We are delighted to introduce the five trustees of the Trust who will support, advise and lead the direction of the charity and the best ways to support the on-going work of the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project in Indonesia. Please read on to find out about the accomplished and dedicated individuals who are giving up their time to help.

Dr Susan Page: is Head of Department, Department of Geography, University of Leicester. Her research addresses land use and management in the humid tropics, with a focus on tropical peatland ecosystems, and she was instrumental, along with other UK and Indonesian partners, in establishing the Natural Laboratory for the study of peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan.  She has been a partner in several multinational research programmes focusing on ecology, wise use and restoration of tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia and their sustainable management. More recently she has collaborated with on ecological description of S. American peatlands (with University of Turku) and is currently co-supervising a PhD student investigating the little-known peatlands of the Congo Basin in Africa (with University of Leeds). Under the EU-funded STRAPEAT and RESTORPEAT programmes she quantified the role played by tropical peatlands in the global carbon cycle, both in terms of long-term carbon storage and contemporary emissions from deforestation, fire and land-use change. She established the role of forest disturbance and fire in tropical land use dynamics, by applying earth observation techniques to quantify forest degradation and model post-fire vegetation recovery. She led the EU-funded CARBOPEAT project which addressed carbon-climate-human interactions in tropical peatlands: vulnerabilities, risks and mitigation measures, and is PI/Co-PI for NERC-funded projects investigating peat swamp forest degradation under the NCEO carbon cycle theme (with University of Sheffield), millennial-scale peatland carbon dynamics (with University of Exeter) and greenhouse gas fluxes in Amazonian peatlands (with University of St Andrews), as well as being involved in a DEFRA-funded consortium project on greenhouse gas emissions from lowland peatlands in England and Wales. She has advised on science-based management to a large plantation company in Indonesia; worked with a hydrological consultants to better quantify and manage carbon emissions from drained tropical peatlands; advised on a management plan for lowland peatland in Indonesia and methodologies for carbon emissions trading from tropical peatlands. She advises the Australian government through their Kalimantan Carbon and Forests Partnership on methodologies for carbon emissions reductions under REDD. She has written numerous papers and book contributions, mainly on tropical peatlands, including a key Nature paper that first drew attention to the scale of carbon emissions arising from tropical peatland fires. 

Dr David John Chivers,  MA, PhD, ScD, FLS, FZS: I was born in April 1944, and from Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, I came up to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1963, to read veterinary medicine. Reading Physical Anthropology in my third year, showed me that I could combine my boyhood interest in natural history with a growing interest in our relatives, so I registered for a Ph.D. and went off to the Malay Peninsula for two years to study the ecology and behaviour of the siamang (the large black gibbon, one of the small apes). Returning to Cambridge I was appointed University Demonstrator in Veterinary Anatomy in 1970, upgraded to Lecturer in 1975; I completed my Ph.D. in 1972.  I combined teaching anatomy to veterinary students with organising research on primates and other wildlife in Malaysia (West and East) and nearby countries, including India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. I collaborated with Marcel Hladik for many years investigating the relationship between gut morphology and diet in mammals, especially primates We had US funding for a programme of research on wild and captive primates in Malaysia from 1978-81, and in 1985 shifted our attention to the expanses of Indonesian Kalimantan, to the centre of Borneo.  With the Ministry of Forestry, we have been investigating, to the present day, the role of fruit-eating animals in seed dispersal, in the natural regeneration of forest.  From the early 1980s, I had a succession of research students from Brazil, from Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest, and more recently two from Venezuela. Students also came from India and Bangladesh and, more recently, from Vietnam.   I was active in the Primate Society of Great Britain, rising to President, and in the International Primatological Society as the Vice-President for Conservation.  In 1989 I was elected a Fellow and Tutor of Selwyn College, having been appointed Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine from 1981.  I served as Gardens Steward for 13 years, and am now Praelector. From 1985 to 2006 I was very active with Fauna and Flora International (founded in 1903), being Vice-Chairman of Council for 16 years, having been Chairman of the Conservation Committee.  I became involved in the quest for ‘orang-pendek’, a bipedal ground-dwelling ape in the depths of the forest of west-central Sumatra; it was well known by the locals but we still have not got proof of its identity – a large gibbon come to the ground, or a relative of the orang-utan. I was appointed a Reader in Primate Biology and Conservation in 2000 and approved for the degree of Doctor of Science in 2001.  I served as Senior Proctor for the University from 2000-2003.  I am a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Zoological Society of London.  I serve on several editorial boards, have edited several books and published over 100 papers.  I have made 55 visits overseas, to nine countries, for fieldwork, totalling nearly 7 years. I have attended nearly 80 conferences around the world.  I am a Trustee of Twycross Zoo the Orangutan Land Trust, the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Trust and St.Helen’s School Northwood (and, formerly, Fauna and Flora International and Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation UK).

Claire McLardy came to Sabangau in 1999 to carry out research on orangutan distribution for her masters degree at the University of Nottingham. Claire was instrumental in setting up the OuTrop volunteer program in 2001, and worked with us until 2003 carrying out research on a wide range of projects. Claire has stayed in the conservation fold, currently working for UNEP-WCMC.

Victoria Smith spent time in Sabangau in 2002 completing a research study for her master’s degree in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University. The project focused on investigating the human communities of the Sabangau forests, their demography, attitudes and impacts. After completing her MSc Victoria worked as a member of the Primate Care team at Monkey World, Ape Rescue Centre in Dorset and then as Project Co-ordinator for the Orangutan Foundation UK. Since 2006 Victoria has been Buildings and Office Manager at The Linnean Society of London. Other interests include book conservation and travel.

Ellie Monks graduated from Cambridge University in 2005 with a degree in Zoology, specialising in great apes. In the summer of 2004 she volunteered for OuTrop, undertaking behavioural and phenology studies in the Sebangau National Park. Ellie returned to Indonesia in 2005/6 where she volunteered in the Education Department of UNPAR (University of Palangka Raya) promoting orang-utan conservation. She went on to work as a Research Assistant for Dr Mark Harrison, conducting behavioural studies on the feeding behaviour of orang-utans in the Sebangau. Ellie then went on to work at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) where she worked on EDGE (Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered) birds. She then moved to Mongolia to manage the Steppe Forward Programme, ZSL’s conservation programme in Mongolia. One of the main outputs of the programme was a series of Regional Red Lists, which Ellie co-authored for birds, reptiles and amphibians. She then returned to the UK to manage a series of environmental regeneration projects across Hampshire. Ellie is currently based at the University of Southampton where she plays an integral part in the commissioning of medical research on behalf of the National Institute for Health Research.