Kalaweit has been fighting for the preservation of biodiversity in Indonesia since 1998. Instead of only rehabilitating wildlife confiscated by the authorities from the illegal market, or caught during deforestation, Kalaweit strives to secure habitat to protect animals while they are still in the forest. In Borneo and Sumatra, the organization rescues gibbons and other animals from wildlife trafficking, while creating private forest reserves to preserve the environment from palm oil production.

Kalaweit works in close partnership with local communities, landowners, and provincial and central governments to create protected areas and sanctuaries for wildlife. The organization also helps ensure that local populations have access to the land to carry out traditional activities, with the belief that a healthy forest is a forest with thriving wildlife and where people live in harmony.

Kalaweit’s Work in the Dulan Forest

The Dulan forest is located in Borneo’s Central Kalimantan region, Barito Utara District, Indonesia. It is a refuge for animals, particularly for a hundred orangutans escaping deforestation.

The extreme diversity of the forest makes it an ideal environment for the myriad of species that inhabit it: white-bearded gibbons, langurs, Malaysian sun bears, clouded leopards, proboscis monkeys, pigtail and crab-eating macaques, sambar deer, muntjacs, and many more.

The local community of Butong depends on the lake and the forest for its survival — but its livelihood has been put at risk because of emerging threats brought about by human activity and environmental damage.

How Age of Union Is Helping

In 2021, Age of Union joined forces with Kalaweit to secure 100 hectares of the Dulan forest on the island of Borneo, two years after Kalaweit spearheaded an initiative to cover the entire surface of 1,500 hectares. The project is meant to help protect the area from palm oil production and coal mining activities causing massive deforestation and threats to biodiversity.

• In 2019, Kalaweit spearheaded an initiative to protect an extraordinary forest full of life on the island of Borneo – called the Dulan forest – surrounded by palm oil plantations and mines and therefore imminently threatened.
• In October 2021, Kalaweit had already protected 650 hectares with the help of the local villagers. Age of Union joined forces to secure an extra 100 hectares.
• In October 2022, Age of Union accepted to safeguard the entire forest by deploying funds that would help expand the ranger program, construct water units to fight forest fires, build up an aircraft that will be utilized for a protection plan against wildfires, logging, and poaching, in addition to engaging in a reforestation program through aerial seedlings to improve the degraded forest.