Two Borneo villages have banned hunting since a Brunei-based company began paying for verified wildlife photos, proving citizen science conservation can run for under US$1 per hectare a year.
Borneo villagers use their phones to run citizen science conservation that is changing how wildlife is counted. In nine villages in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, people earn cash for photos of birds, monkeys, and orangutans. The program, called KehatiKu, turns everyday sightings into data that scientists can use.
For some families, the money matters. Octavius, a 50-year-old farmer, earned about 4 million rupiah, nearly US$230, in a single month. He says the extra income helps pay for his children’s college.
Borneo Futures, a nature technology company founded in 2015, designed the program. The firm is based in Brunei, and biologist Erik Meijaard serves as its managing director. A team of Bruneian university graduates checks every submission before anyone is paid.
The model grew out of frustration with past results. A 2022 study in Current Biology found nearly US$1 billion went to orangutan conservation from 2000 to 2019. Over the same period, about 100,000 orangutans were lost.
Meijaard argues that conservation needs faster, cheaper feedback on what works. One-off surveys give only a snapshot. Steady monitoring by local people can show how wildlife changes from month to month.
Participants download the free KehatiKu app and upload photos, videos, or sound recordings of wildlife. The program pays for 73 species, including birds, monkeys, wild cats, and deer. Rarer animals earn more.
A common bird earns about 5,000 rupiah, or roughly 30 US cents. An orangutan sighting earns up to 130,000 rupiah, about US$8. Each animal counts only once per day, and payments arrive in cash every month.
The program covers about 200,000 hectares in Kapuas Hulu district, an area larger than New York City. More than 800 people have signed up as observers. Most are small-scale farmers who grow rice, cacao, and durian.
Since its launch about two years ago, observers have submitted more than 350,000 records. About half have passed checks and been paid. Others were rejected as duplicates or as species not on the list.
More than 350,000 wildlife records have been submitted, turning local observations into valuable conservation data. Photo courtesy of Borneo Futures.
Top earners can make up to 10 million rupiah a month. A typical local job pays 2 to 3 million rupiah. For many families, wildlife watching now adds a steady side income without taking time away from farming.
The money also shifts who holds power at home. Antonia Uneng, a part-time nursing assistant, says the project has made her financially independent. Her husband works abroad, and she no longer relies on him for every expense.
Attitudes toward wildlife are changing too. Two participating villages have voluntarily banned hunting and trapping. Some villagers who once saw wild boar and deer as crop pests now want to protect them.
Nardiyono, who directs Borneo Futures Indonesia, puts the logic simply. A photographed bird earns more over time than one sold or eaten. The bird also stays in the forest to breed.
This is what makes Borneo villagers’ citizen science conservation useful to scientists. Borneo Futures uses occupancy models, which estimate how much of an area a species uses. These models account for animals that observers miss.
Officials already use the results. Borneo Futures shared gibbon data with the Indonesian government for a national gibbon workshop. With community consent, it also plans to add records to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an open international database.
Cost is another advantage. Meijaard says the program delivers results for less than US$1 per hectare per year. That is a small fraction of what many traditional surveys cost.
Borneo Futures’ citizen science conservation also reaches oil palm plantations. On estates run by Indonesian palm oil company Austindo Nusantara Jaya, workers record wildlife during their daily tasks. A 2025 study found the data produced reliable occupancy estimates, despite its messiness.
Orangutans and gibbons were much more common near large forest patches. Water monitor lizards turned up almost everywhere. Some workers now use fixed species lists and a phone app that logs each sighting’s location.
Philanthropic foundations have provided about US$300,000 so far. Roughly half paid for the app and an artificial intelligence system that helps verify photos. Funding is secured through 2028, and two more villages are set to join soon.
Outside experts are watching the citizen science conservation model Borneo villages have adopted. Paul Ferraro of Johns Hopkins University says the model likely outperforms top-down conservation. He warns, though, that people may drift back to old habits if payments stay low or enthusiasm fades.
Meijaard hopes the approach could expand across Indonesia within a few years. That depends on long-term results and government support. If the numbers hold, communities built around citizen science conservation in Borneo could be copied in tropical forests worldwide.
