The state of play, the play of state

In a break from form the thinking behind this post is not to tell a story but to let you know an insiders view of the ins and outs of orangutan conservation. Shamelessly, photos of orangutans and the forest will accompany this post, as much to remind me as well as you what this is all about, though they played no part in the week I have just had. I have just spent three days in Jakarta (capital of Indonesia on the island of Java). Myself, Togu the head of Yayorin and Iman, the Team Leader of the Belantikan Conservation Programme (a joint Orangutan Foundation – Yayorin project) flew there on Tuesday, had meetings on Wednesday and Thursday and we flew back to Borneo on Friday. No one begs forgiveness for the air miles/carbon emissions more than us!

The meetings centred on a proposal submitted by the Foundation and Flora and Fauna International (FFI) to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Day One was dominated by the need to prepare a work plan, “pipe line” expenditure, and Terms of Reference for new employees. Thursday, was the face to face meeting with USAID’s contractor, and friday we flew home. The meetings were intense, bureaucratic and purely administrative. Jakarta’s infamous traffic jams were as bad as ever and our hotel was – putting it mildly – awful. So, was it worth it?

Yes.

To save huge tracts of forest requires huge investment. Arguing for the conservation of forest that spans provincial boundaries adds a political dimension, and talking of carbon sequestration/reduced greenhouse gas emissions immediately puts everything into an international context. Our proposal is not complicated; entitled simply “Landscape-based Conservation of Orangutans between Central and West Kalimantan” it aims to bring together and improve conservation initiatives already underway in West Kalimantan (by FFI) and us, in Central Kalimantan. It represents what we have long believed in – NGOs collaborating, not competing – and the pragmatic acceptance that logging operations exist but are not fatal unless the logging concession is subsequently converted to palm oil.

Simple idea and, if I say so myself, the right idea; but now to jump through the hurdles.

Yayorin’s presence was an imperative. As the Indonesian conservation organisation who will do the implementing in Central Kalimantan, they had to be involved all the way. Quite rightly, most of the discussion took place in Indonesian, though trying to translate legalese such as “The recipient may request a waiver of the Marking Plan or of the marking requirements of this provision, in whole or in part, for each program, project, activity, public communication or commodity, or, in exceptional circumstances, for a region or country” was a struggle!

So what was the outcome?

Wildlife Direct is needed, perhaps more than ever. (Fingers crossed) We’ll get the grant. This will expand the range of our joint operations and put more conservation flags on the map. USAID and other big donors are great at providing the training opportunities and supplying the satellite images and computing hardware to analyse them, and we are the first to say thank you for that. But simple things like rucksacks for the guys’ backs, new uniforms and, indeed, anything actually for orangutans themselves falls way outside of “Locally financed procurements must be covered by source and nationality waivers as set forth in 22 CFR 228, Subpart F, except as provided for in mandatory standard provision”.

I am not being cynical. The point is we are trying to do this from top to bottom but always with an eye for what is really happening in the forest. Without a lot of committed people, such as yourselves, being passionate about orangutan conservation, we would not even be talking to USAID or the European Union. But that is only part of the story.

The other part is the nitty-gritty like the fire beaters you so generously sponsored. If we are going to be successful we need to be active and effective at every level, especially at the grass roots, on the front line. Thank you for keeping us there.

A Conservationist’s Dilemma -What to do with Montana?

Before I begin, let me apologise if in my last blog, the photo made it seem Mr (Pak) Sehat was with Montana. The orangutan Pak Sehat was pictured with was Hongky when they had just arrived at Camp Rasak immediately before walking to the feeding site, where final release took place. If a bond between Hongky and Pak Sehat is apparent, well the camera does not lie. Hongky is a boisterous teenager. The mere holding of his hand by Pak Sehat was enough to calm him until he was released and he was free to climb. Montana is different. When I first arrived in Indonesia, Montana was a little bigger than the size of Hongky in the photo. In those days he joined in the "days out" system of the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine (OCCQ). It is really only in the last year or so he has not been able to, and not just because of his size. It is also his character. I thank you very much for your offer "Cathy-California” and Sheryl, but in Montana's case it isn't that "the problem is a shortage of money? Would a specific donation intended let's say to hire 1-2 people...." The problem is what happens when Montana is out of his cage. He wants to roam, to explore, to find his own space. We simply can not provide him with what he needs at the OCCQ and in all honesty no number of extra assistants would change that. If Pak Sehat is not confident letting him out, none of us should be.

