Category: News

Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure Premier – Katie King, Assistant Director – SEARRP

The June 21^st 2019 screening of Dame Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure – which was held in support of SEARRP – proved to be a fantastic evening, one that we were incredibly excited to have been a part of. The journey began when Dame Judi and her ‘chap’, the conservationist David Mills, made the trip to Sabah, Malaysian Borneo earlier in the year to shoot this two-part series with Atlantic Productions and ITV. During their stay, Judi and David worked with a number of SEARRP scientists and staff (Eleanor Slade, Greg Asner, Jed Brodie, Tom Fayle, Chien Lee, Unding Jami and our Director Glen Reynolds) who showed her the wonderful, and sometimes weird, flora and fauna of the rainforest and outlined the science which SEARRP is supporting to protect these incredible forests. Judi and David were the perfect students; asking insightful questions, they were clearly enthralled by the forest and all the species they saw, from the iconic orang utan, to foot-long stick insects, hornbills and – of particular fascination to Judi – the dung beetles. The rainforests of Borneo have the highest canopy in the tropics – to which Judi and David can now attest having climbed one of its tallest trees!

It was with great anticipation that the SEARRP team travelled to London in late June for a public screening of the series, intended to help raise awareness and funding for our Programme.  The event was held at the historic Royal Geographical Society, a perfect venue for showcasing the importance of science, exploration and conservation. The event started with a drinks reception, after which the first episode in the series was shown. In the episode, which featured Danum Valley, Judi and David explored the connection between animals and their environment, and their personal experiences with these animals were truly special; from incredible mammals such as Orang-Utans, Sun Bears & Pygmy Elephants going about their daily lives in the forest, to the bizarre and secretive life of dung-beetles and other fascinating insects.  But there was also an important conservation message that was conveyed; during the helicopter flight into Danum Judi witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of land-use and climate change –  but also the majesty of its remaining pristine forests. It was this flight which initially captivated Judi and underscored to her the pressing need to conserving these beautiful, crucially important and yet fragile and desperately threatened habitats.

When the lights came back up there was a moment of silence in the auditorium; the audience seemed captivated and genuinely touched by sharing the experience of exploring the wilds of Borneo. And they were not alone; Judi wiped away tears before she and David, were welcomed to the stage for the scheduled Question and Answer portion of the evening. This is where their experience in Borneo, and the true impact that it had on them, really came to life. Together, with Anthony Geffen (the Executive Producer of the documentary and a SEARRP Trustee) and Glen, they explained the beauty and awe that they felt in the rainforests of Borneo, and their genuine commitment to their conservation. Judi was deeply impressed by the research that SEARRP facilitates and the commitment of its scientists and staff. To the delight of the audience, and particularly SEARRP, Judi announced that she and David were determined to remain engaged with our work – and had agreed to become ambassadors of SEARRP. It goes without saying that all of us – our staff, trustees and scientists – are absolutely thrilled to have their support and we are looking forward to working with Judi and David long into the future.

The SEARRP team at the premier of Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure at the Royal Geographical Society

Do not miss the opportunity to see Dame Juid Dench in the wilds of Borneo with SEARRP scientists showcasing the research being done through our programme that is addressing some of the major environmental issues of our time in the 2-part production of Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure.

Episode 1: 2nd of JULY 9.00PM ITV1

Episode 2: 9th of JULY 9.00PM ITV1

The Observer
Excellent

The Guardian 
Spectacular

Daily Telegraph
Eye popping

The Daily Mail
Epic 2-part adventure. Magical journey

The Express
Real life drama in Borneo – Dench proves to be a real eco-warrior

The Mirror
One of our greatest living actors on an extraordinary journey in Borneo

The Sunday Mail
Dame Judi even swings through the tress as a part of her magical adventure

The Sunday Times
Dench expresses enthusiasm, joy and awe that never draws any focus away from the wonder of nature

Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure

Executive Producer: Anthony Geffen
Producer & Director: Harvey Lilley
Assistant Producer: Rowan Sharp
Editing:Sally Yeadon, Stuart Davidson,
Sarjit Bains
Edit Producer:Will Benson
Director of Photography:Richard Ranken
Camera:Dominic Colchester, Donald Ng
Sound:Simon Forrester
Original Music: Ty Unwin
Production Manager:Samantha Tilyard
Production Co-Ordinator:Diane Davidson

Worker termites (Longipeditermes longipes) perform key ecological functions in tropical ecosystems, are strongly affected by variation in rainfall, and respond negatively to habitat disturbance.
Photo: Chien C. Lee (cover of Science 11 Jan 2019:Vol. 363, Issue 6423, pp. 174-177

A major new study, led jointly by the University of Liverpool and the Natural History Museum and published in Science, has discovered that termites mitigate against the effects of drought in tropical rain forests.

Researchers from both institutions undertook the first large-scale study to test the hypothesis that termites play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem processes in rainforests during periods of drought.

Termites play an important role in the ecosystem as decomposers and facilitate nutrient cycling, enhance soil moisture and affect nutrients. They are one of the few living creatures that can break down cellulose found in plant material.

Working in tropical rainforest in Malaysian Borneo, during and after the extreme El Nino drought of 2015 – 16, the research team compared sites with lots of termites with sites where termites had been experimentally removed using novel suppression methods.

They found that the sites with termites saw an increase in the abundance of termites during the drought period, with fewer termites in the non-drought period. The greater number of termites during the drought resulted in higher rates of leaf litter decomposition and nutrient heterogeneity, and increased soil moisture and seedling survival rates compared with the non-drought period.

Liverpool ecologist, Professor Kate Parr from the University’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “Whilst there has been some work exploring how severe drought affects plants in tropical rainforests, our study shows for the first time that having termites helps protect forest from the effects of drought. Termites might only be small but collectively their presence can help reduce the effects of climate change in tropical systems”.

Lead author, Dr Hannah Griffiths, also with the School of Environmental Sciences said:
“The results of our study are important because our study shows that intact biological communities can act as a kind of ecological insurance by keeping ecosystems functioning in times of environmental stress.”

Joint lead author, Louise Ashton from the Natural History Museum and University of Hong Kong said “Termites confer important ecosystem services, not only in pristine tropical rainforest, but in disturbed or even agricultural ecosystems, if termite abundance is reduced with disturbance, these habitats could be particularly sensitive to drought.”

Senior author, Dr Paul Eggleton from the Natural History Museum said “People are just realising how important invertebrates are ecologically, particularly social insects. Termites and ants may well be the ‘little things that rule the world’.”

Dr Glen Reynolds, SEARRP Director, said “It’s great to see such ground-breaking research being done as part of our programme – and particularly to see it published in Science. This work has important implications for the conservation and restoration of tropical forests – and indeed the sustainable management of agricultural plantations. Our team looks forward to working with Hannah, Louise, Kate and Paul to ensure that these findings achieve the maximum possible impact”

The paper `Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest’ is published in Science (11 Jan 2019:Vol. 363, Issue 6423, pp. 174-177).

The study was conducted in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of London.

To save the rainforest, we need to work with the palm oil industry. Photograph Jen Lucey

SEARRP’s Assistant Director of Knowledge Exchange Dr Jennifer Lucey has just published an interesting article in The Guardian about the importance of working with the Palm Oil Industry in order to further conservation objectives. The piece offers insight into the dilemma that scientists face when focusing on research that looks at real-world problems instead of pure, curiosity-driven science. Dr Lucey presents a compelling case for doing both, especially when addressing complex issues regarding sustainability despite the ever increasing human pressures on our planet. Click here to read the full article.

