The True Guardians of the Forest

On the 30^th April, Foundation staff ran their routine patrols. As most of you know, habitat protection is a core priority for the Orangutan Foundation: if the forests are not safe, neither are the orangutans. The use of guard posts and patrols to protect Tanjung Puting National Park and the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve from illegal logging, farming, mining and hunting has so far been extremely successful. Thus after hearing new reports of illegal logging taking place in Pos Rasau, Foundation staff hastily set out in a speedboat with 7 people from the BKSDA and the Department of Forestry, as well as 2 police officers.

Here they discovered the remnants of illegal logging activities.

Though the perpetrators were nowhere to be seen, they had left behind 12 planks of timber, and 12 types of wood varnish. In a nearby location, many more planks of timber were found, as well as the personal cooking supplies of the loggers, who had again evaded being caught by our patrols.

Yet while on the river towards Mangkung, our patrols found a group of people loading more planks of wood onto their boat.

When they pulled up on site, the police and the Department of Forestry employees were able to order the workers to end their illegal logging in this location. Our patrols will continue to monitor this area in the weeks to come to ensure this order is taken seriously.

The Foundation is confident that thanks to our use of patrols, cases of illegal logging can be brought to an end before escalating any further in these critical areas of orangutan forest.

All in the day of an orangutan vet…

At the Orangutan Foundation, by the end of each day, hopefully we will have reached to you with stories of from the field, births, rescues, translocations, and recent research findings. But a day’s work can also include orangutans that have fallen sick. Of course, those events are just the beginning – constantly our teams are developing the Foundation’s efforts and working toward the prolonged health of forest habitat.

Recently an orangutan Jupe, a young female orangutan that was released on the first of July, was brought back to camp.  She was seen looking thin and weak. The vet examined her and conducted a faeces examination. There was no sign of parasitic worms, often a sign of sickness.  The vet prescribed a course of multivitamins and all signs are that she is recovering her energy. She was under the watchful eye of the camp staff, watched until she is well enough to be released again.

The latest news is that she has been well enough to be re-released. She moved off so fast when released back into her protected forest home, that she left the staff far behind (as they tried to check her behaviour now back in the wild) !  Our staff will follow her for around a week to make sure she's 100% OK on her own.

Unpredictable and new situations that require immediate judgment are of course common place in most places of work, but when the place of work is in the forests of Borneo, you have to add some extra unpredictability!Click here for more information on our work and our various sites.