Rahayu Oktaviani, Season 2 Episode 6
It’s a happy accident for the Javan gibbon that Rahayu Oktaviani could not find funding to study orangutans and switched to gibbons for purely practical reasons. She was hooked once she heard “the most beautiful song” of her life in the forest and is working with her team at KIARA, the NGO she founded, to make sure that it doesn’t disappear. Less than 10 percent of forests remain in Java, one of the most densely populated islands on earth.
Rahayu, known as Ayu, is part of a new generation of conservationists inspired by Sir David Attenborough as well as female primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. She tells Kate Humble and Edward Whitley that she wants to raise awareness of the Javan gibbon in the same way the legendary women helped chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans to win hearts and minds around the world.
Read the transcript here.
NEWS FROM AYU
Ayu says one of the biggest impacts of receiving the Whitley Award in April has been the visibility it brought – public and government awareness of the Javan gibbon has grown significantly, helping to secure new funding and partnerships. Her work was featured by the BBC, CNN, Mongabay, Elle magazine and more. She was invited to speak at several global conferences, including the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.
Ayu’s team hit a major milestone, signing an MoU with Gunung Halimun Salak National Park where she is based to strengthen Javan gibbon conservation in the landscape. Outside of the park, KIARA is conducting a survey of Javan gibbon distribution outside the formal conservation area network with the aim of obtaining new insights into where gibbons persist and how they can work with communities to protect remaining forest fragments.
The growing momentum is helping KIARA work towards a major long-term goal: a Java-wide survey of the Javan gibbon with a potential funder showing interest. KIARA has received support from a state-owned company to develop a field guide on Javan gibbon food plants.
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