The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

This project is intended to become the model in for-­‐profitnational park conservation. By acquiring land-­‐use rights forborder forests surrounding protected areas, project proponentscan create a self-­‐sustaining park system whereby commercialcarbon sales fund the management of physical and social bufferzones (Figure 1). This model can deliver economic benefits thatreach far beyond mere subsistence-­‐level income opportunitiesfor the constituent communities, while simultaneously casting aprotective net around Indonesia’s national parks, which housesome of the world’s highest stores of biodiversity.as are the local communities, the Regency, the Province,and the National Department of Forestry.Carbon sales fund a Reserve-­‐wide network of permanentguard posts, community-­‐based patrols, and a fire brigade,thereby creating a “physical buffer” to the Park.By engaging NGOs and local communities in theconservation process and by providing employmentopportunities, the InfiniteEARTH plan creates a “socialbuffer” to the park.In partnership with the Orangutan Foundation InternationalInfiniteEARTH’s primary objective is to form an alliance betweenconservation, community, and commerce to preserve HighConservation Value Forests that are also habitats for endangeredspecies. In keeping with that objective, InfiniteEARTH haspartnered with The Orangutan Foundation International and itsfounder, Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, for its Rimba Raya project inCentral Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). InfiniteEARTH willleverage OFI’s and Dr. Galdikas’ thirty-­‐seven year history of grass-­rootsforest and orangutan conservation in Central Kalimantan.Figure 1. The Rimba Raya physical and social buffer model.Through a revenue-­‐share program, the ManagementAuthority of the National Park is commercially subsidized,In 1971, Biruté Mary Galdikas, was chosen as one of the threefemale protégés of world famous anthropologist, Dr. LouisLeakey. Her mission was to go to Borneo to research the "lastarboreal great ape left on Earth", the endangered orangutan.Biruté Galdikas, along with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall wouldform the famed trio known as "Leakey's Angels“.From the abandoned forester's hut where she first landed, shehas built the world famous Camp Leakey Research Center andlater co-­‐founded the Orangutan Foundation International3