From the frontlines of conservation
GLOBIO Outreach Education Coordinator Maegan Leavendusky reflects on a recent field course in Borneo, exploring why effective primate conservation means protecting entire ecosystems.
By Maegan Leavendusky
Outreach Education Coordinator, GLOBIO
The rainforests of Borneo called me back once again.
I have just returned from my third visit to one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, and each time I leave with the same reminder: primate conservation is about so much more than primates.
Alongside another instructor and 17 graduate students from Miami University, I spent ten days in northern Borneo as part of a field course in primate conservation. Borneo, the world’s third-largest island, is home to one of the planet’s oldest tropical rainforests and an incredible diversity of wildlife, including 13 species of primates. It is also the only place on Earth where you can see the remarkable proboscis monkey in the wild.
Those ten days were about far more than studying primates.
They were spent planting trees, with the hope that one day they will be large enough to support orangutan nests. They were spent observing the resilience of orangutans surviving in fragmented forests. They were spent learning about palm oil production, its importance to local livelihoods, and the efforts being made to protect wildlife alongside agricultural landscapes.
They were spent tracking pangolins and other small mammals, identifying fungi, and exploring one of the world’s richest ecosystems. They were filled with singing, dancing, and learning from the Orang Sungai, the “river people,” whose culture and connection to the landscape have shaped this region for generations.
Most importantly, they were filled with conversations about intention, transparency, collaboration, and what meaningful conservation really looks like.
Above all, they were filled with hope.
Hope for the continued protection of the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan. Hope for the extraordinary diversity of life that shares these forests. And hope that, by working together, we can help safeguard one of the world’s most remarkable ecosystems.
One lesson stands out above all others.
Primate conservation is never a silo. It is a collective effort to protect entire ecosystems and the intricate web of life they support. We cannot conserve primates while overlooking the trees they depend on, the hornbills that disperse seeds, the crocodiles that inhabit the rivers, the elephants that shape the landscape, the communities who call these forests home, or the industries that influence their future.
To protect primates is to protect forests.
To protect forests is to protect everything that depends on them.
That is what holistic conservation looks like.