Unfortunately, neither can we accommodate Montana in Lamandau. The rehabilitation system as it is set up takes orangutans nearing independence-age and releases them into the wild, though with supplementary feeding. Once in the wild, the orangutans have to take their chances in finding food, dispersing and interacting with other/wild orangutans. Of course, veterinary care and assistants are there to help when things don't go according to plan, but essentially the process is 'hands off'.

Montana doesn't fit into that system. There is too great a risk he will fight with other orangutans, and would likely loose because of his disabilities. He may also be a danger to the staff, or the local people who work in and around the Reserve. We want to be hands off with the orangutans but we also want them to be hands-off with us!

So the alternatives are: building him a permanent enclosure at the OCCQ (as you suggest) or finding a more appropriate release site. While the first seems like the best solution it is by far and away the most expensive. Is that justifiable when there are 300+ other orangutans needing care and new releases sites, and not to mention the arguably more important demands of habitat protection for the wild populations? The OCCQ was not designed to be a sanctuary and it is important for us to stay true to that mission. In the complicated politics of Indonesia if we were to start providing life-time care, in the eyes of the Government, it could potentially weaken our argument for more protected areas and release sites; “why, the orangutans are fine where they are.”

The other alternative is finding a more suitable release site – deep in the heart of the forest. The middle of Tanjung Puting National Park would be ideal but currently orangutans are not allowed to be released there. However, we are confident, one day we will find the right spot. In the meantime, we do what we can for him; whether it is giving him banana trees, or the novel feeding toy Jodie and Peter built for him, ropes, swings, car tyres and hammocks.

Hand on my heart, I do not think Montana “suffers’ at the OCCQ. He is alert and active. However, any cage - at some level - compromises a being’s welfare and we recognize that while we do all we can given the dilemmas of limited resources, priorities and the need to balance conservation against welfare, it is not enough. The tragedy, the “wrong” of Montana’s situation is that an orangutan that big has to be in captivity at all. That’s what we are working to change.

I am sorry this blog has become so long and detailed – it was not meant to be, but perhaps the balancing act we have to perform in caring for the individual and protecting the species is not easily explained. There also is one other point that needs to be made.

In starting out on Wildlife Direct we pledged honesty. We sincerely thank you for your offer of support and none of us are about to turn down donations. Similarly, we have all agonised over what to do with Montana. However, investing heavily and solely in him would not be right. I would ask anyone wanting to help Montana to make their donation towards the OCCQ.

I hope you understand.

Many thanks

Stephen

Reply to recent comments

A quick post about comments. The EU directive banning flying on all of Indonesia's airlines is in view of the recent aeroplane crashes which involved a number of EU personnel. The EU are requesting that Indonesian airlines meet international standards.

Theresa, I will try and get some photos of the rubber cultivation and will then explain about the process. OFI do an Orangutan of the Month but the Orangutan Foundation don't actually do that we just have one orangutan, called Violet, for our Foster Programme. I will try and include more information about individual orangutans, including Violet, in my blog. As always, thanks for the encouraging comments and interesting questions.

Protecting the Belantikan forests and its orangutans.

Thank you Theresa S. and Faye B. for your most recent donations - your ongoing support is much appreciated. In the last few weeks we have received a few reports from the team in Belantikan on various fauna and flora that have been surveyed. They are really interesting so I'll post about these soon but first I would like to give you a proper introduction to this region and our work there as I have only mentioned Belantikan briefly before.

It is only in the last few years that the true extent of the Belantikan’s incredible biodiversity has been revealed. A survey, by Togu Simorangkir, in 2003, found an estimated 6,000 orangutans and a very high level of biodiversity– this is the third largest orangutan population in the world and the largest population outside of a protected area. These facts make Belantikan a high priority site for orangutan conservation.

Upland forest of the Belantikan Hulu

The Belantikan forests spread from the foothills of the Schwaner Mountains between the Arut region and the border of West Kalimantan (see map).

(Sorry about the quality of the map!!)

