The Labundo Bundo village team are 5 weeks in, and have planted out an amazing 5280 trees to date. They are past the halfway mark in getting all of the trees from their nursery planted, which is an exciting milestone and has only been possible because of all the donations coming in to support this project. The team are still in high spirits and would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has donated and made this possible! They report that the rains are starting to ease, making the work a bit quicker for them now that there is not so much mud to contend with. It is still raining daily in the forest but the showers are shorter and the rain a little lighter. This change signals that we only have a couple of months left to get the rest of the trees planted out, to give them optimal conditions to become established before we go into the dry season. Checking back on the saplings planted a few weeks ago, we can report that the majority are growing very well and only a very few have had to replaced, which we find very encouraging.

Some of the planting stories include wildlife encounters with a large snake, and also the rarely seen dwarf buffalo which is endemic to Sulawesi and known as an Anoa in these parts. This had the team running away for fear of it being aggressive, when in reality they had nothing to worry about. The Anoa was more afraid of them, quickly disappearing back into the forest. Anoa are an illegal hunting target, so they have a reputation for being aggressive, as are most animals when injured and caught in a snare. The team also came across a snare set to catch an Anoa, signalling the presence of illegal hunters in the reserve, and they reported back that they cut the snare and removed the pieces to prevent it being reset. Fresh areas of illegal logging activity were also discovered and these areas have been targeted for part of this replanting effort.

It seems that the covid pandemic is pushing an increasing number of people to take the risk of entering the reserve to exploit the natural resources within. The Forest Rangers are grappling with this issue and have warmly welcomed this planting project as it is helping to deter others from entering the area illegally, and of course to replenish the forest in the clearings where felling has taken place in the past. The Rangers claim to have noticed a reduction in illegal entry into the reserve area since the planting team have been active, so this is a very encouraging side effect of the project. One of the rangers accompanied the group in the planting effort for a day, while they showed him the new area of illegal logging discovered. A few days later a team of rangers, local police, and other government officials entered the forest and destroyed with chainsaws the 290 felled hardwood tree trunks that were awaiting extraction from the forest. The illegal loggers had paused in their activities, presumably due to the presence of the planting team so nobody was held accountable. This detect and destroy approach is hoped to deter future illegal loggers from investing the significant effort in felling trees in the reserve, for fear that their hard work will be in vain. The rangers invited the planting team to participate in this destroy activity, however the team decided to decline the offer. Their fear was that by participating they would create tension with surrounding villages where the illegal loggers are thought to have come from.

On a lighter note, many small businesses run by women in the village are feeling the benefits of the project, as there is a roaring trade in packed lunches. Team members noticed one lunchtime that La Edi has been drinking from a very old looking water bottle. He claims it is an old coca cola bottle that he has been reusing to carry his drinking water in for the last 10 years or more! Talk about taking the reduce, reuse, recycle principle to heart!