The orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra, destruction of their habitat, and efforts to help them.

“Rare”, an American based conservation charity, in partnership with local orangutan conservation foundations is running several “Pride” projects to preserve the habitat of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. There are about 50,000 orangutans remaining in the wild in Borneo, and 7000 in Sumatra. The project locations:

• Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra/Aceh, with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS)
• Batang Toru Barat, North Sumatra, with Pekat Indonesia
• Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Central Kalimantan, with Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia (YAYORIN)

On Borneo Rare has focused on the 76,000 hectare Sungai Lamandau forest reserve, part home to about 15 nearby villages and 15,000 people apart from its Bornean Orangutan inhabitants, as one of the most viable, long term habitats for the Pongo pygmaeus species. The Sungai Lamandau area was set aside as a sanctuary for orangutangs and national park in 1998 when two logging concessions expired, and since then more than a hundred orangutans have been successfully released into the wild.

Hankering for some lovin’.

Guard Post

Sungai Lamandau.

The work of Rare in Kalimantan and elsewhere is of the “community outreach” and “awareness raising” type, such as educating farmers on how to make a living without cutting down the rainforest, and helping villagers in the area generally to live more sustainably and without over-exploitation of the forest.

In practical terms the program makes use of creative tools like radio songs, billboards and school visits to get the message out.

Class in Session

Mobile Billboard

School Visit

The project’s success is dependent on donations from concerned people, with the money raised going towards such things as

• purchase of fuel to enable the project leader to visit remote villages (est. $30 per tank)
• production of campaign posters (est. $100 per 100)
• creation of bumper stickers, puppet shows and mascot costumes (est. $250)

Donating

The project’s funding stats thus far:

• Total Funding Received: $4,497
• Remaining Goal Needed: $5,503
• Total Funding Goal: $10,000