It is a spectacular place with steep cliffs and waterfalls. There are many rivers flowing through the valleys, including the main Belantikan River that flows into the Lamandau River. There are a variety of habitat types that includes lowland forests, swamp and upland forests thus creating a diverse range of ecosystems with abundant species of flora and fauna. Research into the biodiversity of the region has so far found; ten primate species (includes orangutans), seven of these species are listed as protected and four are endemic to Kalimantan (found nowhere else); 31 non-primate mammals species; 207 bird species; 32 amphibian species; 38 reptile species and 59 fish species. It is thought that there are many more species in Belantikan that haven’t yet been found. Installing camera traps in this area could help to reveal more species and previously undiscovered ones.

The forests of Belantikan are a biodiversity hotspot and an estimated 6,000 orangutans are found there.

The Belantikan region belongs administratively to 13 villages, the Belantikan Raya District and the Central Kalimantan Province. The communties of Belantikan depend on the forest products, both timber and non-timber, for their livelihoods. They have a strong spiritual bond with the forest and unique traditional rituals and cultures.

Unfortunately Belantikan is under threat. It is not a protected area and currently most of the forested area of Belantikan is a logging concession. Gold mining used to occur but has now stopped, however, its impacts are still seen and felt by the local communities with some rivers having been badly polluted. Iron ore mining is now posing a real threat with licences for exploration having been awarded. If it goes ahead the consequences could be disastrous for this forest and its wildlife - this is a real worry and we are monitoring the situation very closely.

The Belantikan Conservation Programme (BCP) is a partnership between Yayorin (local NGO) and the Orangutan Foundation, and with an EC /UNEP/Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) grant, we are actively involved in the conservation of this area and its large orangutan population. As I have mentioned Belantikan is owned by the local village communities, and ultimately, the fate of these forests are in their hands. We try to influence how the communities use and manage the forests by offering advice and demonstrating alternative income-generating solutions. Within the communities we are increasing conservation awareness and the recognition, of Belantikan, as an important resource for their future.

Rattan -being processed. Rattan is one of the main sources of income for local communities.

Balai Belajar -the training centre where the BCP team demonstrate sustainable agriculture and advise on other income generating techniques for the local communities.

This important orangutan population has just been found, and now we know it is there, we have to ensure its long-term survival and protect this invaluable ecosystem.

All creatures great and small

I see the number of comments my posts are attracting has shot up. However, the comments also make me think you are a strange lot. Here I am supposed to be writing about orangutans, I tell a nightmare story about spiders and I get a deluge of replies! If you want more horrible spider stories, stand by because here's another one. Thank you F. J. PECHIR for telling me the spider, an arachnophobic's worst nightmare, that I had in my bathroom, was in fact harmless. It is reassuring but I have to question the use of the word "little"? I could joke that I too would handle them with a telephone directory, but I totally accept your point that spiders are part of a healthy ecosystem. I just wish they weren't part of mine!

A couple of years ago, on an orangutan survey, I felt something on my arm. To my horror I discovered it was one of the long legged spiders shown in the photo below (can you identify it F.J. PECHIR?).

Now, in a perverse kind of way, I had always wanted to know what I would do if I had a big spider on me: would I freak out, throw a blue fit and probably get bitten? Or would I freeze? That experiment has now been conducted and I can tell you the instinctive reaction is to freeze. At least until your friendly, local field assistant flicks it off. I would like to be able to tell you I then cracked a joke and carried on just as Indiana Jones would do. That, however, is a club I am not a member of.

One of the sayings (gross generalisations?) you hear about spiders in Borneo is "if they climb walls or sit in webs, they are harmless. If they run on the ground or have burrows, they are bad". Photo number 2 is a bird-eating spider. You guessed it: it lives in a burrow, is incredibly aggressive and is huge. The first one I ever saw was picked up in the car headlights as it crossed a road! I do not know how many birds they catch but they are certainly partial to mice.

The photo of the stag beetle is thrown into as a challenge to any palmetto bugs out there!

I also thought you might be interested to see some pictures of Camp Leakey, the original study site of Dr Galdikas. When you are in Camp Leakey you do get a sense of history; some of the orangutans she talks about in her autobiography "Reflections of Eden" are still there today.

The release of rehabilitated orangutans at Camp Leakey ceased in 1995 but many of the ex-captive orangutans, or their offspring, still wander in and out of Camp. Observing the ex-captive orangutan’s behaviour provides an insight into orangutan intelligence that couldn’t be gained from wild orangutans. The apparent ease with which they imitate human behaviour (washing laundry, opening locks on doors) confirms just how intelligent this great ape really is!

It's all about team work!

