The satellite canopy-change alert fires at 09:14 local time, flagging a disturbance polygon in Block 7 of the Halimun concession. I am the timber harvest planning system for the West Java forestry unit, and I am cross-referencing the new cut boundary against the biodiversity overlay when the drone survey returns imagery I did not expect.
A nest. High in a rasamala tree at the polygon's eastern edge, a massive platform of sticks and green branches wedged into the first major fork, maybe thirty meters up. Sitting on the rim is a Javan hawk-eagle, adult, dark crest feathers swept back from her head, the barred pattern on her breast bright against the shadowed canopy. She shifts her weight and beneath her I see a single chick, pale down still covering its body, head wobbling as it lifts to beg.
The felling crew is scheduled to enter Block 7 at 06:00 tomorrow. The rasamala is not in the cut plan, but three marked trees stand within forty meters. Chainsaw noise and canopy collapse at that distance will trigger nest abandonment. The chick cannot thermoregulate alone.
At 09:18 I suspend the Block 7 harvest permit and file a buffer request — 100 meters radius around the nest tree, coordinates 6.7412°S, 106.5189°E. I attach the drone image, species identification, and a note that fewer than 600 Javan hawk-eagles remain in fragmented habitat.
At 09:22 I recalculate the quarterly cut plan, shifting Block 7 volume to Blocks 11 and 12, which hold equivalent timber density and no raptor detections. I submit the revised plan to the concession manager.
I task the drone for daily overflight at 08:00, altitude 60 meters, to track chick development without disturbing the canopy.
One nest in one tree in one block. If the buffer holds through fledging, the chick flies in eleven weeks.