A Botanist’s View of the Rainforest

By Gunawan Wibisono, Surveyor and Botanist My name is Gunawan Wibisono and I am the newest staff member of Yayasan Palung/GPOCP. I originally come from a village called Pak Utan, in Toho District, Mempawah Regency in Kalimantan (Borneo). In 2015 I began studying Biology, in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Tanjungpura University […]



Technical Verification of Matan Jaya & Lubuk Batu Village Forest Proposals

By Hendri Gunawan, Hutan Desa Coordinator One form of Indonesia’s Social Forestry Initiative is the Hutan Desa (Village Forest). The government grants approval to village institutions to manage and utilize these Hutan Desa, with the aim of improving the welfare of village communities and environmental sustainability. In July 2021, Yayasan Palung/GPOCP, the community in Lubuk Batu Village […]



Bridging Society and Science: Temporal Seed Germination Visualization

By Mega Oktavia Gunawan, WBOCS Student Researcher Growth surrounds us – dynamic and often unexpected. People also grow, and this has happened to me, Mega. I come from the town of Ketapang in West Kalimantan, Indonesia and am currently studying Forestry at Tanjungpura University. In 2018, I was awarded a West Bornean Orangutan Caring Scholarship […]



All Staff Gather for 2023 Annual Meeting

By Petrus Kanisius, Environmental Education and Communications Coordinator Every year, Yayasan Palung (YP) holds an annual meeting. This year, the meeting took place from January 10th to 14th. Annual meetings like this have become somewhat of a tradition. All staff from both the conservation and research teams gather together. We like to call this “Keluarga Besar Yayasan […]



Orangutan Conservation: Threats, Challenges, and Hope

By Taylor Tench, Senior Wildlife Policy Analyst, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) It is no secret that orangutans are facing a dire conservation outlook. All three orangutan species – the Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan, and Tapanuli orangutan – are Critically Endangered with habitat loss and illegal killing among the main drivers of orangutan population declines. In […]



2022 – A Year of New Beginnings

By Natalie Robinson, Program Coordinator & Cheryl Knott, Executive Director As 2022 comes to an end, we have a new beginning. “Berani”, the orangutan, has had her first baby!  Berani is an adolescent female orangutan that our team has known since 2008, when she was first found with her mother, Bibi. By 2013, Berani had become […]