Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas' Blog

Peat Swamp Forest, a forest type commonly found in Tanjung Puting

2006 was an Eli Nino year and there was an extensive drought that lasted for several months. Usually, the height of the dry season comes at mid to late August. In 2006 the drought lasted well into November. 15% of the National Park burned. However, some of the fires took place in secondary forests, small woodland and open areas. Thus, much of that 15% did not represent primary rainforest. Sadly, some virgin forest on the northeastern side of the park was burned by fires which spread from palm oil plantations that were being expanded at the time.

These fires were horrific. OFI fought them tooth and nail. Over 60 OFI staff and rangers from the Care Center and other OFI facilitates fought non-stop for over 6 weeks to stop these fires. On the western side of the park OFI staff, working with Park Rangers and concerned members of the community, cut a slash line 11 km long to prevent the fires from jumping to the dry ground forest above at a place where there was an escarpment separating the deep coastal swamps from the dry forest. This line succeeded in keeping the fire out of the dry ground forest. Once into the dry forest, the fire would have been unstoppable.

The coastal swamps are hellish. They are infused with brackish water, and smell of brine and decay from rotting vegetation. Thorns cover many of the plants. There is no place to put your feet. With every step you sink knee deep into the odious, foul smelling mud. But this coastal swamp is a repository of enormous biodiversity and probably holds species that are still unknown to science (because nobody wants to go there). The swamps are also home to clouds of biting mosquitoes that show no mercy.

Unfortunately, some large areas of the coastal swamps burned in 2006. The good news is that almost five years later there has been some recovery. A few resilient trees survived the fires, some with even a few branches intact. The roots of others survived and sent out shoots which re-incarnated the parent trees. Verdant vegetation now covers the ground. The ash and charcoal are not so much visible on the swamp floor.

In 2009 El Nino came again and the forests burned. OFI fought the fires. Fortunately, this time the damage to the Park was not as great as in 2006.

But the best news has been that during the last year and a half (since my last blog), the rains have been pummeling the forests so much that there barely was a dry season. The forest needs no relief from the rain! In May, sometimes the rain begins to let up as if anticipating the dry season that normally begins in June and July. We hold our breaths and hope that the rain will continue. So far in 2011 it has.

Rain is so important for the tropical rain forests of Borneo that I decided that, after over one year plus of blog inactivity, my first blog for 2011 will mention two phenomena that are very important for Borneo’s rain forests, one positive: the rain, the other negative:fire. It has been the rain that has kept the fires out of Tanjung Puting over the last one and a half years. Let the rain continue. My blog begins anew on that hopeful note.