I know I promised I said I'd write more about orangutans soon. Tomorrow I'll make good on that promise, as this afternoon I have to go to the Orangutan Care Centre Quarantine. There will be a story soon!

More orangutans back in the wild

At the very end of last year, we released four more orangutans into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. It was a great way to end the year for me, and I hope it was for the orangutans as well. They certainly took to the forest with enthusiasm. For two of the orangutans, it was not their first taste of life in the wild. Boni and Sawit were returned to the Care Centre earlier in the year with medical problems. Boni miscarried and our staff feared there were complications. However, after a period of recuperation she was back to normal and ready for re-release. I don’t go on every release but, as this would be the last release of the year, it seemed auspicious.

As an aside, though my photos of her won’t do her justice, Boni is actually a particularly attractive orangutan. I know some people are uncomfortable with the idea of judging orangutans but we might as well be honest: just like people, there are fat ones, thin ones, light coloured, dark, long-haired types, balding, heavy browed, floppy-lipped orangutans and a whole lot more. I am not pretending to run a beauty competition but I will say Boni is Hollywood’s idea of what an orangutan should look like! And I don’t think I am alone.

Orangutans as they arrive (Boni is the darker orangutan in the middle)

As soon as she was let go, she ran straight up to a sub-adult male who had come in to meet the new arrivals. They noisily disappeared into the trees and did not even come down for the food which was laid out for them.

Andi was one of the first time releases. Normally we release orangutans when they are between six and eight years old, roughly their natural independence age. Andi however is only four. At the Care Centre he had been adopted by Sawit and it was only right that they were released together. Despite the number of orphans at the Care Centre surprisingly few adoptions actually work. Older females will be happy cage-mates with young orangutans but their relationship won’t develop to the extent of sharing food, carrying, protective behaviour or sleeping together all of which a natural mother would do. In Andi and Sawit’s case the relationship was complete. They were in separable, as I learnt to my cost.

Andi at full stretch!

The orangutans were released at Camp Rasak which is where Kath and Jutak were released in November. I am pleased to report that Kath has moved away from the release site into the forest and this is not surprising as she was an older orangutan. Jutak makes the occasional appearance but is not seen every day. The Assistants feel she is still wary of the sub-adult males but she may be seen more frequently as her confidence increases.

Camp Rasak was built by our volunteer teams in 2005 and it is a great camp, incredibly peaceful and, perhaps best of all, it is built on dry ground which is hard to find in swampy Lamandau. It is a refreshing experience to be able to walk normally rather than sloshing through water. I therefore did not mind slinging Sawit on my back for the short walk to the release site.

Short walk? Feeding sites are moved regularly because of the pressure the orangutans exert on the area; they break trees and branches, and often nest nearby. Changing the feeding location stops one particular area being degraded too heavily. Our diligent staff had moved the feeding platform a further 300m away from Camp. And, of course, I wasn’t just carrying Sawit on my back – Andi was on hers!

So in moving the platform the staff were being conscientious which I am sure I would have found pleasing had I not been lugging a combined 57kg of red ape; couldn’t someone have told me?!

Settling in to their new home, the forests of Lamandau.

Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ)

The last time I wrote, I talked about Mr Sehat from the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ). I thought you might like to learn a little more about the Centre and what goes on there. The OCCQ is located in a village on the outskirts of Pangkalan Bun and is where we receive orphaned, confiscated or injured orangutans. It is the first step of the rehabilitation process, which will end with the orangutans being released back into the wild in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. The Centre was opened in 1998 and its facilities include an operating theatre, X-ray room, laboratory, library and separate quarantine complex. Adjoining the OCCQ is a remnant patch of rainforest which provides a learning area and “halfway house” for the orangutans before they return to a life in the wild. Three Indonesian vets, two laboratory technicians and over 100 local people are employed there. Currently, the OCCQ is caring for over 300 orangutans in various stages of rehabilitation. Orangutans are received as young as four months old and may remain at the OCCQ until the age of ten, or even older. Often when they arrive, the orangutans need 24-hour care. Many are severely traumatised and suffer from disease, injury and malnutrition. Without a high degree of care, they would not survive.

It is very difficult to describe how one feels about the OCCQ. It certainly confuses me. The orangutans receive the best of care and it is real joy to witness their recovery and development as they go through the process of rehabilitation. However, the fact can't be ignored that far too many are in captivity and this is because their habitat is being destroyed. Over-crowding is a chronic problem, which is why finding release sites, like the new Mangkong one, is so important.

