The Eco Camp is surrounded by forest that is home to diverse group of wildlife. We wake up every morning to the sounds of long-tailed macaques, proboscis monkeys, and gibbons. At night we are sometimes lucky enough to see a Malay civet or common palm civet sneaking around the dining hall. We are also frequently … Read more
One day dedicated to learn about Palm Oil industry from the perspective of local people in Sabah, Malaysia. Why is this interesting? My interest in the palm oil industry started due to the current news in Colombia, my home country, (currently fourth producer of Palm oil worldwide after Indonesia and Malaysia) to increase its production … Read more
Turtles, turtles everywhere! From my first day on Pom Pom Island I became enthralled by these majestic sea creatures. The sheer number of sea turtles on the reefs and nesting around this island is quite impressive. We saw several turtles on each dive. On my first dive, a young green turtle swam right up to David and … Read more
Approaching our last few nights at the Eco Camp, we had the honor of spending time with the beloved elder Arbu, native to the Sukau tribe of the Lower Kinabatangan River and on of the original members of the KOPEL Co-op. It was after dinner when when we gathered around Datuk Arbl to hear the … Read more
Janet told us that the pygmy elephants come to Tungog Lake on their migration path; this is one of the last stops they make before turning around and heading back to the mountains. The ecocamp sits between the Tungog Lake and the Kinabatanga River. The whole class was excited with the anticipation of the … Read more
Salvinia molesta is an aggressive aquatic fern invading almost all of the oxbow lakes along the Kinabatagan River floodplain. This fern is so invasive that it takes over entire lakes within weeks of arriving! We experienced this firsthand at Tungog Lake. A flood in 2001 brought Salvinia into the lake. I could not fully comprehend … Read more
Shelan is the team captain for the wildlife team. The team consisted of David, John, and Sarah. Our mission was to deploy three cameras in different areas of the rainforest. The targeted areas are within a restoration site in three different areas: a successful restoration, an unsuccessful restoration, and an untouched forest. The goals of … Read more
On June 22, 2016 the soil team went into the field to conduct data collection and sampling of soil for a study created by Flora, our team leader and manager. The team consisted of Gretchen, David, Flora, Shelan, Rick, Rosli, Ali and myself. We sampled on three sites: a reference site, a successful restored site … Read more
On the 10th day of University of San Francisco’s (USF) Tropical Restoration Ecology class, students, led by Team Leader Paula Pereira, worked with nursery manager, Norsalleh, to both experience and help with nursery operations. KOPEL’s Nursery Program houses over a thousand individuals of each plant species being propagated at the nursery in preparation for tree plantings at restoration … Read more
Water Quality Monitoring in Kinabatangan Watershed On June 3, 2016 (Day 3), Team Borneo met with Rosli to discuss the water quality monitoring KOPEL conducts. They began water quality monitoring in 2013 due to declining fish populations observed from the last 10 years. Just last year (2015), they witnessed two mass fish kills, one in … Read more