WEST KALIMANTAN
Palung -Mendawak Landscape
The Palung-Mendawak landscape is a vital ecological treasure, spanning four districts and integrating the Mendawak and Palung regions. This area is home to the 108,000 ha Gunung Palung National Park, a crucial sanctuary for around 2,500 orangutans. Adjacent to it is the 24,000 ha Gunung Tarak Protected Forest, sheltering up to 482 orangutans. While Mendawak boasts critical habitats, deep peatlands, tropical forests, and the largest mangrove expanse in West Kalimantan, it remains largely unprotected, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts.
The Palung-Mendawak landscape in West Kalimantan overlaps four districts: Kubu Raya, Kayong Utara, Ketapang, and Sanggau. Palung-Mendawak represents the integration of two recognised but ill-defined landscapes: Mendawak in the north and Palung in the south...
Multi-stakeholder engagement
Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum are unusual in Indonesia in being managed by one park office, a recognition of the interconnectedness of the landscape. However, despite its ecological importance, significant portions of the Bentarum corridor remain without formal protection. Its forests are increasingly fragmented....
Sangga Bumi supports innovative multi-stakeholder management
Sangga Bumi’s vision is for the Palung-Mendawak landscape to be actively managed under one comprehensive conservation plan, which brings together multiple public and private stakeholders, amplifies community voices in concession-dominated conservation planning, and advances innovative sustainable forest management and connectivity solutions across the landscape. We are achieving this vision through a multi-year project based around four key objectives:
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Implement a comprehensive landscape-level conservation strategy for Palung-Mendawak in collaboration with key public and private stakeholders. Through our Sangga Innovation programme, we are increasing transparency of the landscape’s land-use sectors through enhanced traceability, providing the mechanism for multi-stakeholder collaborations, and increasing the visibility of the landscape’s communities and community activities.
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Reduced deforestation on corporate concessions. By supporting the implementation of sustainable development frameworks and embedding concession development within local regulations enacted to conserve forests, we reduce environmentally damaging development practices and enhance forest health inside concessions.
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Improved sustainable forest management and enhanced community involvement in forest conservation through corporate-community collaborations. There are several areas throughout the landscape where village forests border forests inside corporate concessions. Through our Sangga Canopy approach, we align management strategies for forests under different land categories and facilitate the development of multi-stakeholder conservation agreements to enhance the viability and connectedness of forest areas.
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Increased uptake of regenerative agricultural techniques by the landscape’s farmers. Through our Sangga Farming programme, villagers throughout the landscape, operating in deep peat, mineral, swamps, and mangrove ecosystems, are adopting regenerative agricultural techniques for enhanced climate resilience and diversified economic opportunities.