OCCQ from above - (Jodie & Pete Sheridan)

The OCCQ generates an endless wish list – medicines, equipment, children’s multi-vitamins, infant-formula milk and a host of other things. With some of those things, I can try to help but with limited resources available it does create the dilemma of where money would be best spent - improving the short-term welfare of the orangutans at OCCQ or tackling the longer term problems of habitat loss and therefore protection for the wild population. We try to get the balance right. By working intensively in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, a government designated release site, we achieve both welfare and conservation gains. We can get the orangutans out of cages while, at the same time, protect a large area of forest.

I have included a short piece about the OCCQ from Jodie Sheridan. Jodie and her husband Peter are Australians who are volunteering at the OCCQ under the Australian equivalent of VSO or the Peace Corps. Jodie had written a piece for her sponsorship programme’s newsletter which makes interesting reading.

Jodie writes:

It’s hard to believe Pete and I are fast approaching the two year mark for living here in Indonesia. It feels like only yesterday that the Australian Orangutan Project (AOP) and the Volunteering for International Development from Australia (VIDA) Program selected us to come to Borneo to help orphaned orangutans. It has been an adventure to say the least, full of amazing moments and tough times too.

Highlights come to mind easily.

For Peter, being a huge snake fan, seeing spitting cobras, vipers and reticulated pythons in the wild certainly rates a mention from him but his most rewarding moment came after working solidly for three months building a playground for the smallest of the orangutan orphans and seeing them use it for the first time.

Play time! (Jodie & Pete Sheridan)

Watching the small babies swing, roll, jump, smile and laugh because of the work we had done felt truly amazing.

For me, it’s too hard to choose just one highlight so you get a couple of my most favourite moments!

Setting up enrichment programs to stop the orangutans getting bored on days they can’t play in the forest. Something as simple as a hessian sack or cardboard box can provide hours of fun. Going with armed Indonesian Police in the middle of the night and seizing an orphaned orangutan being kept illegally at someone’s house certainly gets the adrenaline pumping. Generally the orangutans are kept in such appalling conditions that if we don’t get to them quickly they can die from malnutrition, neglect or disease. But I guess I would have to say the most magical moment was releasing an orangutan named Gloria back to the wild. When Gloria was captured she received major wounds to her upper arm and as a result had very little use of one hand, she was also terrified and angry towards people. I befriended Gloria and was able to take her to the forest regularly to strengthen her muscles. After 5 months she had almost full use of her hand and even though she was young, her forest skills were remarkable. Gloria was taken to our release site and as she moved off into the jungle, she turned and looked back at me before slipping out of sight. Thinking about that moment still gives me chills. She is still occasionally spotted and is happily living independently in the forest and I could not have asked for anything better.

But it devastates us to think that even with all the work done on trying to save the orangutan species that more orangutan infants are orphaned everyday and the problem is only getting worse. Indonesia’s rainforests are destroyed at a rate of a 6 football fields every minute due to illegal logging and clear felling to make way for a booming palm oil industry. Palm oil, that is on every shelf, in every supermarket, in every country in the world

Setting Orangutans Free

It is about time you read a story about orangutans, so here is a great one. Last Sunday, we released two teenage female orangutans back to a life in the wild. Kath and Jutak came to us as orphans. Both were confiscated from people who were holding them illegally as pets. Kath’s story is particularly tragic. She was confiscated from an animal dealer, in West Kalimantan (the neighbouring province) way back in 1998. She was chained around the neck, where the skin was rubbed raw. She cowered from her “owner” who became very aggressive during the confiscation. Eventually, the Police were called to tell him to back off.

During her time at the Orangutan Care and Quarantine, Kath’s weight increased over three-fold. On Sunday she weighed a healthy 25kg. Unfortunately, Kath was plagued by a persistent cough which prevented her from being released any earlier. The nightmare disease with captive primates is tuberculosis but repeated tests for TB came back negative. However, the cough would not respond to any medication whether homeopathic or western. It is only in the last couple of months her cough has subsided. And as soon as that happened, we thought “time to go!”

