Photo courtesy of Harapan Rainforest

Last year the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund helped Harapan Rainforest start a hornbill nestbox scheme. This provides additional nest sites for hornbills while the forest regenerates and more large trees suitable for nesting become available. Lack of nest holes due to loss of large trees is a major threat to hornbills in Sumatra. Over the last year, our tree climbers have mounted 20 boxes at the dizzying heights of 25-30m above the forest floor.
The good news for Harapan Rainforest’s hornbills (all nine of Sumatra's hornbill species are found in the forest) is that we have just secured funds from the Seaworld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund to continue and expand our nestbox programme for another year. This is a terrific opportunity to develop even more community involvement in this work. We will recruit indigenous forest-dwelling community members to locate active hornbill nest sites in the coming breeding season. This will help us identify exactly what makes a good hornbill nest tree and what we can do to help improve this, either with our nestbox design or, long term, with our forest restoration plans.