Bornean elephants may be the smallest of their kind, but they’re still giants at around nine feet (2.7 meters) tall — about two feet (60 cm) shorter than African elephants. Found only on the island of Borneo, mainly in Malaysia’s Sabah state, fewer than 1,000 remain in the wild, earning them an endangered status.
In the last 40 years, Sabah has lost 60% of the elephant’s natural forest habitat to logging and palm oil plantations. One study found that between 1980 and 2000, Borneo exported more wood than Africa and the Amazon combined. This has left elephant populations fragmented and squeezed into small areas of preserved forest, such as those in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, an area in the floodplains of the Kinabatangan River where pockets of native forest exist within large agricultural estates.
Dr. Farina Othman plans tree corridors to connect habitats through palm oil plantations. She founded the conservation organization Seratu Aatai in 2018. The name “Seratu Aatai” means “solidarity.” The organization aims to raise awareness of elephants and address the rise in human-elephant conflict.
Also Read: Trump Factor Aids Liberals in Canada, Modi Welcomes Carney
Bridging the Gap: Saving Borneo’s Elephants Through Awareness and Action
Due to encroaching plantations, the elephants have come into more frequent contact with humans, sometimes damaging crops and buildings. This leads to conflict, and between 2010 and 2020, 131 Bornean elephants were killed, primarily due to human-related causes, such as accidental poisoning or retribution killings. Othman said that while many people understand the importance of elephants as ecosystem engineers through spreading seeds, and know that they are under threat, there is still a “not in my backyard” attitude towards them.
It became her goal to change this mindset. “Who else can take that responsibility? I’m Malaysian, so I think it’s time for me to also try to educate and raise awareness,” she told
On Wednesday, she was one of six conservationists given the 2025 Whitley Award, which includes a £50,000 ($66,000) prize for her project. The award, presented by the Whitley Fund for Nature, a UK charity, supports grassroots conservationists in the Global South.
Othman will put the new funding towards expanding the network of elephant corridors across Sabah. “If only one plantation wants to do this, it won’t work. We need to create a consortium of several plantations so that we can connect this corridor back to the wildlife sanctuary,” she said.
Also Read: Top names in fashion and culture will grace Met Gala 2025
