Borneo and Sumatra Stories

  • Tapping into success

    August 26, 2024

    Amidst a sea of oil palm plantations and deforested land on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, lies one of the last strongholds for biodiversity here, a rain forest known as Thirty Hills. Within the Thirty Hills forest resides a company known as PT ABT, which is managing around 100,000 acres of this forest as an ecosystem restoration concession. In other words, this is a company working to drive profit from the conservation and restoration of the forest instead of from clearing it, all the while partnering with the local and Indigenous communities who live in or near the forest concession.

  • An iconic forest, protected and returning

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    Between 1985 and 2014, a wide swath of Sumatra’s forested land—called Bukit Tigapuluh or Thirty Hills—lost 32% of its forest cover because of deforestation.
    Orangutan hanging in tree
  • Investing in "Thirty Hills"

    October 27, 2020

    Thirty Hills is the last large block of intact, lowland forest still standing in central Sumatra. After five years of successful forest conservation, we celebrate five major wins within this critically important landscape.

    The Bukit Tigapuluh, or “Thirty Hills,” landscape is one of the last great stands of rain forest in the deforestation hotspot that is the Indonesian island of Sumatra
  • Common Ground

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2020
    Tawau, the east malaysian district where Christina Ak Lang grew up, is a tropical paradise.
    Aerial photo of palm field
  • Elephant collaring – protecting the giants of Sabah

    August 12, 2020

    The Elephant Conservation Unit of WWF-Malaysia uses collaring to learn more about the elephants in Sabah. The information they collect from these collars helps the conservationists better protect the elephants and develop strategies to reduce instances of human wildlife conflict. 

    Two elephants emerge from a palm oil plantation
  • Tropical pitcher plants are beautiful but deadly

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    Learn more about the carnivorous plants with a curious appetite.
    Nepenthes attenboroughii plant
  • Nine wins for tigers in the last nine years

    November 27, 2019

    Established in 2010 and dubbed Tx2, it is arguably the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to recover an endangered species. Today, the overall tiger population decline has begun to reverse, with better data and improved surveys indicating there are likely now close to 4,000 tigers roaming free across the range states.Here are the Tx2’s top nine achievements to date.

    Tiger
  • What's a boreal forest? And the three other types of forests around the world.

    March 21, 2019

    Forests cover one-third of the world’s land surface—more than 15.3 million square miles. Every forest is different, but some share common traits based on the local climate. In fact, every forest on the planet can fit into one of four categories.

    Healthy FSC Forest
  • WWF helps create a groundbreaking plan to save Sumatran rhinos

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2019
    Fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild in Borneo and Sumatra. Sumatran Rhino Rescue aims to find the remaining wild Sumatran rhinos and bring them to sanctuaries where they can breed.
    Sumatran rhino covered in mud
  • How sustainable honey helps a community and precious forest in Sumatra

    September 20, 2018
    The Talang Mamak have been harvesting honey and a host of other natural products from these forests, located in a region known as Thirty Hills, for generations. But they just began collaborating with a PT Alam Bukit 30 (ABT), a new business aiming to help them improve their production and profits--while also keeping the trees standing.
    Feri, a honey famer from Talang Mamek tribe in Thirty Hills, Sumatra
  • Orangutans in Sumatra learn to live in the wild

    At the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, orangutans are rehabilitated and released back into the wild. Rescued orangutans learn how to feed and fend for themselves in the lowland rainforests of central Sumatra—skills they never had the chance to pick up from their mothers.

    sumatran orangutan willy Neil Ever Osborne 3797
  • Legendary undercover investigators protect forests

    August 09, 2018

    The men in question can’t be named or pictured, because they’re undercover investigators for a deforestation watchdog group called Eyes on the Forest (EoF). And they’re routinely putting their safety on the line to protect Thirty Hills, one of the last great swaths of rainforest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

    EoF1 Neil Ever Osborne WW257110
  • Conservation on the move

    February 07, 2018

    Through games. a mobile library, and a series of lessons, WWF's Mobile Education Unit helps students learn how to protect forests and prevent conflict with elephants and tigers. 

    children gathered for mobile education unit in Sumatra
  • Looking out for orangutans in Sumatra

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2018
    Thanks to a groundbreaking agreement between a WWF-founded company and the residents of a rain forest village, Sumatran orangutan habitat is more secure than it was just a few years ago.
    orangutan spring2018
  • Protecting the elusive Sumatran rhino

    The Sumatran rhino is so rare and elusive that even the most senior of the rangers have never seen the animal in the wild. But just because you don’t see something doesn't mean it’s is not there.

    Sumatran rhino
  • New species of orangutan announced

    November 02, 2017

    A new great ape species—the Tapanuli orangutan—was officially announced by an international team of scientists today. With 800 or fewer individuals, the Tapanuli orangutan is the rarest of all great apes.

    Tapanuli orangutan
  • Borneo offers big adventure on a wild island

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2017
    Borneo has suffered some of the greatest habitat destruction on Earth, but there are still pristine wilderness areas like this one left. Its magical forests rarely disappoint.
    herd of elephants
  • Endangered species threatened by unsustainable palm oil production

    The world’s most popular vegetable oil—palm oil—is produced in tropical rain forests everywhere. While it can be produced sustainably, palm oil made with conventional production methods can lead to unchecked agricultural expansion that threatens forests and wildlife.

    orangutan
  • In Borneo's Forests, Impacts and Opportunities

    June 03, 2013

    WWF is working to reduce deforestation in Borneo through promoting Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of wood and paper products.

    Borneo orangutan