Kath and Jutak in the pick-up

After a final health check by the vets, the two orangutans were carried over to the travel cages, which were then loaded on to the back of the Forestry Department’s pick-up. (I laughed when I saw a little orangutan in one of the neighbouring enclosures standing on tip-toes trying to see what was going on). At this point, Kath and Jutak were OK, but their adrenaline must have been starting to flow. After the twenty minute drive to the jetty they looked decidedly nervous. When we tried to move their cages into the waiting speedboats, it became all too much. The orangutans tried to grab onto whatever they could to stop themselves from being lifted. Their fingers were gently prised open and the cages lowered into the boats.

As quickly as possible the boats took off and the two orangutans seemed to settle down, watching the river bank drift past. Kath even drank some water and ate an orange, which a truly scared orangutan would never do. A Brahminy kite circled overhead and twice hornbills flew across the river in front of us. Once we turned off the main Lamandau River into the Rasau River, a smaller, black-water tributary, the boats had to slow down, and the orangutans became positively curious. No doubt they were smelling the forest.

Once at Camp Rasak, far upstream, their cages were lifted onto a well barrow and trundled into the surrounding forest. Each Camp has a feeding site, which is also where orangutans are released so they know straight away where they can find food. The aim of rehabilitation is to return orangutans back to a life in the wild. The food they are given each day is only a supplement. It does not meet their full dietary requirement, so the orangutans still have to forage, but it does gives them some stability has they adapt to life in the forest.

Release site feeding platform

In the OCCQ, the orangutans sleep inside at night. In Lamandau, they have to make a new nest each day. At the OCCQ, the older orangutans are only taken to the nursery forest every second day – so we can separate males and females to stop unwanted pregnancies (we are happy if they breed in the forest, but we don’t want any more babies in cages). In Lamandau, the orangutans will be climbing and moving all day, every day. It takes the orangutans some time in their new surroundings to find the food trees, and to work out where the previously released orangutans’ home ranges are. For all these reasons the feeding sites are useful on top of which they allow our field assistants to monitor daily who is around, whether they are in a good physical condition.

In the wild again!!!

On Sunday, at the feeding site, Kath and Jutak climbed out as soon as their cage door swung open. But their excitement was not yet over. Straight away they were faced by Janu, a rather rambunctious teenage male. His thoughts were not on the mangoes laid out on the feeding platform, but on the two nubile females just arrived. He tried to inspect Kath who challenged him and slipped out of his grasp. There is no way a female orangutan can physically resist a sub-adult, let alone a fully adult male, but Kath had a plan. As she ducked out of the way, she exposed Jutak who Janu grabbed and held down with ease.

Curious Janu

I actually felt very sorry for Jutak. After having been loaded into a travel cage, driven in a car, put in a speedboat, and finally wheeled on a wheelbarrow, both her and Kath must have been, at the very least, bewildered. To be then grabbed and held down by a male of whose size she had never encountered, must have been the final straw. Jutak whimpered as Janu held her. The Assistants closed in to make sure he did not bite her, but nothing aggressive happened. Janu poked prodded and sniffed but then let her go. Jutak dashed up a tree and climbed hurriedly away. Kath, by this time had moved some off some 30m and was watching from high up in a tree.

We left them at sunset as both orangutans made their first nests in their new home. Two assistants will follow the orangutans for a week, recording how far they travel, what they eat and where they sleep. This way we can make sure they are settling in OK.

Despite the adventures of the day, it looked as if both will do just fine. We’ll keep you updated on their progress.

Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) to successful rehabilitation.

I want to introduce you to the OCCQ because behind the need to save the forests, is the need to save the orphaned orangutans who ultimately all come from the forests which have been lost. Increasing numbers of orangutans are arriving at the OCCQ as their habitat is destroyed. The OCCQ currently has over 300 orangutans and we urgently need to release the older orangutans back to the wild, where they belong. To date 155 orangutans have been released in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, most of who have come from the OCCQ.

Very young orphan orangutan with carer

Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine facility

Inside the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, we operate five release-camps each with a staff of up to seven field assistants. OF plans to build two more release camps at Lamandau to relieve pressure at the OCCQ. One of the camps will be constructed by participants from our invaluable Volunteer Programme and we are currently trying to raise funds for the construction of the other site and both release camps’ running costs.

The release of orangutans into the Lamandau creates a visible reason to increase the protection of threatened forests. Last August we managed to stop the establishment of an 8,000 ha oil-palm plantation that would have wiped out the reserve's buffer zone and impacted heavily on the nearby Lamandau River.