Cabang Panti Research Station, Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia lives again!
In 2007, Dr. Andrew Marshall of University of California, Davis and John Harting returned to Cabang Panti after several years of abandonment to rebuild this important ecological research site. Funds from UC Davis Anthropology Department were used to tear down and rebuild new facilities and also restart monitoring of long-term phenology and vertebrate populations across the site. Much of the initial set-up at this site was done in the mid-1980′s by a team of researchers including Dr. Cannon, who continues to be interested in the on-going analysis of the unique dataset accumulated over 20+ years.
Primary construction of facilities was completed in late 2007. The new buildings and staff are fully capable of supporting research activities for both long- and short-term projects.
Primary construction finished in late November
As this page is being written, at least two long-term research projects are being conducted at the site–Dr. Marshall’s project concerning the effects of temporal and spatial variation in forest productivity on populations of two primate species, and Dr. Cheryl Knott‘s project on orangutan behavior and ecology. Dr. Knott also directs a conservation program, Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, located near the park. A former researcher at the site, Dr. Kinari Webb, has recently started an innovative community health/conservation clinic, Health in Harmony, for people in the vicinity of the park. The future of research and community conservation at Gunung Palung is once again promising a wealth of opportunities…check it out!
