Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 18 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

 http://arkitrek.com/http:/arkitrek.com/builders-britain-vs-malaysia/

Arkitrekker on November 11th, 2009Text and photos by Billy Dunn

When Ian asked me to write a piece for the blog about my first experiences living and working in Sabah, Borneo, I initially thought of the obvious cultural differences; food, drink, climate, wildlife etc. These of course are all very interesting and important…

…but in order to give my own unique view so far on Sabah that would provide something a bit light-hearted to think about, I have decided to write about a topic I experience everyday…builders.

It is interesting to make you aware that this is in fact my first experience of working on a building site. During my working year out from studying Architecture back in the UK I never left the office so my first encounter with working alongside builders has occurred here in Sepilok! Whether this is a good or bad introduction to the daily life of a construction site remains to be seen!

To paint the picture I’m going to compare the general rules and stereotypical habits of builders in the UK to the builders here, who in fact originate from the Philippines.

Imagine this process in Britain; The builders are arranging the reinforcement bars and formwork for the concrete roof tie beams. They would have big, sturdy, steel toe caps boots on, wearing helmets and high visibility vests and standing on a carefully erected scaffolding platform, probably attached to a harness. They would be wearing gloves and would overall be secure in the job they were participating in.

Now imagine this in Sabah; The builder’s protection on their feet (if any) is flip flops. I haven’t actually seen a helmet since I have been here. The only thing they wear on their heads are large sombreros. The scaffolding platform they are clambering up and balancing on top of is swaying with every swing of the hammer they take. The closest thing to a safety harness they have seems to be a cigarette in their mouth as no-one would dare be up there without one. It also seems to help them balance. So imagine a builder two storeys up; he is swinging away at the nails whilst puffing away on his fag and carefully balancing in his flip flops which are almost falling off his feet, all whilst on top of the jelly scaffolding!

So this was my first impression of construction. I initially watched every move with horror waiting for something to go wrong but I have now become fascinated with the way they work.

On a typical British building site there are heavy rules about no children allowed on site. Here, there are not only children on site, but they are actually the builder’s daughters! One of the girls, who can’t be any older than 5, quite freely walks around the nails and bits of stray material, barefoot, beneath the scaffolding. If she gets a little bored she’ll pick up a hammer and start nailing something, all in the proud eye of her father!

In Britain, the use of heavy machinery is a serious responsibility. In Sepilok, on a Sunday afternoon with the family watching and in between using the bucket for distributing concrete to be poured for the tie beams, the excavator becomes a serious piece of fun. The two guys, rather than climb back down the wobbly scaffolding, calmly jump into the bucket and hold on tightly to be dropped and raised spectacularly like a rollercoaster. The driver has his headphones in listening to music by the way, but the smiles on their faces was worth all the safety issues of course.

Welding should be approached using a protective mask as exposure to the glare can damage the eyes. Here, I’m still scratching my eyes in amazement (no pun…) wondering if any welders here can see. One particular welder must enjoy the overall itchy, irritable blind sensation as he sits wearing sun glasses with his face a foot away from the new bear cages being welded.

At home, if we get a spell of bright weather, the typical builder loses his top to expose his pasty white belly and “builders crack.” The radio from the van is blaring out and the Sun Newspaper is being thrown around. All of this is in fact the opposite here. With the constant hot conditions, a majority of the builders like to cover up completely from the sun. This involves long tight sleeves, long skinny jeans and usually a t shirt wrapped around his head with a pair of sunglasses, all in 35 degrees of heat. There are no radios required as the Philippine guys enjoy singing their hearts out whilst on site; we’ve had everything from Janet Jackson to the Beatles.

From all these comparisons there are two characteristics British and Malaysian builders have in common.

The first involves females. It is in fact in the small print of builders’ rights that at any stage should a member of the opposite sex come into sight, then all work can pause. During the construction of the Biogas Digester on site, we had eight female volunteers from Camps International. Before the girls could pick up a brick I realised that the eyes of three sets of builders were directed at them; the guys working directly next to us, a group near the gate working on the new orang-utan nursery and another at the top of the hill. All tools were laid down, wheelbarrows dumped and engines switched off to admire the girls! Unlike the British way of approaching girls, there were no wolf-whistling or sexist comments but simply a calm stare!

