The Forest Restoration Project of the Rhino and Forest Fund in Sabah / Malaysia / Borneo
The last intact forest landscapes source: http://www.intactforests.org/world.map.html
80% of all primary forests are already lost. Deforestation (mostly in the tropics) is one of the most obvious global trends and will have enormous impacts
“If we continue at the current rate of deforestation and destruction of major ecosystems like rainforests and coral reefs, where most of the biodiversity is concentrated, we will surely lose more than half of all the species of plants and animals on Earth by the end of the 21st century.”
E. O. Wilson
The extent of rainforest destruction and extinction - more than 50% of all tropical rainforests are already destroyed, the rest is mostly degraded - every 2 s another ha of rainforest gets lost - rainforest destruction exceeds the greenhouse gas emissions of the complete global traffic accelerating global climate change - the biggest extinction crises in 65 mio years is mostly due to rainforest destruction; the majority of all species is expected to be lost by the end of the century (without radical changes)
South-East Asia
Map: www.wikipedia.de Borneo
Karten: www.wikipedia.de
Forest Cover Loss on Borneo
source: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/extent-of-deforestation-in-borneo-1950-2005-and-projection-towards-2020 by Radday, M, WWF Germany & Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal 2007 Logging and land conversions for industrial monocultures have degraded, destroyed and fragmented most of Bornean lowland forests
Pictures by R.Risch
Virgin Bornean Lowland Rainforest
picture by R. Risch Heavily degraded “forest” without a canopy layer in Tabin Wildlife Reserve (RFF project area)
picture by R. Risch Forest edges and degraded forests are much more vulnerable to forest fires than virgin forests due to higher human encroachment, and decreased humidity Sabah is the last region on Borneo still supporting nearly the complete original Bornean megafauna
Map: Langner et al. pictures by K. Saner and R. Risch Habitat fragmentation is one of the biggest threats for many endangered species Map: Sabah Forestry Department
Map by Sabah Forestry Department
The Tabin Wildlife Reserve (Project area of the RFF)
Map by Sabah Forestry Department
The situation of Tabin
- 90 % degraded forest of different qualities and a core area with virgin forest - Tabin is an island of 120.000 ha surrounded by huge oil palm plantations - Tabin is a “sinking rescue vessel” for many species, because it is too small to support viable poulations of certain species on a long-term Forest edge of Tabin
picture by R. Risch
Degraded forest without closed canopy in Tabin
picture by R. Risch
Canopy tree in the virgin core area of Tabin
picture by R. Risch The dipterocarps are the dominant tree family in the lowland rainforests of Borneo and make up to 80% of the canopy
Just once every few years there is a mass fruiting of dipterocarps. The seedlings grow immediately and stop at knee hight. Then they can wait for decades until a gap in the canopy occurs and the saplings start growing again to fill the gap.
Dipterocarp fruit
picture by R. Risch Wild dipterocarp seedling
picture by R. Risch Virgin lowland rainforest with seedlings
picture by R. Risch If the forest is badly logged, the seedlings will be destroyed and pioneer species block the regrowth of the original tree species.
Secondary vegetation inside the TWR – no chance for new trees...
picture by R. Risch ...like this one for example
picture by R. Risch If you leave it to nature, the regeneration of the original ecosystem will take centuries.
But forest restoration accelerates this process enormously
pictures by R. Risch
How can you restore a destroyed rainforest?
Seedlings get raised in a nursery
picture by R. Risch
Seedlings in polybags
picture by R. Risch Site preparation: cutting of planting lines through the secondary vegetation
Marked planting points along a planting line
picture by R. Risch Planting
Planting
Cluster planting
picture by R. Risch
Documentation
picture by R. Risch Monitoring
picture by R. Risch Maintenance
picture by R. Risch
The RFF has already started two forest restoration projects on Borneo
Our aim is the rehabilitation of degraded areas inside Tabin and the cration of wildlife corridors between Tabin and other conservation areas
Location of RFF project sites
Map by Sabah Forestry Department Green light for the first project in November 2010: Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between RFF and Sabah Forestry Department
January 2012: Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the RFF and the Sabah Wildlife Department about the second project
RFF project site in Tabin
picture by R. Risch March 2011: Start of the restoration work in Tabin
Second project site at Tabin River
How long does it take to bring the forest back?
Some tree species can grow several meters a year
Tree (Vitex pinnata) planted 9 months before at the RFF project site
picture by R. Risch
Dr. Philippe Saner with 6 year old dipterocarp (12m)
picture P. Saner
What does the RFF plan for the future?
Buffer zone around Tabin
Map by Sabah Forestry Department Changes: R.Risch Establishment of Wildlife corridors between Tabin and other conservation areas
Map by Sabah Forestry Department Changes: R.Risch
Vision for the future:
Map by Sabah Forestry Department Changes: R.Risch
The more funding we get for forest restoration and rhino conservation, the more connected habitat for endangered wildlife can be restored.
Each donation for the RFF helps to fight species loss!
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