Deep in the rainforests of Borneo, something remarkable is happening. In the village of Pemaluan, scientists and Indigenous community members are working side by side, microphones in hand, capturing the voices of the forest before they change forever.
Indonesia is building an entirely new capital city called Nusantara on the island of Borneo. The project aims to move the country's administration away from Jakarta — a city that is literally sinking into the sea and bursting at the seams with 30 million people. But this massive construction project sits in one of the world's most biodiverse regions, home to orangutans, pygmy elephants, and thousands of other species. It is also home to the Indigenous Balik people, who have lived in these forests for generations.
Researchers have placed audio recorders throughout the surrounding rainforest. These devices capture the calls of birds, the croaking of frogs, the buzzing of insects, and the sounds of larger mammals moving through the trees. This creates what scientists call an "acoustic baseline" — essentially a living fingerprint of the forest ecosystem. By listening to these recordings, researchers can identify which species are present, track how wildlife populations change over time, and measure how the landscape responds to the rapid transformation happening around it.
For the Balik community, these recordings carry an even deeper meaning. The forest's sounds are woven into their cultural heritage — songs, stories, and spiritual connections passed down through countless generations. By participating in this project, community members are helping preserve an acoustic archive of their ancestral homeland at a moment of profound change.
The documentary capturing these efforts is called "Sound Guardians." It was created through a collaboration between Mongabay, Scientific American, and Project Multatuli, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The project represents something increasingly rare: a genuine partnership between Western scientists and local communities, where both groups bring essential knowledge to the table.
As construction crews reshape this corner of Borneo, these recordings may become the most complete living record of what the forest once sounded like. The Balik people's future will depend on how they adapt to sweeping environmental and social changes — but thanks to this project, the voices of their forest will endure long after the bulldozers have moved on.