Budin was the most senior staff at DGFC, besides Benoît and Milena. In 2005, while working on a reforestation project with WWF in the Kinabatangan, he heard of Benoît’s work on elephants. However, because he didn’t speak English, he did not approach Benoît. Budin kept working as a field assistant in projects led by University Malaysia Sabah, including working for the late Fairus Jalil an ex-Cardiff university student who had been supervised by Benoît. In 2007, the then manager of DGFC told him of a vacancy at DGFC. Budin’s job was to aid in the maintenance and logistics of the field centre before its opening. In 2008, once DGFC was already open, he joined the first PTYs as research assistant on their project on orang-utans, mostly cutting trails. Budin starting learning English and boosting his confidence, a path that lead him to become General Manager of DGFC. Currently, Budin is DGFC’s Logistics Manager, and enjoys the opportunity to meet the people from all around the world who comes to work here. Comparing experiences, DGFC is the best place to work at.
When Budin first started, he thought DGFC was providing him a good opportunity in terms of job conditions; he did not expect it will change his life. Initially, he was there because of the salary, the food and accommodation were provided and he could get days off, something he had not seen in the palm oil estates or other places. However, he felt curious by what Benoît and Milena were doing: Why were these foreigners so interested in setting up this place? He felt inspired and motivated by their work: If they can do this job, why cannot any local be a part of it, why not him? Budin fell in love with his work through doing it. The training he received as a research assistant helped, him to understand the importance of the forest and to realise how precious all is. When he was a boy he used to kill birds, lizards, frogs, etc… Now that he is a father, he feels guilty about what he used to do when he was younger and cares about what his child will see in the future.
Budin knows that conservation is not something you can do on your own, but working all together it is possible.