meet the people

Working to save our endangered species

Our Vision, Mission & Strategy

Vision:

Our vision is to ensure that globally threatened large mammal species in Malaysia aresafeguarded through management interventions that support the conservation andrestoration of their habitats and the recovery of their populations.

Mission:

We will act to identify small, fragmented or declining populations of globallythreatened large mammals, and work on habitat enrichment, habitat connectivity and othermanagement interventions to reverse such population declines.

Strategy:

We will work with partners and supporters in the implementation of specific andcustomized priority programmes to recover and manage globally threatened large mammalspecies and their habitats in Malaysia. We will apply our expertise in the provision ofinterventions that support sustainability in nutrition, reproduction and demography of globallythreatened large mammals in Malaysia.

Profiles

DATUK DR JOHN PAYNE
Chief Executive Officer

John Payne started his working life with two powerful lessons. In 1976, one of the biggest mast fruiting years occurred in Peninsular Malaysia. The lesson was: population density of rare animal species is determined by the years with the least leaf and fruit production. Years with lots of fruits, and every fruiting season, are anomalies that support enhanced reproduction, the results of which plummet during very wet or very dry years. In 1977, he joined an expedition to survey for Sumatran rhinos in the proposed Endau-Rompin Park. He saw that people were tempted to record tapir footprints as rhino footprints. Lesson: people believe what they want to believe, not what is true. A different but similar lesson: if your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. After many such lessons learned up to the extinction of the Hairy rhinoceros in Malaysia in 2019, he turned BORA to become an NGO that focuses on recovery of endangered and rare species - by whatever ethical means are available.

DR ZAINAL ZAHARI ZAINUDDIN
Programme Director

Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin started off towards being an accountant, but switched to veterinary medicine, joining the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks in 1985. Since then, he has developed expertise in surveying, capture, translocation, husbandry and breeding of Malayan tiger, elephant, Hairy rhinoceros, Malayan seladang, Malay tapir and Bornen banteng.  After the death of the last rhinos in Malaysia, due to age-related pathologies, he switched and has since developed expertise in breeding of native plants, with an emphasis on the genus Ficus. Together with BORA staff at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, he has developed the Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre.



Board of Directors

DATUK DR
JOHN PAYNE
PROF DR ABDUL
HAMID AHMAD
DATO' DR DIONYSIUS SHARMA
Chairman
Chief Executive Officer
Board Member

Staff Members

DR ZAINAL ZAHARI ZAINUDDIN
Programme Director
LONIA ADAM
Administration Manager
bridget yong stephens
Finance Manager
MELLINDA JENUIT
Field Coordinator
alvin erut
Field Team Leader
ronald jummy @KURAMAT
Head, Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre
james bin sandiyang
Senior Ranger (Logistics)
DAVIDSON KUNTIL
Senior Ranger (Field)
hassan bin sani
Senior Ranger
MOHAMAD SOPRIH BIN AMDAN
Senior Ranger
JUSPIN BALUNGKING
Ranger
MASLIN BIN MOHIDDIN
Ranger
roland bin ruslin
Ranger
MARYANNE MATHEW
Administration & Account Assistant (KK)
norashimah binti janih
Administration & Account Assistant (Tabin)
DR ZAINAL ZAHARI ZAINUDDIN
Programme Director
bridget yong
stephens
Finance Manager
LONIA ADAM
Administration Manager
ronald jummy @KURAMAT
Head, Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre
MELLINDA JENUIT
Field Coordinator
DAVIDSON KUNTIL
Senior Ranger (Field)
alvin erut
Field Team Leader
james bin sandiyang
Senior Ranger (Logistics)
MOHAMAD SOPRIH BIN AMDAN
Senior Ranger
JUSPIN BALUNGKING
Ranger
MASLIN BIN MOHIDDIN
Ranger
roland bin ruslin
Ranger
MARYANNE MATHEW
Administration & Account Assistant (KK)
norashimah binti janih
Administration & Account Assistant (Tabin)
hassan bin sani
Senior Ranger

our Partners

ASIAN FORESTRY COMPANY (SABAH) SDN BHD
RHINO RESOURCE CENTER
Beiersdorf AG
Sabah Forestry Department
BIKE AND TOURS SDN BHD
SABAH SOFTWOODS BERHAD
Borneo Forestry Cooperative
Sabah Wildlife Department
Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (PERHILITAN)
Sawit Kinabalu SDN BHD
EAST MALAYSIA PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION
Sime Darby Plantations
Forest Solutions Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Smithsonian Conservation BiologyInstitute, Washington DC, USA (Dr Pierre Comizzoli)
GENTING PLANTATIONS BERHAD
SOS Rhino (Dr Nan Schaffer and KarenDixon)
GLENEALY PLANTATIONS SDN BHD
THE FIGS OF BORNEO
international islamic university (Molecular and Cellular Biology Research Cluster)
the habitat foundation
Kretam Holdings Berhad
Tian Siang Plantation
Malaysian Palm Oil Green ConservationFoundation
Tradewinds Plantation Berhad
Ministry of Natural Resources, environment, and climate change (NRECC) (formerly Ketsa) 
WWF-Malaysia/Unilever
1 stop borneo
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Faculty of Science & Natural Resources)
perak state park corporation
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Faculty of Science & Natural Resources)