About

Javan Rhino Expedition is a project that is initiated by the young conservationists with the purpose of raising the awareness to the public, especially the urban community, about the Javan rhino’s track of life in UKNP, and display the local community’s custom that also supports the Javan rhino and nature conservation. These inspiring stories regarding the figures behind the Javan rhino conservation in Ujung Kulon are also captured during this expedition. They are the people that should get appreciation and acknowledgement towards their struggle on conserving this iconic species and its habitat.

The expedition will be conducted in 15 days with the crew of videographer, photographer, writer, journalist, artist, and UKNP’s rangers and porters. This expedition will be held in the World Rhino Day in September 2019. In this expedition, the team will document the journey to find the Javan rhino and the conservation people. The result of this expedition will be displayed in an exhibition in Jakarta in February 2020 in hopes that it can be the trigger to urban community to care and start taking actions to keep and save the Indonesia’s biodiversity conservation.

Risk and Challenge

Below are the risks and challenges that the JRE team will encounter during the trip:

1. Weather – rainy season in the field will become the risk that limit the movement and documentation process. It will require special treatment to keep on moving in a normal parameter
2. Injuries – the trip in the wild has a high risk of injuries, from the field, disease, or any attack from the wildlife that keeps their territory. Thus, we will bring the first aid kit and make sure the crew get the required vaccination
3. Equipment – Ujung Kulon forest is dense tropical rainforest in Indonesia, hence the risk of the equipment malfunction will also be our focus. High humidity and the damage that may be caused by the wildlife itself will also be noted so in general, we will pack our equipment properly to minimize the equipment malfunction

Project Goals

1. Held expedition to UKNP, Indonesia to document the rarest mammal, Javan rhino, in the wild, through high resolution photographs and videos, and share the journey and inspiring effort about conservation from the local communities to the world in order to raise the awareness of the condition and the existence of Javan rhinoceros that prone to various threats.
2. Held the audio visual exhibition from this project in Jakarta, to support the Javan rhino conservation action in the world. The first exhibition will be held on March, 2020 during the Earth Hour as part of the world conservation issue. We will give updates regarding time and the location of the exhibition.

3. Spreading the second habitat issue as Javan rhino conservation effort that has not been realized yet until now.
4. Give options to the supporter to get the high quality photograph of the Javan rhino

Similar to collecting eggs in to one basket, 5 species of Javan rhino in the world is the rare animal, but Javan rhino is Indonesia’s sacred animal, only exist in the wild without any existence in the zoo or habitat outside UKNP. Surviving within only 68 individuals left with numerous threats that keep on a watch level.