Peter R. Houlihan

Barito River Initiative for Nature Conservation and Communities (BRINCC)

 

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BRINCC is an independent scientific organization working to protect a remote rainforest ecosystem in Indonesian Borneo.  The Barito watershed in Central Kalimantan is one of the frontiers of rainforest conservation.  With much of the lowlands already destroyed, more and more pressure is being put on these highland regions, previously too remote to be financially viable. As such, logging and mining activity in the region is reaching an unprecedented level.  Most of the area is already divided into concessions for companies to conduct exploration, though industrial scale extraction is yet to occur.  In the next 5-10 years more and more  logging and mining roads will be built, huge areas of forest will be deforested and large scale industrial logging and mining will take place. The impact of this on the biodiversity and local communities will be enormous. Working with the local communities, BRINCC combines social research and participatory mapping with cutting edge biodiversity research to identify, map and protect areas of forest that are the most important for local people and wildlife. BRINCC's first expedition in 2011 surveyed three sites in the Upper Barito River watershed, and working with the communities of Tumbang Tujang and Tumbang Keramau. Peter led a follow-up expedition in 2014 to the remote rainforests of central Borneo.