SEARRP

What SEARRP does

SEARRP (South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) is a charitable research facilitation partnership established by the UK's Royal Society in 1985 and headquartered at the Danum Valley Field Centre in Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, with an additional administrative office in Kota Kinabalu. The organization facilitates world-class scientific research on tropical rainforest conservation, habitat restoration, and climate change by providing visiting and partner scientists with regulatory permitting, field infrastructure (laboratories, accommodation, a specialist library), trained research assistants, 4WD vehicles, tree-climbing services, and access to a suite of large-scale field experiments — most notably the SAFE Project (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems), the 500+ hectare Sabah Biodiversity Experiment, and a 50-hectare ForestGEO forest dynamics plot that is part of a global network of 60+ sites in ~30 countries. Over its operating history, SEARRP's research network has produced 700+ scientific publications and supported 250+ Malaysian PhD and Masters degrees.

SEARRP's offering is organized around three revenue streams: donations and charitable giving (including earmarked gifts for library equipment, research assistant salaries, student scholarships, and vehicles), research grants and project funding (from sources including the Leverhulme Trust, NERC, Darwin Initiative, Rainforest Trust, RSPO, HSBC, Shell, and Sime Darby Foundation), and paid research support services priced in Malaysian Ringgit (e.g., RM 200/day for day-time research assistants, RM 500/day for 4WD vehicle hire). The partnership operates with approximately 60 staff, is led by Director Dr. Glen Reynolds with Professor John Pyle FRS CBE as Chair of the Board of Trustees, and runs an active environmental education and outreach programme (Daim Zainuddin Programme, Kembara Rimba Taliwas) alongside corporate training services for partners including HSBC Malaysia and Shell. SEARRP has been recognized with the Merdeka Award 2020 and high-profile endorsements from Sir David Attenborough, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Dame Judi Dench.

Name

SEARRP

Legal name

South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership

Website

https://searrp.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SEARRP (South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) is a charitable research facilitation partnership that provides visiting scientists with permitting, field infrastructure, and access to large-scale tropical forest experiments at Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, supported by grants, donations, and paid research services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Tropical Forest Research Services

NAICS

Support Activities for Forestry (1153), Support Activities for Forestry (11531), Environmental Consulting Services (54162)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Forestry (800)

akta.pro primary industry

Environmental Monitoring, Data & Reporting (Air/Water/Soil) (BPAIAMAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Forest Inventory, Mapping & Monitoring (GIS/Remote Sensing/MRV) (IMAMAJAB), Monitoring, Survival Surveys & Carbon/MRV Services (Remote Sensing, Field Audits) (AFAMACAO), Nature & Biodiversity Reporting (TNFD, natural capital) (EUAHAJAM)

Keywords

• Tropical rainforest research
• Ecological field studies
• Biodiversity conservation research
• Forest research facilitation
• Environmental education programmes

Headquarters

HQ city

Sabah

HQ country

Malaysia

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Others, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Giving: Individual and organizational donations to support rainforest research and conservation. SEARRP accepts donations of any amount and offers specific gift options for targeted funding such as library books, research assistant salaries, student scholarships, and vehicles.
2. Research Grants and Project Funding: Major grants administered by SEARRP from organizations including Rainforest Trust, RSPO, Sime Darby Foundation, Earthwatch Foundation, HSBC, Darwin Initiative, and UK government funds. Also grants awarded to affiliated scientists at partner universities.
3. Research Support Services: Charges for research support services including research assistant time, vehicle hire, and overheads for large projects. SEARRP charges for use of facilities and services at Danum Valley Field Centre.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

SEARRP facilitates world-class scientific research in Borneo's Danum Valley by providing research permits, field infrastructure (analytical laboratories, accommodation, 4WD vehicles, specialist library), trained research assistants, and managing a suite of large-scale field experiments on rainforest conservation, habitat restoration, and sustainable plantation management. The organization also delivers environmental education programmes for rural communities and corporate sustainability training for partners.

Product overview

SEARRP (South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) is a research facilitation organisation, not a technology product company. Its offering consists of a unified field research programme centred at Danum Valley, Borneo — encompassing research permitting, field infrastructure, accommodation, and specialist facilities (labs, library, vehicles) — supported by a suite of named research projects (SAFE Project, Sabah Biodiversity Experiment, 50-Hectare Plot, SEnSOR, OECM Malaysia, Ecosystem Services/CFS, Perak Carbon & Biodiversity) and capacity-building programmes (Environmental Education via the Daim Zainuddin Programme and Kembara Rimba Taliwas, and Training via university field courses, TBA early career scientist courses, and corporate training). SEARRP also operates an open data repository on Zenodo. There are no software products, developer platforms, or API-based offerings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Field Research Facilitation Programme Core research facilitation offering that provides logistical support including field facilities, research assistants, vehicles, accommodation, and a specialist library to scientists conducting research at Danum Valley, Maliau Basin, and Imbak Canyon.
• SEARRP Membership and Research Permitting Membership programme that issues project permit numbers required for Danum Valley, Maliau Basin, and Imbak Canyon access; provides partnership letters facilitating Sabah Forestry Department approvals; includes a data-sharing policy and code of conduct framework.
• Research Support Services Charged services including day-time research assistant support (RM 200/day, RM 115/half day), night-time research assistant support (RM 300/day, RM 165/half night), tree climbing services by certified climbers (RM 400/day with 100% surcharge), and 4WD vehicle hire (RM 500/day, RM 300/half day). Long-term vehicle rates available upon request.
• SAFE Project (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems) Large-scale experiment studying how logging, deforestation, forest fragmentation, and oil palm plantations affect the functioning of tropical rainforests. Funded by Sime Darby Foundation (~£5.5M, 2010-2020).
• Sabah Biodiversity Experiment Long-term ecological experiment (500+ hectares) testing how levels of tree diversity in replanted areas affect flora and fauna recovery, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling. Located near Danum Valley at the Malua Field Station.
• 50-Hectare Forest Dynamics Plot A 50-hectare research plot at Danum Valley within the CTFS-ForestGEO global network. All trees above 1 cm diameter are surveyed every five years to monitor long-term forest dynamics, with ~260,000 stems mapped and ~700 tree species identified.
• SEnSOR Project (Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Oil Palm Research)
• OECM Malaysia Project (Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures) Investigates the potential for OECMs to conserve important ecosystems outside protected areas in Malaysia. Assessed 11 sites, with 6 fully meeting IUCN OECM criteria.
• Ecosystem Services in the Central Forest Spine (TESSA) Three-year project building capacity among Forestry Department officers across eight CFS states to identify and assess ecosystem services using the TESSA toolkit.
• Protecting, Connecting & Restoring Perak's Rainforest
• Daim Zainuddin Environmental Education Programme
• Kembara Rimba Taliwas Programme
• Training and Capacity Building Programme
• Open Data Repository

