Borneo wildlife holiday, Sarawak

Environment

On this Borneo holiday you will visit the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, located in Semenggoh Nature Reserve, which is home to a community of orangutans and other wildlife which have been found injured, orphaned or kept illegally as pets. The Centre works hard to educate the local and international community on the importance of preserving the regions indigenous wildlife but also to rehabilitate the animals back into their natural environments. The Centre has had such an amazing success rate and is now working in conjunction with Matang Wildlife Centre, in Kubah National Park, to coordinate the wider release of the animals. This important work is done with the help of donations and entrance fees to the centre paid on your behalf by our local agents.

This trip stays in Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort which offers an involved corporate social responsibility scheme split between EMBRACE and SANCTUARY. Sanctuary focuses on their nature project and centres on their nature reserve, the Rasa Ria Resort Nature Interpretation Centre. The centre has worked closely with the Sabah Wildlife Department for almost 20 years and is responsible for the first stage care of orphaned and injured orangutans, which usually lasts between 4 and 5 years, before they are transferred to Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan for their onward care and release. To date, 39 young orangutans have been rehabilitated and transferred to Sepilok and the centre has been responsible for the education of nearly 10,000 school children and of course countless hotel guests and other visitors. The Rasa Ria Resort also recently donated and sponsored a fully modified 4WD vehicle to the Sabah Wildlife Department. The Rapid Response Wildlife Enforcement Unit has been set up to address illegal wildlife poaching and killings in Sabah state and this 4WD donation will go some way to helping address the problem.
The resort also has their own bottling plant where they supply pure still water to all guestrooms and outlets. Since its implementation, there has been a reduction of up to 420,000 plastic bottles! Since February 2013 the resort has been composting waste in an attempt to convert it to something beneficial, as fertilizer for the gardens. Waste water from guestrooms is channelled to the resort’s own sewage treatment plant where the water is treated and used to water the golf course.

In conjunction with Orangutan Appeal UK, for every booking to Borneo we adopt our chosen Sepilok orangutan, Gelison, in your names for a year. Orangutan Appeal UK works to support the orangutans of Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre which provides 24hr essential care for orphaned and injured orangutans with the aim to rehabilitate them into the wilds of the adjacent Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve and beyond. Funds from the adoption costs go towards funding the Centre’s work providing food, medical care and a safe refuge for the orangutans as well as being an important educational tool for visitors.

Community

The Rasa Ria Resort's Embrace programme focuses on community work within the region. The resort has been sponsoring two secondary schools located in close proximity to the resort, SMK Sri Nangka and SMK Tamparuli (Special Education Centre), since 2012. Apart from scholarships, various educational support and the improvement of facilities and health support, the resort also provides skills training for sustainable futures.
The “A Meal a Day” programme was launched and established by the resort to provide meals to students from underprivileged, single parent and low income family backgrounds. Twenty students of SMK Sri Nangka were selected for this programme.

Our local Borneo ground agents employ only local guides and drivers thereby keeping all moneys paid to staff in the local community. They own and run the two jungle lodges used on the trip, Nanga Sumpa Lodge and Lubok Kasai. Both lodges were built in conjunction with the local Ulu tribe and roles are fulfilled by the Ulu tribes-people including boat transfers and lodge staff. Where possible, food served to guests at the lodges is sourced locally thereby providing a further income to local residents. The lodge provides excellent opportunities not only to explore the surrounding jungle reserves and search for the resident wildlife but also to learn a little about the Ulu Ai culture while generating an important source of income for the tribe.