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Introduction
It's all about operating societal changes that will allow to maintain biodiversity and reach target developments that are set up by our species. is it possible? Is it a chimera? Only the future will tell us.... But I have only one certainty: we need to try harder.
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - present
Borneo Futures Initiative
Position
- Co-founder
Description
- Bring science to policy makers and the general public to ensure that Borneo’s landscapes are sustainably managed to deliver social and ecological justice through improved understanding of the linkages between ecological systems and human wellbeing.
Position
- Co-Director
September 1992 - July 1995
National Wildlife Research Center
Education
September 1988 - June 1989
Instititut tropical de Medecine Veterinaire
Field of study
September 1984 - June 1988
Publications
Publications (275)
The orangutan is the world's largest arboreal mammal, and images of the red ape moving through the tropical forest canopy symbolise its typical arboreal behaviour. Records of terrestrial behaviour are scarce and often associated with habitat disturbance. We conducted a large-scale species-level analysis of ground-based camera-trapping data to evalu...
The oil palm industry is blamed for the demise of iconic species such as the orang-utan
Pongo pygmaeus
in Borneo but production of, and demand for, this commodity continue to expand. Therefore, a better understanding of how the orang-utan is adapting to human-transformed environments is crucial for conserving the species. Results from a combination...
The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are a major hot-spot for biodiversity. They are home to the only two species of Asian great apes that survive today: the Sumatran orang-utan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus). However, huge tracks of natural forests are being degraded by extractive industries (mining, timber harvesting, etc...
Socioecology of gibbons and great apes https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/disease-health-and-ape-conservation/apes-overview/68E0D38E9DC88FE5B8AB5486AA55A204
Aim
We assess the potential long‐term viability of orangutan populations across Borneo, considering the effects of habitat loss, and various forms of population reduction, including hunting, retaliatory killings and capture and translocation.
Location
The study focused on the island of Borneo, a region that has experienced substantial deforestatio...
Information on tropical Asian vertebrates has traditionally been sparse, particularly when it comes to cryptic species inhabiting the dense forests of the region. Vertebrate populations are declining globally due to land‐use change and hunting, the latter frequently referred as “defaunation.” This is especially true in tropical Asia where there is...
The functional stability of ecosystems depends greatly on interspecific differences in responses to environmental perturbation. However, responses to perturbation are not necessarily invariant among populations of the same species, so intraspecific variation in responses might also contribute. Such inter-population response diversity has recently b...
Southeast Asia is home to 20% of the remaining tropical forests, yet it suffers from the highest rates of deforestation globally due to the expansion of agroindustrial and smallholder tree crop plantations, particularly oil palm plantations. This development has led to the decline of emblematic species such as orangutans, but also of critical funct...
Non-human great apes-chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans-are threatened by agricultural expansion, particularly from rice, cacao, cassava, maize, and oil palm cultivation. Agriculture replaces and fragments great ape habitats, bringing them closer to humans and often resulting in conflict. Though the impact of agriculture on great apes i...
Despite decades of conservation management, many orangutan populations are on the brink of extinction. This is primarily due to habitat loss and direct killings. A study from 2008/2009 suggested that killing was impacting orangutan populations at a rate sufficient to cause local extinctions. As an illegal and taboo behavior that is difficult to mea...
Translation of English article available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109744. Abstrak: Perburuan liar dan perdagangan ilegal mengancam kelangsungan hidup banyak spesies langka. Kami menilai pola spatiotemporal dalam pembunuhan ilegal, pencederaan, penangkapan, kepemilikan, dan penjualan orangutan, serta upaya
penegakan hukum, dan interv...
Wildlife poaching and illegal trade threaten the survival of many rare species. We assessed spatiotemporal patterns in illegal killing, injury, capture, possession, and sale of orangutans, as well as law enforcement efforts, and conservation interventions affecting Critically Endangered orangutans in Indonesia from 2007 to 2019 using data collected...
This paper analyses the policy changes occurring in the forest and palm oil sectors of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, through the lens of the transformational change concept. The aim is to first examine whether Sabah is transforming and, if so, to identify the determinants enabling or hindering the change. To determine if Sabah is transforming, we used t...
In the Kinabatangan floodplain, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, oil palm and settlements have reduced and fragmented lowland tropical forests, home to around 200 endangered Bornean elephants ( Elephas maximus borneensis ). In this region, elephants range within forests, oil palm and community areas. The degree to which elephants are using these areas rema...
Assessing where wildlife populations are at risk from future habitat loss is particularly important for land-use planning and avoiding biodiversity declines. Combining projections of future deforestation with species density information provides an improved way to anticipate such declines. Using the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo py...