Dr Jennifer Lucey awarded a NERC Early Career Impact Award

We are delighted to announce that SEARRP Assistant Director for Knowledge Exchange, Dr Jen Lucey has been awarded the Early Career Award at the NERC Impact Awards 2018 for the impact of her research within the oil palm sector.
At a time when the environmental footprint of food production is of concern to many, Dr Lucey has dedicated her career to reducing the damaging effect that deforestation for commodities such as palm oil can have on biodiversity in the tropics.
This research has provided scientifically rigorous tools, being used by industry, farmers and regulators to determine the minimum forest patch sizes that need to set aside in agricultural land to preserve biodiversity. Working with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), her NERC-funded research underpins the ‘sustainable palm oil’ trademark, helping consumers make informed choices and setting industry standards adopted by many of the world’s largest producers, already applied across millions of hectares of land.
Dr Lucey said: “I’m really excited to have received this award. It feels great to know that all my work with the palm oil sector has been effective in creating international impact for my research.”
Dr Phil Heads, NERC Director of Research & Innovation, who represented NERC on the Impact Awards 2018 judging panel, said: “The early-career finalists this year have both dedicated their careers to stemming the tide of worldwide deforestation and biodiversity loss, and are helping to tackle this at the largest of scales. This was a very closely contested category, and Dr Lucey’s research was chosen as the winner in recognition of the large number of beneficiaries of her work, from NGOs to businesses, large and small, to individual consumers around the world. This research is also relevant to industries beyond palm oil, including pulp and paper.”
Dr Lucey received £10,ooo to further the impact of her research.
Read more about Dr Jennifer Lucey’s research in the Planet Earth article Protecting biodiversity in palm oil. First published on the NERC website here.

This is a gentle reminder that the closing date for the Capacity Building and TESSA training application is Friday, 24th of August 2018. For those who are interested to participate and apply for the training, application guidance notes as well as a downloadable application form is available on our website. Please carefully refer to the conditions of applicants and the guidance notes before filling in the application form.

Again we would like to thank everyone for their participation at the initial Capacity Building and TESSA Training Stakeholder Consultations which were held in Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur in May and June 2018, and if you have any other inquiries or would like an extension of time to submit the application form, please contact Melissa Payne via email melissa@searrp.org.

The kind residents of Kampung Sikalabaan, in Sabah’s Heart of Borneo region, showed us around their community forest and farmland for the day.

Business cards, Butterflies and Boats in Borneo:

Whilst everyone was sweltering under abnormally tropical temperatures in the UK during July, Dr Jenny Hodgson and I (Dr Lydia Cole) were enjoying a relatively temperate time in the Tropics. We spent the majority of the month in Malaysia and Indonesia, visiting the partners and landscapes that are involved in our NERC-funded project: Decision support for restoring ecological networks in rapidly developing, biodiverse countries. Ghana is the other country involved in the project, which we had the privilege to visit back in April (reported on here). This time, road trip around Southeast Asia!

Our travels started with a stop-off in Kuching, Sarawak, to attend the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation’s (ATBC) annual meeting, entitled Linking Natural History and the Conservation of Tomorrow’s Tropical Ecosystems. It was a fascinating five days, attended by a huge range of nationalities talking on a similarly wide variety of topics. Jenny presented on Condatis, and I on the long-term ecology of tropical peatlands (another passion). Many of our collaborators were also there presenting, including: Professor Jane Hill and Dr Sarah Scriven from the University of York, and Dr Jed Brodie and Dr Sara Williams from the University of Montana. And we made some useful contacts for the Condatis project, as my new collection of business cards testifies.

Jenny presenting the concepts of Condatis to the participants of our training workshop at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

Just hours after the closing ceremony of the conference had finished (and the after party was likely still in full swing!), we flew on to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. In order for us ecologists to understand the human-component of the forested landscapes in the region, we were extremely fortunate to be invited to visit several different communities with PACOS Trust (an inspiring charity supporting indigenous communities in Sabah). So the next morning, five of us, equipped with walking boots and mosquito nets, headed upstream, into the Heart of Borneo.