The second is to enjoy riding in vans. Any opportunity to hop in the van to go somewhere is gladly received. Here you have the added bonus that more can fit on the back of the truck with one hand holding onto the roof and the other waving goodbye to the girls. The dashboard of your van must also be filled with old newspapers, used drinks cartons and any invoices that were supposed to be given.

Above all I would like to stress that working with the local builders is a pleasure. They always have a smile on their face, will always greet you and say goodbye and will share any English they know with you. Through all the tricky conditions they face, they get on with their work to a high level and all for a very minimal wage. They also gladly get involved with helping the sun bear volunteers when they can see we’re struggling and are happy to share their knowledge and tools.

I will write a sequel to this blog one day once I have experienced all this through the British builder’s perspective!

 * Billy Dunn is the assistant of our architect Ian Hall from UK

Tags: Architecture, Bornean Sun Bear, Builders, construction, Health and Safety, Malaysia, Sabah, sepilok

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC, Fund raising | Date: Nov 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Great News! You can order the Sun bear Tote bag by email!

 The creator of Save the Sun Bear Tote bag, Ms Rika Koreeda, agrees to take purchase order of the sun bear tote bag.

Each tote bag is $15 + sale tax and shipping fee.

 If you would like to purchase one, please email Rika at sunbearny@gmail.com with your order information and the shipping address. She will contact you with the total amount due once she shipped out the bag. You then send her a check with the correct amount.

Rika is doing this voluntarily to help save sun bear and help us fund raising. All proceed of the bag will be donate to Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sabah to help sun bear. Please remember to thank her for doing so when you email her!

Happy shopping!

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Fund raising, new York, Rika, Sabah, sale, sun bear, Tote bag

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC, Fund raising | Date: Nov 13 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

During the fund raising event in New York last summer, Caroline in the audience asked me how could anyone do to help sun bear.  “Anyone can help sun bear with whatever they do best.” I replied. “if you are rich, you can donate fund to us; if you are a writer, please write about sun bear and our work; if you are a film maker, please make a film about sun bear and tell the world about their story and their plights; if you are a student or biologist, please study sun bear; if you have spare time, you can be a volunteer to help us; if you are an artist, you can create artwork on sun bear…” and the list go on.

Rika Koreeda was among in the audience who intrigued by this statement. Her company,  Spoon+Fork, a New York City based boutique creative agency, is dedicated to feeding those hungry for fresh insight alongside a healthy portion of delicious growth-driven design. Spoon+Fork offers the arts, advertising, consumer brand and non-profit worlds a complete range of creative services, among others. Rika, like many other people who has help us promote sun bear conservation awareness and raise fund, started to take actions. Rika make bags! Rika and her team have collaborated with textile designer Wakane Koike of MEW New York and have designed an exclusivethe and the FRIST bag in the world to help save sun bear-The Save the Sun Bear Tote bag with the Save Sun Bears message. All proceeds of the sale of this cute tote bag will go directly to the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.

If you have happen to be a New Yorker, please stop by Factoriem Boutique,Destination, or TuTu to pick up a bag of your own.

Factoriem Boutique,

Destination, NY

32-36 Little West 12th Street, 1st Floor New York, NY 10014

tel: 212. 727.2031 / fax: 212. 727.7030

email: destination_ny@hpgrp.com www.destinationny.net

 In addition, Spoon + Fork is going to have Tote bag sale at their office building on Nov 18th. (50 small business tenant is in the building.) at Spoon+Fork, Inc. 419 LAFAYETTE STREET, 2ND FLOOR,  NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10003 USA. 

Thank you Rika, Wakane and everyone who make this sale and the tote bag project possible. I see hope to save this little know bear every time I look at this bag!

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Fund raising, new York, Rika, Sabah, sale, sun bear, Tote bag

5 responses so far

Category: BSBCC | Date: Oct 29 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Finally, after 3 months of construction, the roof of the new bear house is up today!  

After the roof being in place, the wall and the cages for the bears are slowly taking its place. Soon our bear will have their new house!

