Yesterday was a long day of traveling and checking out a couple of conservation sites along the way. We stayed in a hotel in Balikpapan (in the state/province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo) Sunday night after arriving by air from Jakarta (on the island of Java). It was a quick flight on Garuda Indonesia, the leading airline in Indonesia. Because Indonesia is made up of many islands, it is common to either fly or take ferries to get between cities on different islands, and ferries are pretty slow!
After loading up in the bus provided by our University of Muluwarman colleagues, Pak Rudi and Pak Irawan (Pak is a respectful way to address men in Indonesian, Ibu is the equivalent for women), we drove to Kawasan Wisata Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup (KWPLH), outside of Balikpapan. This is an educational facility that houses rehabilitated sun bears. The bears are rescued from poachers and the illegal pet trade, where they endured inhumane conditions, and sometimes permanent injuries. This facility is a great model of a well designed center for conservation education, it was a pleasure to visit and the bears are very well cared for. KWPLH Website
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| Welcome to the Sun Bear Conservation Education Center |
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| Heavily forested sun bear enclosure on the left |
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| Lush tropical trees and plants throughout the Center |
KWPLH has about 9.5 hectares of space, with a main bear enclosure that is about 1.3 hectares. The enclosure is essentially natural growth forest, with some added amenities including a holding building for the 5 bears that inhabit it. Visitors can observe the bears from a boardwalk along the outside. KWPLH staff make sure visitors do not bring food or water on the boardwalk, which could draw the bears away from their more natural foraging, and are careful to educate visitors to be quiet since the bears are shy. Caecilia guided us on our tour, and she expertly answered many many questions from our group. Much thanks to Caecilia for hosting us so enthusiastically!
We saw 4 of the bears on our visit, and it was a blast to watch them in the heavily forested area pulling on branches to get fruit, climbing, and digging for bugs. The bears get supplemental fruit and bugs in their diet since in the wild, it takes much more than 1.3 hectares to naturally provide enough bugs and fruit to feed each bear. The center also had a very impressive educational area with many graphics about every imaginable sun bear topic - what they eat in the forest, what threatens their survival (deforestation for agriculture and mining, poaching), what it's like to grow up as a sun bear, the tools we use to research how they live in the wild, and many more. There were also graphics about all of the other species of bears, including our North American species - brown bears, black bears, and polar bears. Caecilia is planning to visit the US soon, she is determined to see grizzlies!
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| The sun bear is the mascot for Balikpapan |
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| Bear climbing a tree to get to some fruit Some of the great graphics at the Sun Bear Education Center: |
After KWPLH , we also stopped at a research forest managed by the University of Muluwarman. This small section of forest is used to study plant succession, reforestation rates, and propagation of the important types of trees in the forest for reforestation.
Our group split up after that, and I continued with 4 others on a 3 hour drive to Bontang for an Ecotourism Workshop that started today. The road trip was an adventure in itself - Indonesian roads, traffic, and driving are pretty wild, not for the faint of heart! Let's just say the "lanes" are a bit fluid, there are mopeds and motorcycles sneaking in and out constantly, and passing is frequent and bold.
I really wish I had video of the drive to Bontang - but that might actually be too scary to post anyway...
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