that occasionally she appears unafraid; we have seen her playing calmly while not far from Yanari, the dominant male. We hope she will continue to improve.

Adong is more problematic; he continues to attempt to approach tourists who attend at the feeding platform and sometimes we have to shoo him off forcefully. He also appears quite jealous; he frequently prevents Butet from playing with Lady, blocks Butet’s access to milk and occasionally bites him.

3. SunBear Release

Initial Procedures & Quarantine

Following a young sunbear being given to us for release into the Park last month, we duly undertook to investigate how we might go about this process.

We initially established that the bear was healthy and recorded of its overall condition (health test results, weight, tongue and claw measurements, etc.) We then reviewed the literature and determined that Dr. Gabriella Frederickson is apparently the only person known to have had any success with sunbear release. We duly contacted Dr.

Frederickson, who was most helpful with advising us how we might go about designing a sunbear release program. Even so, Dr. Frederickson noted that success is rare, and that the field is still very new and unknown. Essentially, however, we expected that the rehabilitation and release progress would be a slow one taking many years, with complications due to the bear’s nocturnal nature.

For the first four weeks the sunbear, Winkie Pam, was isolated in quarantine at Tanjung Harapan ranger post. During this time, we tried to wean her off her previous diet, which was porridge. Our staff provided her with cut-up fruit and slowed moved her to whole fruit, which she initially had trouble peeling. We also provided her with termite-infested wood which she very much enjoyed.

Socialisation & Release

On 16^th October we transferred Winkie to the planned release site at Pesalat forest within the park. We chose Pesalat as the trial site as the forest there is still in fairly good condition and we had previously encountered many signs of sunbears in that area. The chosen site is located in a forest area approximately 1 km from the post.

On 19^th October, after giving her some milk, we uncaged Winkie. After some hesitation, she came out and immediately tried to climb an Aru tree beside her cage. She was able to climb up only 1 meter before falling; thereafter she explored the area around her cage, sniffing and clawing the ground and surrounding trees, and proceeded to break open rotted tree trunks looking for termites. Although she searched industriously, her success rate was low. At noon, we fed her milk and mangoes, which latter she refused. That afternoon, while Winkie was searching for food, she chased our staff a few times when they moved. Come evening, she was not keen to re-enter her cage and we used milk to tempt her back inside.

On the second day, Winkie became more confident, exploring as far as 50 meters in the direction of the swamp. She continued to attempt to climb trees, but continually failed. She also chased the staff more frequently and exhibited other aggressive behaviour viz. growling loudly at staff and rearing on her hind legs. One of our staff was stuck up a tree for fifteen minutes while she waited at the foot.

At noon, we fed Winkie milk at the cage; our staff let themselves be chased in order to get her back to the cage. During the day, she had more success finding termites albeit still low, and she actively investigated her surroundings, sniffing, clawing and biting twigs and trees, and digging the ground. Come evening, she was unwilling to re-enter her cage; she refused the bait of mango offered, and we ran out of milk. Our staff therefore took the decision to leave her outside, as it was getting dark and they saw no other option. At that time, Winkie was around 1 meter from the cage.

The following day, when we approached her cage, Winkie was nowhere to be found. That day and in the following weeks, we encountered traces of her digging holes and breaking open tree stumps. We are confident the traces are hers, as there are clawmarks indicating unsuccessful attempt to climb, as well as rotten logs broken open up unnessarily as compared to what a wild sunbear would have done. We also encountered traces of her sleeping beneath a Lanan tree. On 16^th November, we saw her again; she approached the post and two of our staff attempted to detain her but she moved away slowly. She had lost weight, but appeared fit.

Key Learnings

i) Attempt to better estimate where an animal fits on the continuum between immediate release and slow rehabilitation

· Attempt to better gauge the extent to which an animal’s wild instincts are still present e.g. determining forest skills by providing raw material, gauging the extent of their interaction with humans taking age and behaviour into account.

· Strongly stress a gradual reintroduction process e.g. longer pre-release period in socialization, shorter initial release times e.g. 1-2 hours to begin with.

ii) Understand and mitigate the potential danger to staff posed by a various animals needing release and /or rehabilitation

· As far as possible, ensure staff attending to the animal remain the same, consistent with minimizing human-animal interaction but keeping in mind the need to ensure the safety of staff by having suitable numbers in attendance.

· Understand and control interaction at potentially risky times e.g. minimize movement and keep appropriate distance when the animal is feeding.

· Consider appropriate defensive infrastructure (eg barriers) and instruments

iii) Undertake better risk identification and staff training prior to release.

4. Local Capacity Building

Education Support Program

Our volunteer project manager has been working with the Headmaster and teachers at the local elementary school, to agree an Education Support program :

· A young village girl, Aida will start as an Assistant Teacher, beginning 1^st December 2003. Her appointment should be a good incentive for village children

· 4 scholarships will be provided for young students at the school

· Materials such as Teaching Instruction manuals, medical supplies and sports equipment will be part-funded.

Batik and Mengkudu

This program has been somewhat delayed as our training room has been taken over by the Army, who is currently helping build roads and padi fields in the village, and who will stay for some weeks. Our attempts to find, extract and fix natural dyes have also been slower than expected: we have so far only proven one natural dye and three others are in the process of being tested for colourfastness.

At present, the 2 groups learning batiking are still at the stage of hand-drawn waxing techniques. We expect to move the focus fairly soon to dyeing and wax removal, to ensure a smooth learning flow that mirrors the actual batik preparation process. We are targeting an additional six natural dyes by mid February and intend to involve villagers more actively in the dye material gathering and pattern choice process, and to increase our staffing commitment to the program. We estimate that naturally dyed local batik products will be ready for sale by early April 2004.

English Classes

· Our staff continues to teach English twice a week at the local school.

· Our volunteer is running a Conversational English class for village youths. After wider initial interest, the youth class now has a core attendance of 4-6 young people, who are showing good progress.

FNPF organisational processes

FNPF’s volunteer project manager is undertaking a review of our administrative processes. As a result. we :

· Have introduced a new wage system which has been well received, and expect to finalise a staff training plan shortly

· Have brought filing and archiving up to date, and are modifying these to ensure more efficient storage and retrieval.

· Are reviewing our bookkeeping and accounting practices, and expect we may revamp our accounting categorizations retrospectively to July 2003.

· Are reworking our reporting systems to ensure more opportunities for staff involvement and learning.

Our field manager also recently attended a bookkeeping training session at Bogor. We wish to express our thanks to the Gibbon Foundation, who funded this training.

Such is our report at this moment. We wish to thank all our sponsos and supporters for the help and support they have so generously given.

Respectfully,

FNPF Staff

1. Reforestation

Overall Target

Risks and Risk Mitigation

Overall Target

Risks and Risk Mitigation

2. Orangutan Rehabilitation

Health

Food Self-Sufficiency

Monitoring and Observation

Visitor Management

Post Quarantine Socialisation

Forest Skills – Nest Building

Forest Skills – Climbing

Confidence and Exploration

Food Self-Sufficiency

Social Skills

Forest Skills and Food Self-Sufficiency

Social

Social

3. SunBear Release

Initial Procedures & Quarantine

Socialisation & Release

Key Learnings

4. Local Capacity Building

Batik and Mengkudu

English Classes

FNPF organisational processes