The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

further losses. Protection of non-­‐forest wetland areas, if present,will also be required, but since the project aims to protect allremaining natural habitat, especially by preventing conversion tooil palm, wetland protection seems likely to be achieved by theproject.Additional environmental outreach and education activities,planned as part of a broader livelihoods and communityengagement program, will also serve to reduce hunting andtrapping pressures on bird populations, which as noted alreadyappear to be low. If these project activities are successfullyimplemented, net project impacts on HCV 1.3 bird populationswill be positive.Mammals. Fifty-­‐five HCV 1.3 mammal species are potentiallypresent in the Project Zone (see Table 10). Of these, eight arelisted by IUCN as Endangered and 21 as Vulnerable, six are listedby CITES in Annex I and 18 in Annex II, a total of 24 species areprotected by the Government of Indonesia, and 15 species areendemic to Borneo.As with birds, many HCV 1.3 mammals are dependent on naturalforest habitats. Thirty-­‐four HCV 1.3 mammals in the Project Zoneare dependent on forest, and seven of these rely exclusively onprimary forest. While the remaining 21 species use forest, theyare also known to use non-­‐forested areas (e.g. ladang agriculture,scrub, short secondary forest regrowth), usually when such areasare in close proximity to forests. Only the orangutan andpangolin are known to enter and use gardens and plantations ona regular basis when food is available.The major threat to HCV 1.3 mammals is habitat loss anddegradation, especially intact lowland dipterocarp and peatswamp habitats. As with other parts of Kalimantan, mammalcapture for local consumption may be a further threat to HCV 1.3mammals, but preliminary data collected during field visits tovillages in the Project Zone indicate a very low frequency ofhunting, due in part to the fact that most communities areMuslim and therefore may consume a small number of mammalspecies. Project conservation measures to protect all remainingnatural habitat and to restore targeted riparian and floodplainbuffer zones in the Project Area will address the most importantthreat to HCV 1.3 mammals by securing remaining habitat andpreventing further losses. Additional environmental outreachand education activities, planned as part of a broader livelihoodsand community empowerment program, will serve to reducepotential hunting pressure further, which as noted alreadyappears to be low. Together, these project activities will serve tomaintain or enhance HCV 1.3 mammals.Project benefits for orangutans deserve special mention. Muchof the land in the Project Area remains undeveloped, providingan estimated 44,000 ha of additional forest contiguous with TPNPto the west of the Project Area (OFI 2008). This represents 14%of forest in the region of TPNP and adjacent areas, providingsignificant habitat for orangutans and other wildlife. A recentstudy on orangutans in TPNP and its buffer, including portions ofthe Project Area, found resident orangutan populations averaging1.9 orangutans per square kilometer (Galdikas et al. unpublishedreport, cited in OFI 2008). More recent field surveys by OFIconfirmed similar orangutan densities in the Project Area as awhole and showed that individual orangutan home ranges crossthe park boundary into the Project Area. This demonstratesoccurrence of one or more inter-­‐connected orangutanpopulation(s) in TPNP and the Project Area.258