FINAL UPDATE: Rimba is closing down

And that’s a wrap!

Rimba is now taking steps to close down. It’s been a wild, crazy, wonderful and fulfilling roller coaster ride over the past decade (and more!) of our existence – but, as we’re a small local nonprofit with very limited resources and capacity, the frequent situations of financial insecurity, insufficient funds, plus the lack of long-term and sustainable financial support to pay ourselves a living wage make it impossible for us to continue operating under this model. So starting January 2022 we will no longer function as a fully operating entity.

We’re taking this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all our supporters and partners who have made our work and successes possible. We really couldn’t have made all that progress and impact without you, especially in these very difficult times we’ve all been going through!

The Harimau Selamanya rangers in the field with project partners and volunteers

So THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts, and please take hope from the knowledge that you have helped us to make conservation action a reality, creating some really lasting positive changes in the Malaysian conservation scene.

Members of Team Cerberus and PERHILITAN after completion of training

However, this doesn’t mean that all our work ends with us. Some of our projects are spinning off to continue pursuing what they started, and some have already done so. If you’re interested in following the continued progress of the work started by Rimba, here’s how you can stay updated:

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Project update 23: Project Pteropus wrap-up

Our Fruit Bat Fundraiser by Project Pteropus ends today – and we managed to raise RM43,790, well beyond our original target of RM30,000!!! We’re so deeply grateful to everyone who supported this initiative – those who donated funds to help us complete our research next year, those who bought merchandise to help us widen our public outreach impact this year, and those who helped spread the word. Thank you for helping us to make this fundraiser such a success.

While our public outreach initiatives also end today, the additional funds we’ve raised will allow us to extend this project for an additional 6 months into 2022 in order to complete our durian pollination research that was negatively impacted and delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this extended time period we’ll also be able to finish up our work on monitoring and protecting flying fox populations, which was also delayed due to the pandemic. So we’re on track to successfully complete and wrap up this project as originally planned – just on a slightly later timeline!

Take a peek into the team and our work on fruit bat conservation that you’re helping to support:

Publication update 26: The critical importance of fruit bats!

We’re super excited to make yet another publication announcement so soon after our first one from Project Pteropus Phase 2!

A massive labour of love first started by Sheema in 2013, this second paper from us is another literature review – this time looking at bat-plant interactions that have been documented for the Old World over the 1985-2020 period (36 years’ worth of research!). Published as part of the special issue ‘Animal Seed Dispersal: An Ecosystem Service In Crisis’, it’s fully open access, which means it can be read online, or the PDF file can be downloaded for free.

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