Mission
History
Hutan is a grassroots wildlife research and conservation initiative established in 1998 in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Hutan’s work primarily focuses on one of the most biodiverse regions in Malaysia – the Kinabatangan floodplain, home to some of Borneo’s most iconic species such as the Bornean orangutan, pygmy elephant and proboscis monkey, and renowned internationally as a biodiversity hotspot.
However, historic timber exploitation has broken up the natural forests into small isolated fragments. Today small islands of protected areas are surrounded by an expansive sea of oil palm plantations. Orangutans and other wildlife are trapped inside isolated forest patches too small for them to survive and have no choice, when trying to move from one patch to the other, but to encroach on people’s lands. This creates increasing human-wildlife conflicts that seriously affect the livelihoods and safety of local communities and oil palm plantations and, at the same time, threaten the local wildlife populations of extinction.
Hutan thoroughly studies and monitors the Kinabatangan’s biodiversity to better understand anthropogenic impacts and inform environmental conservation planning and management. These findings also guide Hutan stakeholders’ engagement to build greater synergies and develop new approaches for sustainable livelihoods compatible with biodiversity conservation.
Partnership with WLT
