Our Strategy

We take a multi-layered, multi-disciplinary approach to achieving our goals. We combine exploration, research, media production and community projects to create data, raise awareness, build capacity,and develop innovative educational resources.

Explore

It’s easy to imagine that the entire world has been mapped already, and that there’s nothing left to discover. Well think again. The forest covered mountains of Borneo’s interior are almost completely unknown to science, and yet they're under threat.

Just reaching some of these places takes enormous effort and skill, while spending long enough there to properly research and document them can be a logisitical challenge of military proportions. That's why they remain unstudied, but as Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees recently put it, if we don't make the effort, "we are in danger of destroying the book of life before we've read it".

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Research

123 new species have been discovered in the Heart of Borneo Rainforest since the year 2007 alone. It is one of, if not the most biodiverse place on the planet, we know virtually nothing about it, and yet it is being cut down at an incredible rate. Research is not just about cataloguing what’s there before its gone, but about providing evidence for why a place should be protected.

By creating sound scientific data in areas where none currently exist, we are not only contributing to our understanding of the natural world and our relationship with it, but creating evidence to support the protection of these areas into the future.

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Empower

People and the environment are inextricably linked. Despite our technological developments, humanity is as dependent as ever on the environment, but now more than ever the future of the enviornment rests on our actions and decisions.

This relationship is clear in the remote communities of Borneo, where unsustainable practices can have immediate impacts on the people who rely on the forest for clean water, food and resources. So we are developing capacity building programs wIth the help and support of local people and NGOs in the remote areas where we work, to promote local empowerment, sustainable livlihoods, income diversification, skills training and education.

We also believe in young people, and so we provide opportunities for emerging researchers, conversationists and campaigners in Indonesia and abroad to gain experience in the field, and to develop their skills and understanding.

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Communicate

We love technology. Specifically we love communications technology such as the internet and satellite terminals. We can be sitting at under the stars at Camp Foyle, hundreds of miles away from the nearest telephone cable, listening to the cicadas buzzing away and happily squatting mosquitoes, whilst having a live video conference with a zoo in Berlin, a Museum in London, or a school in Hong Kong.

It’s all about interactivity and imagination. We aim to use this technology to bring the world with us on our expeditions, so that we’re not just telling you about it and showing you pictures and video, but are allowing you to experience it with us, by asking us questions and following us in ‘real time’.

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Collaborate

We believe that it is extremely important for charities and other groups to work together, so they aren’t repeating work that’s already been done, or stepping on each other’s toes too much.

That’s why we try really hard to bring other charities together to figure out what their common goals are, and how they can work with each other to reach them.

Engagement with local partners is central to this philosophy, and in order to encourage this type of collaboration we are instigating a major project to create a common space for every institution, department, individual and activity with an interest in Borneo to register and share information. We're calling it the Borneo Hub.

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Educate

This one’s really important. From teaching school children about sustainability, to informing consumers about palm oil, education is the key to helping people understand issues as complex as deforestation and climate change.

Understanding is the most important part of this, because it isn’t until you truly understand something that you can make an informed decision on your actions. Most people are aware of deforestation, but not fully conscious of the scale we are currently seeing, or the consequences. We aim to change that.

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Inspire

We don’t think awareness raising and education is enough however. Action is needed, whether it’s a parent choosing what they buy more carefully, an MP deciding to challenge his government to change a destructive policy, a business leader valuing environmental and public health over profit, or a young person choosing to devote her life to protecting the rainforests.

We try to inspire positive action through our work by portraying our message in an interesting, engaging, and challenging way.

More generally, we at the Heart of Borneo Project are doing what we love and think is important. We bring a ‘can do’ attitude to our work and our lives, and we want to inspire others to do the same.