Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Chasing the Storm: Borneo Jungle life


I’m sorry I’m a bit (understatement) behind on my blog posts. Sometimes it’s hard finding the time to sit down and write, especially when there is so much to see and do. But here I go on the (delayed) Borneo jungle adventure…

Our journey into the jungle didn’t exactly start off on the right foot. An already long seven hour journey from Camp Tinangol was transformed into 12 hours following a breakdown on route.

With spirits not as cheery as usual, we finally arrived at our new home for the next week – Camp Batu Puteh in Sungai Kinabatangan. Here we would be working with a local charity called Kopel.

About Kopel

As I mentioned in a previous post, over the years Borneo has experienced immense deforestation. This is not only due to logging, but because of the rise in palm oil farming, which has stripped away a lot of the land. Naively I thought the problem was the chopping down of the palm trees, I wasn’t aware in fact the planting was the main issue.

Kopel’s goal is to tackle this deforestation by protecting the forest, wildlife and biodiversity along the Kinabatangan river. The role of the charity is to not only be active and vigilant within the forest, but also to educate (and work) with the local people.

Project work

Whilst in Sungai Kinabatangan, we were tasked with helping to restore the jungle’s declining tree population. Our volunteering saw us help in three different stages of the tree planting lifecycle.

At first we headed into the jungle to pick sprouting trees (after a little exploration of the forest).

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Chasing the Storm: Borneo Jungle life
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