Throughout the equatorial tropics, forest conversion to agriculture often fragments crucial primate habitat. In 30 years, 80% of the alluvial lowland forests along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, have been supplanted by oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations. Today, only about 20% of the former orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus morio)...
Conservation strategies are rarely systematically evaluated, which reduces transparency, hinders the cost-effective deployment of resources, and hides what works best in different contexts. Using data on the iconic and critically endangered orangutan (Pongo spp.), we developed a novel spatiotemporal framework for evaluating conservation investments...
Critically Endangered orangutans are translocated in several situations: reintroduced into historic range where no wild populations exist, released to reinforce existing wild populations, and wild-to-wild translocated to remove individuals from potentially risky situations. Translocated orangutans exposed to human diseases, including Coronavirus Di...
Context
Agricultural expansion is a leading cause of deforestation and habitat fragmentation globally. Policies that support biodiversity and facilitate species movement across farmland are therefore central to sustainability efforts and wildlife conservation in these human-modified landscapes.
Objectives
We investigated the conservation impact of...
Assessing where wildlife populations are at risk from future habitat loss is particularly important for land-use planning and avoiding biodiversity declines. Combining projections of future deforestation with species density information provides an improved way to anticipate such declines. Using the endemic and critically endangered Bornean orangut...
Eight species of hornbill occur in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Sabah. Hornbills are secondary cavity-nesting birds and one of the limiting factors to sustain their numbers is the availability of naturally-formed tree cavities. Past timber extraction has left behind highly degraded forest patches without large emergent trees that usua...
Historically, orangutans ( Pongo spp.) lived in large contiguous areas of intact rainforest. Today, they are also found in highly modified and fragmented landscapes dominated by oil palm or industrial timber plantations; a situation that calls for new conservation approaches. Here we report signs of orangutan presence in more than 120 small forest...
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has emerged as the leading sustainability certification system to tackle socioenvironmental issues associated with the oil palm industry. However, the effectiveness of certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in achieving its socioeconomic objectives remains uncertain. We evaluate the impact of...
Sabah, on the northeastern corner of Borneo, is concurrently Malaysia's largest producer of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and home to the endangered Bornean elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis; elephants). Concomitantly, Sabah has been experiencing increasing and unsustainable human-elephant conflicts (HECs), which have not been thoroughly investi...
Using data on the iconic orangutan (Pongo spp.), we developed a novel spatiotemporal framework for evaluating conservation investments. We show that around USD 1 billion was invested between 1999 and 2019 into orangutan conservation by governments, non-governmental organizations, companies and communities. Broken down by allocation to different con...
Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils and, in particular, palm oil, illustrates these competing demands and trade-offs. Palm oil accounts for ~40% of the current global annual demand for vegetable oil as food, ani...
Selama lebih dari 50 tahun, orangutan Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) yang Terancam Kritis telah diselamatkan dari pemburu liar atau penangkap, direhabilitasi, dan dilepaskan ke habitat alami. Orangutan liar juga dipindahkan-secara sengaja ditangkap dari petak-petak habitat dan situasi yang tidak aman dengan tujuan untuk melepaskan mereka kembali ke area y...
Orangutans (Pongo spp.) occur at low densities and therefore large areas are necessary to sustain viable metapopulations, defined here as sets of conspecific units of individuals linked by dispersal. Historically, orangutans lived in large contiguous areas of intact rainforest, but are now increasingly found in agricultural and other landscapes mod...
For more than 50 years, Critically Endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) have been rescued from poachers or captors, rehabilitated, and released into natural habitats. Wild orangutans are also translocated—intentionally captured from habitat patches and insecure situations for the purpose of releasing them into areas considered to be safer...
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has emerged as the world’s largest sustainability standard to tackle social and environmental issues associated with the oil palm industry. To date, however, the effectiveness of RSPO certification remains uncertain, especially for socio-economic objectives. Here we evaluate the impact of certification...
Populations of the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) are declining despite more than 10 years of conservation action plan implementation. Here we analyzed the impacts on species' population and habitat from orangutan conservation strategies implemented between 2007 and 2017. We also assessed data on investments into orangutan...
Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils in general, and palm oil in particular, is perhaps the most controversial illustration of these trade-offs. Global annual demand for vegetable oil for food, animal feed and fu...
https://www.acemap.info/paper/278415444.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Data-Portal-Query-on-Data-references-in-CSV-format%2C-Day-Kumar/a1ec6d8d87a79c2a7c32e58bae6737d5954333f1
Keywords:
Information retrieval; Computer science; data portal
This is the openly published DATASET relating to the Nature Communications article:
Runting, Rebecca, Ruslandi, Ruslandi, Griscom, Bronson, Struebig, Matthew J., Satar, Musnanda, Meijaard, Erik, Burivalova, Zuzuna, Cheyne, Susan M., Deere, Nicolas, Game, Edward, and others. (2019) Larger gains from improved management over sparing–sharing for trop...
https://www.acemap.info/paper/35892092
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Data-Portal-Query-on-Description-of-data-extract-1-Day-Kumar/6233458f652c7aeb221048bb5ff48392f2d685fc
For many threatened species, it is difficult to assess precisely for large areas the change in their abundances over time and the relative impacts of climate and anthropogenic land use. This is because surveys of such species are typically restricted to small geographic areas, are conducted during short time periods, and use different survey protoc...
Each year an estimated US$20–30 million is spent by government and non-government organisations in efforts to conserve the Bornean orangutan. However, recent population analysis reveals that these efforts have been unable to reduce species decline. A major aim of the Indonesian National Action Plan for orangutan conservation is to “improve in-situ...
Little is known about the nesting behaviour of the Helmeted Hornbill Rhinoplax vigil because it occurs in low numbers and nests are difficult
to locate. The nest cavity is usually high and hidden amidst thick foliage and the cavity’s opening is inclined upwards, making it hard to
see from the ground. A nesting pair of Helmeted Hornbills was observe...
The conversion of forest to agriculture continues to contribute to the loss and fragmentation of remaining orang-utan habitat. There are still few published estimates of orang-utan densities in these heavily modified agricultural areas to inform range-wide population assessments and conservation strategies. In addition, little is known about what l...
The Bornean orangutan is critically endangered and monitoring its population is needed to inform effective conservation management. In this paper, we present results of 2014–17 aerial nest surveys of the major orangutan populations in Sabah and compare them with baseline data produced during surveys conducted in 2002–03 using similar methods. Our r...
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals underscore the need for improved understanding of relationships between changes in landscapes, livelihoods, and social welfare, and how these relate to tackling poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. Such assessments are especially relevant in the context of oil palm agricultural expans...
We investigated the efficacy of a drone equipped with a thermal camera as a potential survey tool to detect wild Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and other tropical primates. Using the thermal camera we successfully detected 41 orangutans and a troop of proboscis monkeys, all of which were confirmed by ground observers. We discuss the potential...
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognizing the expansion of oil pal...
Palm oil producing countries regularly promote the positive impact of oil palm agriculture on poverty alleviation, despite limited evidence about the contribution of this crop on village well-being. Past evaluations that quantify the social impact of oil palm are dominated by localized studies, which complicate the detection of generalizable findin...
Designed as a new method to facilitate the reintroduction and post-release monitoring of orangutans and other apes, implanted radio-telemetry (IRT) was developed and first deployed in 2009. Since that time, it has been necessary to collate and review information on its uptake and general efficacy to inform its ongoing development and that of other...
The rise of palm oil as the world’s most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognising the expansion of oil pal...
Primary tropical forests are becoming increasingly disturbed and fragmented, making it critically important to understand the conservation value of degraded forests. Many populations of even the largest and most iconic species are now found outside of primary habitats, and the long-term survival of these and many other species depends on appropriat...
Tropical forests are globally significant for both biodiversity conservation and the production of economically valuable wood products. To deliver both simultaneously, two contrasting approaches have been suggested; one partitions forests (sparing), the other integrates both objectives in the same location (sharing). To date, the ‘sparing or sharin...
The Endangered proboscis monkey Nasalis larvatus is endemic to the island of Borneo. Habitat loss is a major threat to this species, and an understanding of long-term demographic trends is crucial for its conservation. We assessed the population trends and group sizes of proboscis monkeys over 10 years in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah,...
Five artificial nest boxes for hornbills were erected along the river in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Reserve, Malaysia in 2013. The nest boxes were built by a French non-government organization (i.e HUTAN/KOCP) and two zoos from United Kingdom and France (i.e. Chester Zoo and Beauval Zoo). After the artificial nest boxes were erected in the for...
A recent report, published by the Government of Indonesia with support from the Food and Agricultural Organization and Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative, states that orangutan populations (Pongo spp.) have increased by more than 10% in Indonesia from 2015 to 2017, exceeding the government target of an annual 2% population increas...
Report on the Status of Great Apes to the CITES Standing Committee by United Nations Environment Programme Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)