Travelling by boat to the village (kampung) of Sikalabaan, about two hours up-river from Kampung Salong, where the road ends.

We spent three nights in the “cultural house” of Kampung Sikalabaan, along with a dozen other men and boys who were visiting in order to attend training on how to fix boat motors, organised by PACOS. These communities rely on mechanised boats to travel between villages, to school, to obtain provisions and to generate an income; with replacement parts for engines being so expensive, it is important that people know how to fix them. PACOS offers training courses for members of indigenous communities across Sabah, on subjects ranging from how to plant chilli peppers, fix broken machinery, to how to make soap, with the aim of improving their capacity to sustain a low-impact livelihood in the often remote locations they occupy.

We spent one incredible day observing how members of Kampung Sikalabaan use their forest and its plethora of resources. Members of seven families led us patiently (we were significantly slower and less agile than them, despite the laden woven backpacks they were carrying!) through the jungle to their farms, laid out in forest clearings. Along the way, they stopped occasionally to harvest wild ginger or check on a small vegetable plot they’d established, apparently opportunistically, within their community land. Early afternoon, after walking upstream/in-stream for quite some time, we stopped for a spectacular picnic: out of their woven baskets, the women produced a feast for the twenty or so of us, with freshly boiled rice, freshly picked aubergine broth and then to top it off, they caught and we cooked freshly-netted fish from the flowing waters two feet away. Beats a Sainsbury’s sandwich.

The first river crossing. We didn’t realise there were about a dozen more to come. Each time it was so refreshing to wade through thigh-deep water; a welcome relief from the tropical humidity. Thankfully my camera avoided any refreshing dips though!

It was a privilege to see how this community so expertly uses their land, and how important it is for them to have access to the forest and its resources. With rural-urban migration and the designation of ‘communal lands’ providing opportunities for the expansion of oil palm into these areas, as well as pressures on resources and disturbance to ecosystems from logging, industrial agriculture and mining, these community-owned lands are being compromised. The Government’s goal of expanding strictly protected areas across more of its forested asset adds another dimension to the challenge of maintaining indigenous communities in these landscapes. But more discussion on this complex issue will have to wait for a future blog! We thank PACOS and SEARRP (Gordon, Angie and Agnes in particular) for organising this insightful opportunity.

Leaving the forest and returning to Kota Kinabalu was a bit of a shock, though the washing machine was welcomed! The next day we headed into the Forestry Complex at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) campus for two days of training. We had 20 participants attend from a range of backgrounds: in addition to UMS students and lecturers, people attended from the Departments of Agriculture, Irrigation and Drainage (JPS), Forestry (SFD) and Environment Protection (JPAS), from WWF-Malaysia and SEARRP. The first day was led by Dr Sarah Scriven and introduced participants to the R program and how to perform basic analysis and geospatial data processing. The second day, led by myself and Jenny, introduced the concept of Condatis, followed by an interactive session where we guided people through performing their own analyses using the new web version of the tool. (Butterflies (rama-rama in Malay) were used as the study organism; Jenny’s favourite!) Though we were a little optimistic as to how much material we wanted to cover in two days, it seemed to be a success: our participants provided positive and useful feedback that we used to improve and refine our training workshop the following week in Indonesia.

This post is about the 11 month NERC-funded Innovation Follow-on project: Decision support for restoring ecological networks in rapidly developing, biodiverse countries that is in collaboration with the project “Conservation Mapping for New Protected Areas” which is supported by the Rainforest Trust and is based on a strategic partnership between the Sabah Forestry Department, SEARRP, the Carnegie Institution for Science, PACOS Trust and BC Initiative. The R program and Condatis training is also conducted as part of the project “Conservation Mapping for New Protected Areas” in conjunction with the International Tropical Forestry Programme of the Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Click here for a link to the original blog post from Dr Lydia Cole.