Mungku Baru
Education and Research Forest
The Rungan River landscape in Central Kalimantan is one of the largest lowland forests in Borneo with no formal protection. This incredible region houses a rich fauna, including substantial populations of endangered orangutans and gibbons, yet most of it is designated for conversion. Threatened by mining, agriculture, and timber activities, there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective methods to monitor ecological responses of wildlife to anthropogenic change.
With international collaborators at Cornell University, the University of Exeter and Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya, since 2018, we have conducted long-term monitoring of flagship orangutans and gibbons in the landscape. With partners from the University of Leeds, in 2025 we added air quality monitoring into our program to understand the impacts of wildfire smoke on acoustically active wildlife.
Our program, seated within the Mungku Baru Education and Research Forest at the center of the landscape, seeks to highlight the conservation and scientific value of these forests, aiding efforts to secure local support to protect its endangered biodiversity.
NUSANTARA
Relocated Capital City
Indonesia is relocating its capital city from Jakarta to Borneo, where it is constructing a new city – Nusantara – across a forested landscape in East Kalimantan.
Since 2022, our international team of natural and social scientists from Cornell University, the National University of Singapore, the University of North Carolina, and Universitas Mulawarman, together with students and local community partners, have been studying the development of Nusantara and its effects on human and nonhuman communities. This community-driven work bridges traditional knowledge, bioacoustics, and anthropology to produce both cutting-edge scholarship and community-focused outputs that purposefully meld local wisdom, art, and science.
KUTAI
National Park
Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan is a critical stronghold for Northeast Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio), representing the only population in Indonesia with high viability. At the same time, the park and its estimated 1,700 orangutans face major threats from hunting, agricultural expansion, coal mining, forest fires, and climate change.
Our team, the Kutai Orangutan Research Group, partners with Kutai National Park, Universitas Mulawarman, and Cornell University to study the social, ecological, and life-history adaptations of these critically endangered animals to survive in a harsh and rapidly changing landscape. Ultimately, we seek to integrate science, education, and outreach to advance the conservation of Kutai’s forests and its residents.