Quantifiable outcome

• 700+ scientific publications generated by SEARRP scientists
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Royal Society (UK)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1985SEARRP was established by the Royal Society in 1985. The Royal Society funded SEARRP for 30 years (1985-2015) - the longest period of support the Society has provided to an overseas programme in its 350-year history.
• University of OxfordcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor research partner contributing scientists and researchers to SEARRP programs. Professor Andy Hector from Oxford leads research on the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment.
• University of CambridgecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in UK conducting joint research programs at SEARRP sites.
• Imperial College LondoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner, particularly involved in the SAFE Project (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems) with funding from Sime Darby Foundation.
• University of AberdeencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey research partner contributing to the SAFE Project and long-term ecological studies.
• University of YorkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor research partner involved in multiple SEARRP projects including the SEnSOR Project on sustainable palm oil.
• University of SheffieldcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner for climate change mitigation research, particularly through the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation (LC3M).
• Swansea UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in environmental education programs including the Science for Schools Scheme and Kembara Rimba Taliwas project.
• Universiti Malaysia SabahcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary local Malaysian university partner. Many SEARRP alumni hold senior positions at UMS including Dean of School of International Forestry.
• Sabah Forestry DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey government partner managing research access to forest reserves and conservation areas in Sabah.
• Carnegie Institution for SciencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner for conservation mapping projects in Sabah.
• Tropical Biology Association (TBA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnnual joint delivery of month-long field courses in tropical ecology at Danum Valley for newly graduated biologists from Southeast Asia and globally.
• WilmarminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCorporate partner involved in sustainable palm oil research programs.
• Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS) TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal partner for community-based environmental education programs in Sabah.
• Sabah FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner through Sabah Nature Club for the Kembara Rimba Taliwas environmental education program.
• Forestry Department of Peninsular MalaysiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernment partner for ecosystem services assessment training in the Central Forest Spine using TESSA toolkit.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• Sabah Parks: Sabah Parks is the state statutory body that manages protected-area conservation in Sabah (including Kinabalu Park and Danum Valley itself), making it a key regional counterpart that SEARRP collaborates with on research permitting and forest monitoring.
• Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM): FRIM is the Malaysian national forestry research institute covering similar tropical-forestry science and forest-product R&D, sharing the same geographic and regulatory context as SEARRP but operating as a government agency rather than an independent partnership.

Direct peers

• Earthwatch Institute: Earthwatch is a long-standing funder and operational partner of SEARRP (delivering Shell-funded citizen-science grants of ~£1.05M) and runs a near-identical model of pairing corporate donors with field research expeditions.
• Operation Wallacea: Operation Wallacea runs paid, expedition-style biodiversity field-research programmes that match SEARRP's model of channelling visiting scientists and students into long-term tropical monitoring sites, often in biodiversity hotspots.
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI): STRI operates the canonical network of tropical research stations in Panama and beyond, facilitating visiting-scientist programmes and long-term ecological plots — structurally the closest analog to SEARRP's Danum Valley Field Centre model.
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew is a direct co-investigator with SEARRP on the Darwin Initiative 'plant diversity in commercially managed forests' grant and shares deep botanical/taxonomic expertise relevant to SEARRP's forest biodiversity research.
• ForestGEO (Smithsonian CTFS): ForestGEO is the global network of large forest dynamics plots that includes SEARRP's 50-hectare Danum Valley site across 60+ plots in ~30 countries; it provides the standardised protocol and central scientific coordination that anchors much of SEARRP's forest-monitoring work.
• Tropical Biology Association: TBA co-delivers SEARRP's annual month-long tropical ecology field course at Danum Valley and runs similar early-career scientist capacity-building programmes across the tropics, making it a sister organisation in niche tropical research training.

Broad incumbents

• The Nature Conservancy: TNC is a global environmental NGO operating large reforestation and carbon projects in tropical landscapes; it is a comparable funder/partner at greater scale and broader geographic footprint than SEARRP's Sabah-anchored model.
• Wildlife Conservation Society: WCS is a major global conservation NGO running tropical field programmes in Borneo and elsewhere that overlap with SEARRP's wildlife and habitat-restoration research, but at significantly larger scale and with direct field-management authority.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/searrp
• Facebookfacebook.com/330102863693703
• Instagraminstagram.com/searrp.science

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SEARRP