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Leeches, fungi and Sir David Attenborough are all in a day’s work for Travel Award winner.

Constant exposure to punishing humidity, blood-sucking leeches and foot fungi may not seem ideal conditions for a young researcher hoping to finish a PhD.

But for Timm Döbert, joyful experiences and the wonder of new environments far outweighed the relatively minor discomforts he encountered while working in Borneo’s tropical forests.

Thanks to a prestigious UWA Postgraduate Research Travel Award made available by Convocation, Timm went to Borneo to investigate the combined impacts of rainforest clearing and exotic weed invasions on tropical biodiversity.

Also in the team representing Australia at the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project were UWA’s Professor Raphael Didham from the School of Animal Biology, Dr Bruce Webber from CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, and Professor Katharine Dickinson from the University of Otago in New Zealand.

SAFE is concerned that large areas of Borneo’s once renowned unspoilt tropical wilderness – including highly diverse rainforests – have continue to be replaced with species-poor oil palm monocultures.

“No other place on Earth parallels the diversity of plants found on Borneo, and the prospect of studying them seemed daunting,” Timm said.

“However, the Travel Award enabled me to receive plant identification training at the Sabah State Herbarium in Sandakan. And under the supervision of my local collaborator, I’ve acquired a range of skills to tackle my research with great confidence.”

Timm said his personal highlight in Borneo was an expedition into the heart of the country to field-test his new plant identification abilities, including an arduous climb up Mount Trusmadi, Malaysia’s second highest peak.

Living in the SAFE research camp was simple, but held unforgettable lessons for and about life, he said. “I treasured the nights in my hammock, the refreshing baths in the cool stream, and the daily endeavours to spot rare wildlife.

“During the course of my fieldwork, I was fortunate to observe some of the most charismatic Southeast Asian mammal species up-close in their native habitats including clouded leopards, orangutans, and gibbons,” he said.

“The real value of the Convocation sponsorship is far greater than the pure collection of data. Sabah is not only a global hotspot for biodiversity but a melting pot for various Southeast Asian ethnicities. I have become good friends with my local Muslim research assistants, Roy and Mammat, danced at traditional weddings and celebrated religious festivities.

“Arguably, the least expected encounter was a memorable chance meeting with the icon of generations of nature enthusiasts, Sir David Attenborough, who had come to Sabah for the filming of his memoirs. He showed great interest in our project, and no wonder: Borneo was still a wild place during his first visit more than 50 years ago.”

Timm said the future expansion of oil palm plantations was inevitable, driven by the everincreasing demand for vegetable oils for food and biofuels.

“Oil palm products are found in nearly 50 per cent of all packaged items on supermarket shelves and are a daily part of the Australian way of life, although there is an increasing awareness amongst consumers of the issue of sustainable values in palm oil production systems,” he said.

“By the time people read this article, the logging in the SAFE research area will have recently started. Although this logging is an essential component of our ‘before and after’ study of oil palm plantation impacts, it is not easy to be a witness to the loss of more and more majestic trees.

“Thanks to the generous research funding, including support from UWA Convocation, I have the opportunity to contribute to developing more sustainable production management guidelines to the benefit of native biodiversity.”

Published in Uniview Vol. 31 No. 3 Spring 2012