A pilot program in Indonesian Borneo pays local residents to photograph wildlife and upload sightings through a mobile app.
The initiative aims to transform how community members perceive wildlife by providing a direct financial incentive for conservation. By turning sightings into a source of income, the program seeks to reduce human-wildlife conflict and create a reliable database for protecting endangered species.
Managed by the conservation organization KehatiKu, the project operates in the Kapuas Hulu district of West Kalimantan province. Participants use the app to document animals they encounter in the wild. For a photo of an orangutan, the program pays $6 [2].
This financial model encourages locals to act as citizen scientists. The program has been running for about one year [3]. During this initial period, the project collected around 175,000 wildlife records [1].
The data gathered through these uploads provides researchers with critical information on animal movements and population density. This scale of data collection is often difficult to achieve through traditional academic surveys alone, especially in the dense terrain of Borneo.
KehatiKu designed the system to provide an alternative income stream for people living in the region. The goal is to ensure that the presence of orangutans is viewed as an economic asset rather than a burden or a threat to local agriculture.
“The program pays $6 per photo of an orangutan.”
This program represents a shift toward 'incentive-based conservation,' where local communities are paid for the ecological value of their land. By gamifying data collection and providing immediate cash rewards, KehatiKu is testing whether economic dependence on wildlife sightings can outweigh the short-term gains of deforestation or poaching.
