Planting begins for rainforest restoration project

Cardiff University’s carbon offsetting project, Regrow Borneo, is to begin planting 12,500 trees after meeting its donation target ahead of schedule.

Regrow Borneo gives staff, students and members of the public the opportunity to balance the carbon created from necessary air travel.

Created by the University’s Sustainable Places Research Institute and the Danau Girang Field Centre, which is based in the Kinabatangan rainforest in Malaysia, the project was launched as a pilot in October 2019 and has since raised almost £20,000.

The donations are being used to fund the planting of 12,500 trees in the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain in Borneo, across three separate sites and covering five hectares.

Starting in July - following the easing of Covid-19 lockdown measures in Malaysia and the end of the rainy season – KOPEL, Regrow Borneo’s Malaysian partner organisation will undertake the planting.

Alongside, academics from Cardiff University will be researching the project’s carbon capture, assessing its efficacy and impact on the Kinabatangan rainforest. Their work will inform Regrow Borneo as it develops.

Dr Benoit Goossens, from the Danau Girang Field Centre said: “In just three decades, a third of the Borneo rainforest has disappeared. The donations we have received will help to regrow the forest, helping to save orangutans and other species that have seen their natural habitats decimated by climate change and illegal logging and palm oil.”

Dame Judi Dench, Ambassador for Regrow Borneo added: “Having visited Borneo last year, I’m so proud to be part of the Regrow Borneo programme. It is wonderful and necessary work, and may I reiterate again how proud I am to be a part of it.”

For more information on Regrow Borneo or to make a donation visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/regrowborneo