Supporting since 2010
Location
Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Borneo
Support started
2010
Species
Bornean Orangutan
Mission
The Orangutan Foundation is the world’s foremost orangutan conservation organisation. They are saving Asia’s endangered great ape by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities and promoting research and education.
Donations:
Donations go towards the vet’s annual salary, post-release monitoring of the Bornean orangutan population in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and veterinary equipment for a wildlife clinic.
2024 – 2025:
£7,500 donated this year.
Background
The Orangutan Foundation, founded in 1990, works to protect the orangutan’s tropical forest habitat, support local communities, who are as dependent on the forest as the orangutans, and promote research and education.
The Lamandau Wildlife Reserve is a conservation area spanning over 158,000 acres in western Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, that was established in 1998 from two former logging concessions. The reserve is protected by manned guard posts, strategically located at important waterways, enabling the team to report any illegal activity. The Foundation also operates five orangutan post-release monitoring camps where field teams care for orphaned orangutans in a soft-release reintroduction programme and continuously monitor orangutans in the surrounding forest. The young orangutans in the soft-release programme learn forest skills necessary for life in the wild and, once fully prepared, are then ready for release.
Through their reintroduction programme, the Orangutan Foundation has helped to create and maintain a viable, self-sustaining orangutan population of over 600 individuals in the reserve, as well as increasing the area of prime forest habitat under conservation by 29%.
From time to time, situations arise outside of the protected reserve that require the team to help with the rescue and translocation of wildlife in need. These rescues normally involve orangutans spotted in or near community lands or plantations, potentially putting them at risk of human-animal conflict. Veterinary assistance ensures the highest welfare standards are available to expertly treat these orangutans straight away before release into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.
Achievements and Objectives
In 2023, nine orangutans were rescued from potential conflict and released into protected rainforest, including a mother and infant spotted in the canopy of a tree in a community oil palm plantation.
Currently there are six orangutans in the soft-release programme who are learning the skills necessary for an independent life in the wild – namely nest building and foraging for food, and they are eligible for release once they have mastered these skills. In October 2023, the team welcomed Logos into the soft release programme; a 2 year old male Bornean orangutan who was rescued in transit to Thailand to be sold as a pet.
Going forwards, the Orangutan Foundation will work to ensure that all orangutans in and around the protected Lamandau Wildlife Reserve have a secure future; this includes orphaned, reintroduced, and wild individuals.
