Week 1: Quarantine Week

Welcome to the jungle everyone!

As I looked over to Becki in the airport in Tawau I could just tell how excited she was about landing in Sandakan and finally starting our project. Luckily we didn't have to wait long and after a 45mins flight we arrived to be greeted by Ronn, our project supervisor. Her and Jon drove us back to the resthouse which is only 20mins from the airport. Ronn is a petite woman, who doesn't talk much, contrasting greatly to Jon who is bubbly and chatty. He informed us that during our first week he would be our tour guide, taking us to various temples and animal sanctuaries in the area.
We arrived at the resthouse to be greeted but our 10 other housemates. There is a good mixture of ages and nationalities - I'm the youngest at 21, with the oldest being 42. All girls except for one aussie guy who has joined his girlfriend for the 8 weeks. We have 4 Aussies,  2 Welsh, 2 Danish, 1 English,  1 Italian, 1 Polish and 1 Sri Lankan. Everyone was very lovely and I had high hopes that we wouldn't all want to kill each other by the end of the 2 months.
Becki and I are sharing a room with Tara (Sri Lankan). It's nice and spacious, we have air con, a bathroom and room to hang all our clothes up - something both Becki and I have been craving after living out our backpacks for 2 weeks.
We were given a briefing that evening about our 'quarantine week'. This week gives us a chance to see the sites, shake any jet lag and if any of us are carrying any bugs, symptoms would show in this time (we have to be very careful as the orang-utans can catch infections from us).
On Wednesday 21st Jon picked us up and took us around Sandakan. We started the tour at The Death March memorial. If you have read my previous posts you'll remember The Death March story. In Sandakan was where the concentration camps were located and we walked around the site, reading the stories of the survivors. Deeply moving. We carried on our tour to a water village. Water villages in Borneo are illegal settlements from immigrants from all around the archipelago e.g. Philippines and  Papua New Guinea. Jon explained that these settlements are growing in certain areas of Borneo due to corrupt politicians offering to turn a blind eye and not deport them, in order to guarantee their vote. According to Jon, many locals wish for them to leave mainly because of the pollution they cause. They throw anything and everything from plastic bottles and bags to fridges and food waste out their windows. I have to say it was very bad but I noticed it in KK and Semporna.
Post water village we visited a Chinese temple which was stunning! As I'm sure I've already mentioned there is a great mixture of different cultures here and the Chinese influence is strong. I asked Jon how the locals feel about them and he said in Sabah there is no racism, everyone is perfectly happy cohabiting, which I loved. We finished our tour with a nice spot of traditional English afternoon tea. At first the idea seemed a little odd but in the end it was all very delicious and the local Sabah tea is lovely.
On Thursday 22nd we piled into the car once more and Jon took us to the proboscis monkey sanctuary ~30mins away. If you have never seen a picture of one, Google now. They are the funniest looking monkeys and they make hilarious sounds! Unfortunately I have conflicting opinions on the work they carry out there. The monkeys obviously have a safe place to live, however they have become completely desensitised to people and have no quarms about posing for a selfie with the odd Chinese tourist..
On Saturday 24th we got given a tour and induction of the center and the work we would be doing for the next 7 weeks. We met Elis the boss who is always cracking jokes (most of which we dont really understand) but we all laugh along with him. We were split into our 3 groups which would rotate between trekking, working in the nursery and outdoor. I'm in a group with Lina and Camilla (Danish) and Alison (Welsh). Then we all waiting in excitement for Monday to arrive...

*Unfortunately we did get told that during working hours we are not allowed to take photos of anything. We also had to sign nondisclosure agreements meaning there are lots of parts of my work I can't talk about, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of what I do and update you on any interesting orang-utan news.*

                                                                S x

The Indonesian Haze

So I've been umming and arring about whether to write about this on my blog. As I've travelled around Southeast Asia I've heard about the fires in Indonesia and the haze, I've heard the odd opinion from locals but never got round to researching it myself. I know not everyone is as enthusiastic about the environment and animals as I am, but part of me feels responsible to keep you all updated on what's happening in my world, in a way that doesn't seem biased or pushy.
So when I finally arrived in Sepilok I sat down and did a bit of research. And what I found was that Indonesia is on fire. Not the usual story of a forest on fire because of someone not putting out their cigarette butt. 5,000km2 of fire. Intentionally lit by both farmers and companies.

