Last year, Planet Indonesia helped organise a Forum in Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia, prior to the International Congress on Conservation Biology (ICCB). At the two-day Forum, 22 scholars and practitioners from around the world exchanged insights and experiences on the important topic of “Advancing Customary Tenurial Rights in Area-based Conservation”. This blogpost outlines some background and highlights from our discussion.
Read MoreMangrove and peat swamp forests make up over half of the area of the West Bornean coastal village Mengkalang Jambu. This adds up to less than 3,000 ha, yet community-led SMART patrols record the majority of the proboscis monkey encounters across Kubu Raya district here. Over the past five years, four SMART patrol teams in the district travelled a total of 5,118 km, the equivalent of the distance between Dublin and New York. In the past, these monkeys were seen as pests in certain areas, but with numbers plummeting every year, they became a symbol of pride and diversity in the region.
Read MoreOn a quiet shoreline in the Karimata Islands, turtle tracks crisscross the sand, some real, others carefully crafted by the hands of local monitors. These hand-drawn decoys, made to mislead poachers, reveal something deeper than surface-level conservation. They tell a story of a community that no longer watches from the sidelines but instead leads the effort to protect its land and sea.
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