The Critically Endangered Helmeted Hornbill is the target of massive-scale poaching for the “ivory” in the brightly colored, bony casque adorning its head. The bird is being hunted to extinction across its range in Southeast Asia and, without protection, its very existence is in jeopardy.

An expanse of rainforest in the Indonesian territory of Borneo stands as a crucial stronghold for the Helmeted Hornbill and seven other hornbill species. The area is renowned for its largely pristine landscape of lowland rainforest, heath forests and peat swamps. With less than 20% of the forest in Indonesia designated as Conservation Forests, it is urgent that we safeguard this important hornbill habitat.

Rainforest Trust is working with our local partner, Yayasan Rekam Jejak Alam Nusantara, to support Indigenous communities to secure 54,000 acres as customary forest, a designation that legally recognizes their ownership and rights to manage and protect their traditional territories from illegal activity, including poaching.

Header photo: The Helmeted Hornbill, by Craig Ansibin

Save a Rare Bird from Annihilation

Helmeted Hornbills mate for life and can live for 40 to 50 years in the wild. When mature adults are taken, it can lead to death for the remaining mate and young offspring. Recent studies conducted in Indonesian Borneo estimate that the Helmeted Hornbill population has declined dramatically, and in some areas is locally extinct. The decline is primarily due to massive poaching on the island.

Sustainable management of the forests will help alleviate economic pressures in traditional villages that drive hunting and poaching of hornbills, giving the species a chance to recover in the area.

Fortify a Vast Transboundary Rainforest in Southeast Asia

Kapuas Hulu lies within the landscape of the 54-million-acre “Heart of Borneo” conservation agreement signed by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, which commits them to protect ecologically connected forest landscapes across an area the size of Scotland and England combined.

The 54,000 acres to be designated as customary forests will link largely intact Kapuas Hulu lands with a 2.3-million-acre corridor of lowland rainforest critical to the survival of threatened species like hornbills, orangutans and gibbons. An adjacent Rainforest Trust project is supporting the establishment of 179,000 acres of customary forests.

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