Ethical Expeditions: Making a sustainable difference

By Kyle Empringham
The Wehea Forest is about 38,000 hectares big and is located in the East Kutai region of Borneo. It is a biodiversity hotspot, representing 12% of the world’s mammal species, 16% of reptile and amphibian species, and 17% of bird species. The Wehea Dayak, a community group that lives within five small villages in the region, are aiming to preserve their cultural and ecological heritage. It becomes a troublesome goal, however, when 60% of the forest is clear-cut, and the rest could be completely gone within decades.

Dayak Women (c) Ethical Expeditions
In 2004, the Wehea Dayak declared the forest to be ‘protected land’ under their traditional law. However, this protection is not completely guaranteed, as the land’s legal status still declares the area as logging concession.
Ethical Expeditions, a non-profit group based out of Washington State, aims to assist the Wehea Dayak in preserving their heritage and sense of community. They’ve recently signed a 3-year memorandum with the Wehea Management Body, in order to build a program that will build and strengthen the physical and cultural links between the Wehea Dayak and  the forest, and assisting in conducting a biodiversity survey of this hotspot.

Along with ensuring the ecological sustainability of the area, comes the social responsibility of maintaining the culture of the Wehea Dayak. Ethical Expeditions is also creating an education centre, in order to create a forum for sharing traditional ecological knowledge, as well as an ethnobiological map for identifying significant natural and cultural resources for the Dayak.
The work that has been done by Ethical Expeditions already provides hope and faith in the future. They’ve documented some mammal species that haven’t been seen in decades, and are making new and exciting discoveries every year. One of their highlights includes finding the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), one of the least known cat species in the world. The conservation efforts of Ethical Expeditions aim to protect the necessary habitat for this leopard, as well as reducing human impacts that may compromise the cat’s survival.

The importance of this research, and its interdisciplinary approach, showcase what our future holds. As we learn more and more about the planet we live on, the more necessary it becomes to look at the world with all stakeholders taken into account. By preserving the biodiversity and the integrity of the social cultures entrenched in this region, we make the world a better place. For this reason, I’m happy to be a part of the future.
—
For more on Ethical Expeditions, please see their website.