Deep in Malaysian Borneo's Kinabatangan UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, rope bridges now hang between forest fragments — and drone cameras have caught orangutans using them. A project led by Hutan, with Chester Zoo and Ferrero, is quietly stitching a broken landscape back together.
A Forest in Pieces
The Kinabatangan floodplain in Malaysian Borneo is one of South-East Asia's most biodiverse corridors — home to pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, and the critically endangered Bornean orangutan. It is also one of the most fragmented. Decades of palm oil expansion have left the forest in disconnected patches, separated by agricultural land that orangutans will not cross on the ground.
When forest fragments are cut off from each other, animals cannot move to find food, mates, or shelter. Populations trapped in small patches gradually weaken and disappear.
The Bridge Builders
The conservation organisation Hutan, working with Chester Zoo and Ferrero, set out to stitch the landscape back together. Wildlife corridors — strips of replanted native forest connecting isolated patches — were established along the river's edge. Rope bridges were strung between trees at canopy height, offering arboreal animals a way across the gaps.
Then the team deployed hi-tech drones equipped with cameras and sound-recording equipment to survey how wildlife was actually using the new infrastructure.
>> "We've discovered orangutans and other species using wildlife corridors and rope bridges to move between areas of protected forest."
The Footage That Proved It
The drone surveys confirmed what the team had hoped: orangutans and other species are crossing. Animals that had been isolated in forest fragments were now moving — a sign that the ecological connections are real and functional.
The data gathered will guide further protection and restoration work across this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, while also helping to develop more sustainable agriculture in the buffer zones nearby.
For a species that has lost over 80% of its habitat in the last 20 years, every crossing counts.