Overview
Volunteer with Indigenous Communities on Conservation Projects in Borneo

Community volunteering in Borneo gives you the chance to be involved in helping to provide sustainable local income by the setting up of community-based ecotourism. Working with a local organization, conservation volunteers will help with developing nature interpretation trails, with building work, and will also participate in wildlife surveys amongst the incredible and diverse rainforest of the Lower Kinabatangan. There is also some need for help to teach basic IT skills and English.

This project gives those who choose to volunteer in Borneo the chance to help both the local communities and the local environment, by building and promoting business which works with its environment, rather than in opposition to it, and by making this fantastic environment the great attraction that ecotourists will come to enjoy.

View Film Footage, images, blogs, volunteer stories from the field, volunteer video diaries and more at the programs media centre

Get involved in this pioneering community and environmental project; it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life! Situated in the heart of S.E Asian biodiversity, volunteers from any background will find their efforts directly benefiting the communities and wildlife that call Borneo home.

Tom Hewitt, Project Team 2007

What Difference Does This Project Make?

This initiative aims to provide sustainable alternative sources of income for local indigenous people by increasing ecotourism opportunities. As well as this, volunteers will help to save and restore habitats for rare and threatened wildlife species, such as orang-utans, gibbons, proboscis monkeys, elephants and otters, amongst others. Volunteers will help sustain ongoing habitat restoration work, such as forest habitat restoration and wetland lake restoration. These efforts provide critical habitats for food, movement and nesting structures, and link forest and wetland waterways.

Highlights

Working with a pioneering local community dedicated to protecting the rainforest and living on the banks of the Kinabatangan River, one of the few places in the world where you can see 10 species of primate, including orang-utans and the endemic proboscis monkey.

Location

South and towards the interior region of Borneo, the lower Kinabatangan is a much written about location. Richer than almost anywhere in South East Asia in wildlife, it is a hotspot for rare and endangered species. The river is surrounded by small patches of forest hemmed in by oil palm plantations. The river remains crucial to the survival of many species and its protection is of paramount importance. An evening or dawn boat ride is an experience that should not be missed, not only to catch sight of rare and spectacular primates and birdlife species seen nowhere else but also to experience the sheer breathtaking beauty of the river.

Field Conditions

Participants will either be living with a local family in the village (home stay) or camping in the forest. In the village you will learn to live in a traditional way and spend a lot of time with your host family. In the forest camps, you may have to cook for yourselves with basic facilities. All local food is usually rice-based with fish and chicken as the main protein sources, however the local people do love their food and make wonderful pastries, fried bananas and amazing curries. Vegetarians can be catered for with a good amount of variety with advance warning.