A lot of my research kept leading me to the '1997 Southeast Asian Haze'. In short these were fires which occurred all across Kalimatan and Sumatra burning 45,000km2 of forest (equivalent of 9 million football pitches),  releasing sulfides,  nitrous oxides and ash into the surrounding environment. On the Pollution Standard Index this disaster ranked 800, with 200-300 being considered hazardous (equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes/day). 70 million people were affected (just over the population of France) throughout SE Asia and economic loss was estimated at $5-6 billion.

In the name of trying to remain as unbiased as possible I'll say it's common practice in Indonesia to preform 'slash&burn' in order to clear areas of the forest for agriculture. It is also legal to burn up to 2 hectares of your own land for agricultural purposes. However the fires out here in Indonesia began in August and since then over 270,000 fires have been lit. To me that seems a bit more than the odd farmer burning his 2ha..

So what's so different about these fires?
El Nino is a warm water current which controls temperature and rainfall in the Pacific ocean. It provides warm air for Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, known as the dry season. Apparently this year El Nino is particularly large, deep and more intense causing the warm period to be extended in this part of the world.
Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world. Companies have been draining the peatland for pulp and palm oil production. This leaves the soil dry and "whether accidental or deliberate, fires on drained and degraded peat can easily burn out of control, especially in periods of drought" (Greenpeace, 2015). One of the biggest problems is that much of the forest is located on this drained peatland. Peat is decayed vegetation, packed together which forms extremely efficient carbon sinks. It can be composed of different elements, including carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide (all greenhouse gases and toxic in high quantities). Peat also smoulders, meaning that once lit it can burn for months, years or even centuries, releasing it's stores of greenhouse gases. Greenpeace have said they do not blame these companies solely but that "they have created the conditions in which forest and peatland fires thrive".
The Indonesian government also has a lot to answer for. Due to corruption, government officials turn a blind eye to the illegal destruction caused by these big companies. They hand out permits to develop on forested or peatland areas without monitoring the actions of farmers or these companies, meaning action against those accountable is near impossible. On top of all of this, again according to Greenpeace, "the government is also blocking civil society and private sector efforts to ensure concession maps are placed in the public domain; this lack of transparency makes it harder to hold those responsible for forest and peatland fires to account".
I know what you're thinking "another classic case of third world corruption and greed..". This is true but what really made me want to write about these fires was the stats I found out. Compared to the 1997 fires, these have already caused $30 billion of damage, thousands of people and endangered species have been displaced and ranks at 2000 on the Pollution Standard Index. This is the equivalent of each person smoking 200 cigarettes/day just by stepping out their door. In three weeks of the fires burning they have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany. In some cities visibility is worse than 30m, schools have been closed and they have mobilised warships to evacuate people. Endangered species such as orang-utans, elephants,  tigers and many different insects and plants are at risk. Naturally as their habitat is being destroyed they wander into villages and farms in search of food, causing conflicts between them and humans.
These fires are considered by some as "The worst environmental disaster in the 21st century (yet)".
People can no longer work. Children are losing out on valuable education. Who knows how much fauna and flora has been affected. Tourism will be affected. Think of the economic loss. Think of the current & future medical problems people will suffer from smoking 200 cigarettes/day for the last 3 months (plus however long they continue for).
This is why I think we should care.
I don't want this post to seem all doom and gloom, I'm just trying to get across the severity of the situation. The Indonesian government has deployed 30 aircrafts and 22,000 troops to fight the fires. They do have evacuation plans in order just in case. Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Japan have all sent assistance. Conservationists are treating injured wildlife and moving them to safer areas. But environmentalists say more must be done if we are going to stop these fires for good.

As for solutions, I've researched a few ways in which you can help.
Sign this petition: Halt the Haze
Sign this petition: Foreign Ambassadors to Help Indonesia
Donate to: Orangutan Outreach Emergency Fire Fund

Whichever side you feel you support most whether that be the children, the emergency services or the wildlife, there is something you can do! A quick Google search will give you so many more ways in which you can help, as I have definitely not exhausted the list.

One final thing, during my searches for info I found this article with incredible before & after the haze photos, check them out!

And heres a quick 2min video explaining it all.

                                                                  S x

** I got my info from reading various articles, from different types of sources such as newspapers, NGOS and journals. I did try to remain as unbiased and informed as possible **