A conservation experiment unfolding in Borneo is offering an intriguing glimpse of what can happen when protecting wildlife also helps people make a living.
In Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, residents in the Kapuas Hulu district are being paid to document sightings of animals like hornbills, gibbons, and orangutans through a program known as KehatiKu.
As Mongabay reported, the initiative is built around rewarding community members for finding wildlife alive, making forests more valuable when they remain standing and full of animals than when they are depleted by hunting or habitat loss.
That change in incentives could have meaningful implications for both biodiversity and the people who live closest to it. When communities see clear benefits from keeping wildlife safe, the incentives begin to align in ways that can strengthen forest protection over the long term.
Participants use an app to upload photos, audio, or video of animals they encounter in and around the forest.
Each verified sighting earns a payment, with rarer species commanding higher rewards. A common bird may earn just a few thousand rupiah, while a photographed orangutan can bring in 100,000 rupiah, or close to $6.
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Even in its first year, the program has attracted more than 800 people in nine villages. Together, they are logging about 300 to 400 wildlife observations each day, generating a substantial flow of biodiversity data across a 200,000-hectare area, or nearly 500,000 acres.
This kind of information is highly valuable for conservationists, who often face major challenges when trying to monitor wildlife across large landscapes.
In some communities, residents have reportedly begun discouraging hunting and trapping. In others, the income has become meaningful enough to compete with typical local wages.
Erik Meijaard of Borneo Futures, which organizes the project, said the program costs less than $1 per hectare per year. By conservation standards, that is relatively inexpensive for an approach that is both producing data and encouraging local stewardship.
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For the environment, it could help keep more species in the landscape while reinforcing the case for preserving intact forests, a benefit that extends far beyond the region through cleaner air, stronger ecosystems, and climate protection.
More broadly, it serves as a reminder that some of the most effective conservation and climate solutions may come from empowering the people already living closest to the challenge.
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