Photos by Jocelyn Stokes

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, construction, Sabah, sun bear

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC | Date: Oct 29 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Yesterday, while playful Suria was chewing on a stick or two, the BSBCC crew was busy re-cementing the floor of the larger enclosure. Although, she doesn’t know it yet, Suria will soon be moved back into the large activity area where she will have quadruple the space to roam and play.  The problem began when the bears started to dig up the cement flooring, which injured the padding on their paws. Suria had to be quarantined briefly to prevent further injury while the floor was repaired.  Now, we are all excited to see her moved back in!

Further excitement is also spreading with the steady progress of the new bear centre roof.  The construction workers have been diligently preparing for this task and are now busy realizing the completion of the new ceiling.  Also being laid, currently, are the first bricks of the new centre.  Great work everyone!
–
Jocelyn Lori Stokes

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, construction, Sabah, sun bear

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC | Date: Oct 27 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

We’ve reached halfway in the contract to build Phase I of the new Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre and I’m pleased to report good progress. I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Please click here to visit Ian Hall blog http://arkitrek.com/http:/arkitrek.com/bsbcc-construction-photo-diary/

Ian Hall is our architect who is the designer the BSBCC. 

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, construction, Ian Hall, Sabah, sun bear

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC, education | Date: Oct 26 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

By MUGUNTAN VANAR

KOTA KINABALU: American animal expert Jack Hanna, popularly known as “Jungle Jack” is in Malaysia for a television shoot of the wild.

The 62-year-old is in Sabah to film orang utans, sunbears, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants in the wilds of Borneo for his entertainment and educational television show “Jack Hanna’s Into The Wild.”

Hanna and his crew will also be heading towards Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia during his two-week trip to Malaysia and Singapore for at least four 30-minute television series.

Invited by Tourism Malaysia, Hanna told reporters here that the great apes and elephants had always fascinated him and that it was the first time he was doing a show on orang utan and the Borneo pygmy elephants.

‘’I have always wanted to come to Malaysia but my tight schedules around the world delayed me. I am really excited to be here in Borneo,” said Hanna who has been hosting educational animal shows for the last 43 years.

In Sabah, he will focus on the Sandakan Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Sunbear Conservation, Guamuntong caves, Kinabatangan and Labuk Bay before leaving for Kuching where he will focus on the Sarawak Cultural Village and Bakun National Park.

He will briefly visit Singapore before heading to Batu Caves and Kuala Gandar Elephant Sanctuary in the peninsula.

“Our show is about people, culture and animals,” said Hanna whose shows reach 98% of the audience in the United States.

He is a regular guest in Good Morning America, Larry King Live, The Late Show with David Letterman and Fox News Programmes.

Hanna, who stresses on respecting animals in their habitats, the theme of his series were to educate people on the various animals as it was a foundation towards conservation efforts.

“When I say respect animals, I mean you should just leave them to do what they are doing in their habitat and not disturb or provoke them,” he added.

Hanna said that his company allowed the host country to get rights to use his films for their respective promotions.

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Jack Hanna, Malaysia, Sabah, sun bear, wildlife

2 responses so far

Category: BAT-Bornean Action Teams, BSBCC, Volunteers | Date: Oct 24 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Text: by Billy Dunn

Photos: by Billy Dunn and Ian Hall 

The construction of the biogas digester at the new Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sepilok took a bit of time to get running and underway but after ten days of hard building, pumping, lifting, grafting, sweating, itching, bleeding, plastering, twisting, bending and cutting, it was an impressive achievement thanks to the volunteers from Camps International.   

When complete the biogas digester will turn bear dung into methane gas that can be used to cook the bears’ daily meal of rice. After arriving in Sepilok the initial tasks facing the group were not too exciting or enjoyable but hard labour and exhausting work! We started by moving 1500 bricks from outside to inside the site, which involved a lot of timber planks, deep clay resembling a battlefield full of water and wheelbarrows with punctured wheels…not a good combination for moving bricks!  

To follow, the excavated location on site for the digester was full of water. After trying to convince the girls that bailing the water out with buckets all day was the only solution, the contractors, having seen their faces, gladly lent us their pump and the water was gone soon enough. 

Once the site was clean and dry, the concrete platform was revealed beneath the water and leaves. We then moved a third of the bricks down our own hand made steps, carved out from the clay, and into the centre of the circle, only to realise that the centre of the circle was actually required to draw and mark out the circular footprint for the bricks! After a brief re-location, to the girl’s delight of course, we laid out the first course. With a quick lesson in the art of bricklaying by leader Howard, we quickly learnt that bricklaying was indeed an art and not as easy as maybe expected previously! 

