• ONCE UPON A TIME BORNEO •
As i explain in my introduce, i am Graphic designer / Artistic Director for 17 years.
Freelance for 10 years now.
How can I combine my job and my passion for the animal and the protection of nature?
And then I discovered that i can be Ecovolonteer! WHAT IS THAT?
It is somewhere humanitary but oriented not for human (even if preserving its ecosystem participates in the survival of our species), but belongs environment and endangered species.
Many sanctuaries, shelters, reserves, are always looking for volunteers. You have to know that it is generally under financial participation (not to plumb the little money they have in food, housing ... and also because your money will help them for care, food, communication ...) . So I contacted by mail my first sanctuary for animals in 2009. And everything started ...
BORNEO / 2009
I had the pleasure to meet a Biologist, who has a Scientific Research Center in the forest on the island of Borneo close to Sandankan Forest.
The idea was to see how biologists, students and researchers from all over the world come to complete their studies and participate in research programs (to study what animal population lives around, to collect precise data with GPS markers, to take pictures, ... in short make a general state of affairs to better protect the ecosystem thereafter).
These students stay quite a while here. The center is at 2 hours of pirogue of the first big city, Sandankan. They must have good health!
I arrived at night surrounded by crocodile that were dazzled by the beam of the projector of the boat (immediately in the mood!). There is no animal contact in this center, it is not welfare (direct care) but we were surrounded by orangutans, pygmy elephants, snakes, spiders, ...
I stayed there for 10 days, to observe especially, to participate also in the counting by GPS, to follow Night Walk (to hear night noises;)) to recover the trap cameras that had been placed during the day. I got to know an English student who studied the "sound" of the forest, to rub shoulders with a photographer of nature, to follow these scientific defenders passionate by their environment ...
A very rewarding experience. Here a short video :
After this dive in the middle of the forest, here I am back in Sandankan, a friendly little town where a lot of religion mixed. My next goal was to visit SEPILOK, the largest orangutan rehabilitation center in the world. You are surely aware of the problem that affects this area of the globe: palm oil. A cheap oil, used by our industries and devastating every year billions of hectares of forests, destroying the only habitat of an already fragile biodiversity. The area equivalent to 1 woodland football field is shaved for palm oil every 3 minutes or so in Kalimantan. The oil palm plantations were directly responsible for 57% of the deforestation between 2000 and 2010 in Kalimantan (15 949 km² - a region like Franche-Comté in France).
A tip look at the labels of your food (the Nutella is to be banished). Sorry :/
The movie "GREEN" by Patrick Rouxel (very nice productor), shows very sensitive this planetary mess! (See the video, do not hesitate to distribute it.) :
The link of the Scientific Center:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/danau-girang-field-centre
The link from SEPILOK Center:
https://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/about-us/sepilok-rehabilitation-centre
This First mission in ecovolonteer world was amazing. Next step: Elephant sanctuary in Thailand coming soon… Follow my blog!