A recent trip down the Kapas River through the centre of Harapan Rainforest gave me fantastic views of the wild bee colonies hanging below the branches of the tall trees towering above the forest canopy. One tree may have dozens of combs. Being so high up, the combs are protected from most of the predators who would like to get to the honey and bee larvae. But some creatures specialise in feeding off these colonies…

With no systematic surveys to date, adding a new butterfly to the Harapan Rainforest list is easy. But imagine my surprise when, after sending photographs for identification to a colleague at the RSPB (Martin Davies - who is compiling a list from published sources of ‘potential’ butterflies at Harapan Rainforest ) one of them would seem to be a new species for Sumatra!

I photographed several Tawny Costas…

At 9 o'clock yesterday morning, Harapan Rainforest was struck by a strong earthquake, measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale. It followed just hours after another strong quake caused devastation in the city of Padang, about 400km to the northwest, where more than 1,000 lives have already been lost.Fortunately, there has only been minor damage at Harapan Rainforest, and project activities are continuing as normal. However…

In an earlier post, we mentioned the visit to Harapan Rainforest by Tony Whitten - senior biodiversity specialist at the World Bank. 

As well as his brief clip of a passing sun bear, Tony caught on film the evocative 'great call' of the agile gibbon, which is a duet, with the female accompanied by the male. He also got shots of the family of four swinging their way through the tree canopy with ease. So sit back…

An unusually long and hot dry season is currently challenging the Harapan Rainforest team. Logged forest quickly dries out and becomes prone to fire.

Our long-term strategy is to restore the forest as quickly as possible - to re-establish the forest canopy, creating a cool and moist microclimate that is less susceptible to burning. This will take some time, though work has already started, and we are already seeing good…

Harapan Rainforest staff and local community members celebrated Indonesian Independence Day together on August 17th.

After raising the national flag, singing the national anthem and reading of the declaration of independence, the fun began. Bathin Sembilan children enjoyed a number of games, including an uproarious race to eat krupuk (large prawn crackers) hanging by strings – no hands allowed! No matter who was fastest…

I'm just coming to the end of a three-month stint providing management support to the Harapan Rainforest site management team. When I used to work on RSPB reserves in the UK, I'd wake up to the dawn chorus of bird song but here in the forest, the birds are outcompeted by the agile gibbons that are regularly found around camp. Sounding like demented Clangers, the females start calling just before it gets light and…

We're delighted to increase our healthcare capacity at Harapan Rainforest with the appointment of Poppy as our nurse and healthcare worker. With nearly a two-hour round trip to the nearest basic government clinic, and three hours to the nearest hospital, it is important that we are able to at least handle the minor illnesses and injuries of the Harapan Rainforest team here on site. We also need to make sure that disease…

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…

It is very important for us to know how Harapan Rainforest is regenerating. To do that we need to know what it is like now. I’ve been running the inventory teams that have just finished the first phase of that work, covering just over half of Harapan Rainforest. It was a marathon effort, with 374 plots measured, taking nearly a year with six teams of eight people involved full-time. In each plot they recorded information…

We are currently celebrating the achievements of Harapan Rainforest’s mobile school. Twenty-one children between seven and 13 from the indigenous Bathin Sembilan community currently attend the school. They learn literacy and numeracy skills, and are introduced to ideas related to nature conservation. The school is popular with the government’s education department, which is currently validating it so that the pupils…

I was thrilled when, whilst walking a regular mammal survey transect line, rustling in some undergrowth turned out to be an adult female Malayan sun bear.

I was even more excited when a few moments later, the bear’s young cub came sliding down a nearby macaranga tree, pausing long enough for me to get some great photos before joining his mother and disappearing into the forest. Formerly widespread across much of Asia…

Today I was privileged to watch as some of Harapan Rainforest's Bathin Sembilan indigenous community processed the first three tonnes of rattan harvested from Harapan Rainforest. The community is hoping to earn 5-6,000 rupiah (30-40p) per kilo of rattan sold into the commercial market.

Rattan is the stems of a climbing palm and will be familiar to people in the West as the material used in ‘cane’ furniture. I was…