nature
800 villagers now photograph the wildlife they once hunted
They used to hunt the birds. Now they photograph them.
More than 800 villagers across West Kalimantan, in Indonesian Borneo, now earn money photographing wildlife they once hunted. The program, called KehatiKu and run by the consultancy Borneo Futures, pays participants in nine villages for pictures and audio recordings of animals, with a villager earning up to $200 a month and more for rare species. Since it began, contributions have produced 378,000 confirmed observations, including the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan. "People have started to realize that where previously they caught one bird and it was worth 50,000 rupiah, now they just need to take a photo, send it to us, and they can receive a payment of 5,000 to 10,000 rupiah," said Borneo Futures Indonesia director Nardiyono. Imelda, a 72-year-old farmer in Labian, walks into the woods with friends every day hoping to photograph an orangutan, the top prize. Next month, two more villages join. The gibbons have not agreed to pose.