We soon developed an effective production line of sand/cement mixing, water collecting, concrete mixing, bucket filling and distributing down the steps to the site. This was all being done in sticky wet clay, hot, humid conditions and with every contractor working in Sepilok staring at our every move. Well I say “our” every move, as lovely as Matt and I are, I’m pretty sure it had something to do with all the girls working on site! Their entertainment eventually turned to frustration with our bricklaying skills and they soon joined us down in the pit. A solid afternoon’s work with the contractors got us back on track and we were soon motoring on with the construction. 

The arrival of the remainder of the group brought an injection of enthusiasm, plus the skills of their leaders Mann and Zul. Our initial attempts to build the dome for the digester were not as successful as we maybe first thought. Despite it being our first experience bending metal bars into circles and arcs, we were relatively happy and satisfied with our efforts. That is until Mann took one look at it and worked his magic! His construction experience was clear to see as he took our “dome” apart and began amending our “arches” into curved things of beauty! When re-attached and covered with steel mesh, the finished dome was an impressive sight. 

The moment of truth came when the dome was placed onto the brick structure to find out how well it would fit. It sat perfectly and the steel circular rings were attached using the vertical metal rods bedded in between the double skin of bricks. A hard mornings work then began when the inside face of the dome was plastered, a very messy and tiring job but one that was achieved successfully in one go. To complete the group’s work, the outside face was then plastered in the afternoon and covered with damp blankets. 

Without the efforts and hard grafting by the volunteers, the biofuel digester would still be a large pond on site. The group made great progress in the ten days and should be proud of the efforts! On behalf of B.S.B.C.C., I would like to thank Camps International for their contribution, as their work here will always be seen and felt by the centre for years to come.

Tags: Billy Dunn, biogas digester, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Ian Hall, sun bear, Volunteer

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC, Volunteers, education, sanctuary | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Photos and text by Jocelyn Stokes 

Over here at the centre the bear crew can’t help but take a keen liking to a trio of young sun bears who may have actually been acrobats in a past life.  While one is hanging upside down from the ceiling with its head arched back and legs flailing in the air, another will be swinging though the air in a tire, whilst the other is usually balancing stealthily in the corner, arms straight up, or perhaps tearing open a coconut.  They’re a regular riot to observe with their overflowing abundance of character and youthful antics!  Deemed the ‘three amigos’ by a troupe of loyal volunteers from New Zealand,  these three bears,  Jolita, Lawa and Cerah, truly delight in each other’s company. “The reason they get along so well,” explains Wai Pak, the onsite Educational Officer, “is because they are so young.  At their age they need playmates.  They all happen to be the same age, as well, and they have grown up in captivity, so they are particularly fond of each other!”

  It’s a truly enjoyable sight to behold when a group of young wild, animals with a rather unfortunate past can be helped to live in such contentment.  And, why not?  These bears are blessed with more love and attention than most creatures could dream of having.  Although their living space in not quite adequate yet, these bears are still receiving the utmost care.  Through the hard work and dedication of the small BSBCC staff, along with the fresh, motivated energy of the volunteer groups, these bears receive healthy nourishment, instinctual stimulation, and well-cared for environments.  All the bears have to worry about is how they’ll break open their next coconut and even that doesn’t seem to challenge them for too long.

1 - Labors of Love - our friendly bear caretaker, David, is bringing sugar cane, fruit and other yummy treats for the bears.

2 - Wai Pak is happily raking dry leaves to put into the bear cages, which helps to create a more natural surface for them to walk on.

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Jocelyn Stokes, sun bear, Volunteer

No responses yet

Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education, publication | Date: Oct 17 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

bear1.pdf bear-2a.pdf bear-3.pdf

 This is a new article that I wrote for Society & Environment-A monthly magazine published by Zayed International Prize for the Environment (www.zayedprize.org.ae) what base in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was published in the July 2009 issue. Special thanks to Ms Seema Sangra, the Editor and the Art Director of the magazine for publishing this sun bear article. 

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, magazine Siew Te Wong, Sabah, Society and Environment, sun bear

4 responses so far