How village communities protect their rainforest
How do you protect one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests? In Borneo, indigenous communities, together with the WWF and with support from Bosch Power Tools, are demonstrating that nature conservation and sustainable development can go hand in hand – through forest patrols, reforestation, clean drinking water, and new sources of income. An insight into how local action is helping safeguard the rainforest for people and nature.
The island of Borneo is a treasure trove of biodiversity, home to species such as the Bornean orangutan, Bornean pygmy elephant, and Bornean rhinoceros. However, the island is also one of the areas where the loss of tropical forest is particularly high. In the Indonesian part of Borneo, just under a third of the forest remains intact.* And deforestation is continuing. This has an impact not only on the global climate, but also on the livelihoods of the local population. With the support of Bosch Power Tools, a WWF project is working to conserve an area of over 240,000 hectares – three times the size of Berlin – of high conservation value, manage it sustainably, and provide it with legal protection from further deforestation.
A village protects its native tropical forest
The Labian-Leboyan Corridor is located within the Kapuas Hulu District in the heart of Borneo. It connects two national parks and is home to thousands of animal and plant species. Until the mid-2000s, the forest was suffering greatly due to a combination of forest fires and illegal logging. The WWF supports indigenous communities in Kapuas Hulu by helping them protect and restore the forests that remain. The hamlet of Ngaung Keruh, for example, consists of a single large “longhouse” in which 27 households live together under one roof. The inhabitants of the village depend on the forest for their livelihood. “The forest provides us with everything we need: food, building materials, and medicine. And also products that we can sell, such as fruit, vegetables, or natural dyes,” says Robertus Tutong, headman of Ngaung Keruh.
The hamlet established a forest management group. Comprising 30 people, it regularly patrols more than 485 hectares of forest to uncover illegal logging and deter it with their presence. In addition, the group has already planted 50 hectares of damaged forest with new tree seedlings. It is a complex undertaking: the WWF uses satellite data to help identify the places where the forest is most severely damaged. The group members go to these places and check and measure the area. The villagers ensure that the trees are adapted to the local conditions by collecting seeds from the local area and growing seedlings from them. Once they are large enough, they are carried out into the forest. This is difficult because the terrain is hilly and the plantations are often up to two hours’ walk from the village. But it is worth it. Robertus Tutong proudly reports: “We have already planted over 13,000 seedlings.”
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The seedlings are being raised at the nursery in Ngaung Keruh © WWF -
In a traditional longhouse, the entire community lives under one roof © WWF
New opportunities thanks to clean water
Back in 2016, the WWF helped the village of Ngaung Keruh to build a small dam. This meant that the longhouse could be supplied with running water, eliminating the laborious task of fetching water from the river. Thanks to Ngaung Keruh’s effective forest protection, the river’s water quality is very good, and the dam and water pipeline are still working in 2025. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all the rivers in the region. The destruction of the forest has led to soil erosion and increased runoff into the rivers. Illegal gold mining also pollutes the water, forcing many people to buy bottled water that is delivered from further afield.
This situation made Robertus Tutong come up with an idea: bottling and selling the clean water from his village. It means Ngaung Keruh generates additional income and the neighboring villages can buy cheaper water thanks to shorter transport routes. However, the water has to meet certain criteria before it can be sold. First, a feasibility study was carried out and the water quality was tested in a laboratory – with positive results. The municipality invested in a building to bottle the water, and the WWF contributed a filtering and bottling plant with the support of Bosch Power Tools. Once the filtered water passes the final quality tests the village can finally start selling it. In future, the village will be able to bottle around 185 liters of water per day.
Harvest, protect, preserve
The WWF is assisting four villages in the Kalis Suruk region in their efforts to integrate nature conservation with alternative sources of income. In addition to traditional shifting cultivation, the local population grows rice, coffee, spices, and vegetable crops. However, climate change is causing increasingly long periods of drought and heavier rainfall. This also promotes the proliferation of pests. For the municipalities, this means smaller harvests and increased uncertainty. They are having to adapt how they farm to the changing climate.
Together with the university in Pontianak, the provincial capital, the WWF carried out soil analyses to select suitable plant varieties. In addition, training courses were held on the production of organic pesticides and fertilizers, as well as on what is known as fertigation – a method that channels water and nutrients directly to the roots. This saves resources and improves yields. Processing the products is another way to make a difference, as higher quality products mean better prices. The villages now sell turmeric, chili, and ginger powders, ginger syrup, and candied eggplants. There is even demand for their organic fertilizer. One of the special local wild plants is the “Salak Hutan”, or exotic snake fruit. Together with a research institute, the WWF tested processing options and demonstrated that the fruit meets national food standards. Households now use this aromatic delicacy to make snacks such as chips and cookies. Thanks to more stable yields and higher incomes, the villages no longer have to expand their cultivated areas – and more natural habitats can be conserved for animals and plants.
Questions for the WWF
Dr. Stefan Ziegler is a biologist and responsible for projects in Southeast Asia at WWF Germany.
Why is the WWF supporting this particular area in Borneo?
The Kapuas Hulu region is an important habitat for the Northwest Bornean orangutan, the smallest orangutan subspecies in Borneo. Of the 5,700 animals that remain, 64 percent live in this region.** That is why it is extremely important to protect their habitat. The district is also home to many indigenous communities who are particularly connected to the forests and are committed to preserving them. However, they face major challenges due to climate change. That is why the WWF is helping the indigenous groups adapt their traditional farming methods to climate change.
How is the project organized in the region?
For our projects to gain acceptance and be sustainable, it is crucial to understand the local interests, needs, and skills and to build on them. WWF Indonesia has its own project office in Kapuas Hulu. Most of our staff come from the region and speak the local languages. Thanks to our long-standing presence there, the WWF is well connected and is very trusted by the local population. We also work with different government agencies on land-use planning and village development, as well as with forestry departments and other NGOs.
What are the main aims of the project?
Our overall goal is to preserve a specific forest corridor that is of high conservation value in Borneo, to manage it sustainably, and to provide it with legal protection. The aim is to achieve this by giving communities access to sustainable income sources based on climate-resilient agriculture, the creation of local value, and nature-based solutions.
What is the project’s biggest success so far?
In 2024, the Labian-Leboyan Corridor and surrounding areas, which span nearly 282,000 hectares, almost the size of Luxembourg, were declared a wildlife corridor. To achieve this, the WWF performed studies and provided advisory services. Now, thanks to its efforts, the foundations have been laid for protecting the corridor from intensive economic use or conversion into plantations over the long term.
* McAlpine, C. A. et al. (2018): Forest loss and Borneo’s climate Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 13 No. 4 10.1088/1748-9326/aaa4ff.
** Utami-Atmoko, S. S. et al. (2017): Orangutan PHVA Population and Habitat Viability Assessment Final Report. IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Apple Valley, MN.
Summary
Borneo's rainforest is one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems, yet it is under severe threat from deforestation. Together with WWF, Indigenous communities are protecting forests, restoring degraded land, and creating sustainable livelihoods through clean water initiatives and climate-smart agriculture.
