Inside one of Southeast Asia’s most important wildlife sanctuaries
Of the world’s great apes, the Bornean Orangutan is the one most immediately at risk. Habitat loss, hunting, and the relentless advance of palm oil and acacia plantations have pushed this species to the edge. Today, roughly 100,000 remain, a number that continues to fall. In this context, the Katingan Mentaya Project area is not just important. It is critical.
Camera traps, line transects, and freshwater fish surveys conducted across the 149,800-hectare project zone have documented an extraordinary breadth of wildlife. During the most recent monitoring period (2020–2023), 49 threatened species were recorded, including 2 Critically Endangered, 19 Endangered, and 28 Vulnerable species. In total, 106 Rare, Threatened or Endangered (RTE) species have been detected since monitoring began, along with 46 species listed under CITES Appendix I or II, 62 nationally protected species, and 23 endemic to Borneo.
“Since the project’s inception, monitoring has recorded 109 threatened species, including the Bornean Orangutan and Sunda Pangolin within a recognised Key Biodiversity Area.”
Orangutan density within the project area has remained relatively stable — fluctuating between 1.23 and 1.95 individuals per km² across the monitoring period — in a landscape where populations elsewhere are in steep decline. The overlap in confidence intervals suggests the population is holding, weathering the pressures of a changing climate and a changing world.
But the orangutan is only the most iconic of the species sheltering here. Camera traps have caught the Sunda Clouded Leopard in the interior of peat swamp forests, one of Southeast Asia’s most elusive and threatened big cats. The Hairy-nosed Otter — the rarest otter in Asia — has been detected in multiple habitats. The Proboscis Monkey, endemic to Borneo and found nowhere else on Earth, patrols the riverbanks. The Flat-headed Cat, threatened by the destruction of the very wetlands the project is restoring, has been photographed in intact peat swamp forest.
A corridor of life
The project area does not exist in ecological isolation. It sits adjacent to Sebangau National Park, one of the largest protected peat swamp forests remaining. By maintaining the integrity of the Katingan Mentaya landscape, the project sustains a wildlife corridor between these areas — a passage for animals to move, breed, and maintain genetic diversity across a broader population.
In a fragmented landscape, connectivity is everything. A population of orangutans hemmed into a single patch of forest is a population in decline. A population that can move between protected areas is one with a fighting chance.
49 threatened species recorded (monitoring period)
106+ total RTE species detected since project inception
23 Borneo endemic species recorded
46 CITES Appendix I or II species detected
The project’s biodiversity monitoring programme continues to expand, with camera traps deployed across seven locations and new survey methodologies being introduced to capture a fuller picture of the ecosystem. Each survey is not just a scientific exercise — it is evidence that conservation works, that when habitat is protected and restored, life returns.
*All statistical information is based on the latest monitoring report covering the years 2020-2023
(Photos courtesy of RMU)
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