- A group of women in Indonesia’s West Java province have become skilled printers on fabric using motifs derived from various plant species found in their local environment.
- Last year, Indonesian primatologist Rahayu Oktaviani received an award in recognition of her organization’s work with Java’s silvery gibbon, which included formation of the grassroots printing collective.
- The most recent assessment estimates fewer than 4,500 Javan gibbons remain in the wild, with half of the world’s Javan gibbon population living in the national park contiguous to the site of the Ambu Halimun initiative.
BOGOR, Indonesia — In a village bordering Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park on the Indonesian island of Java, local people browse a row of fabrics carrying impressions of plants and the silhouette of the forest’s silvery gibbon. They are made by the women-led Ambu Halimun collective, whose name translates to “mothers of Halimun” in the local dialect.
The project focused on boiling and pressing distinctive local plants into motifs on fabric, which drew women like Mirna Maharani into closer observation of the vegetation surrounding the village of Citalahab.
Species once overlooked, even dismissed as weeds, have since acquired new value as sources of color, pattern and identity, Mirna explained.
“Now, we are preserving them,” said Mirna, 30, a mother of two.
Formed in 2020 during the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the goal of Ambu Halimun was to engage women in conservation while providing an arena to uplift economic agency and professional development.
Primatologist Rahayu Oktaviani, co-founder of the Kiara Foundation, which came up with the Ambu Halimun initiative, said she wanted to seed an original approach to conservation that would benefit women in Citalahab.
“The forest isn’t something that is separate to them,” Rahayu told Mongabay Indonesia. “That’s why we’re building a sense of ownership.”
Last year, Rahayu received the Whitley Award in recognition of her organization’s grassroots conservation work with Java’s silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), which included the work accomplished by the Ambu Halimun printing collective.
A stronghold for the silvery gibbon
People in Citalahab, like Mirna, live alongside one of the world’s last remaining strongholds for the Javan gibbon.
The latest assessment by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, estimated just 4,000-4,500 individual gibbons remain in the wild.
And half of the world’s remaining Javan gibbon population are believed to survive in Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, a mountainous forest south of Jakarta where Rahayu founded the conservation group Kiara in 2020.
Researchers warned in a 2017 population model that continued habitat loss and hunting could drive the species to extinction within a century in several parts of Java, including Halimun-Salak, unless threats from deforestation and the wildlife trade are significantly reduced.
Rahayu said her team worked with anthropologists to study the community’s cultural relationship with the forest to design a program that reflected local norms.
“We don’t want to come up with an intervention, only for it to turn out it’s not what the community needs,” Rahayu said.
Eva Rachmawati, who lectures in forestry and ecotourism at the nearby Bogor Agricultural Institute, said tapping into local custom and identity remains an effective tactic to engage communities.
“Approaches based in culture and local wisdom remain relevant because these have long been a part of the community’s identity,” Eva said.
For Rahayu, conservation efforts are unlikely to succeed through law enforcement alone, particularly where cost-of-living pressures and limited economic opportunities can increase reliance on surrounding forests.
Innovative projects combining conservation and women’s empowerment have gained traction elsewhere in communities across Indonesia.
In Sumatra, women weavers have been trained to use natural forest dyes in tenun fabric production, while in western Borneo an orangutan charity established a women’s firefighting unit to support wildfire prevention and expand women’s public roles.
Women in Citalahab said the printing collective has reshaped how some people relate to the forest and the Javan gibbon. Previously, people knew only that the species was legally protected, but had little understanding of the animal’s ecological role.
“We’ve learned that gibbons are known as ‘forest farmers,’” Mirna said.
A deeper sense of connection to the local environment has led the Ambu Halimun collective to increasingly mirror practices of the Javan gibbon, which consumes fruit high in the canopy and disperses seeds on the forest floor as it moves between trees.
“If a plant is old,” Mirna said, “we’ll take the seeds and replant them again.”
Banner image: The ecoprint fabric created by the Ambu Halimun women’s collective, utilizing plants found in the surrounding Halimun forest. Image by Falahi Mubarok/Mongabay Indonesia.
This story was first published here in Indonesian on May 20, 2026.
Silvery lining for Java’s endangered gibbon as Rahayu Oktaviani wins Whitley prize
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