School Visit to Kampung Konservasi

"By listening I know; By seeing I understand; By doing I make a difference.” The children enthusiastically approached the two cows in their stable. In their hands were the newly-cut, fresh, green leaves. They waited impatiently for their turns, and their face lit up when the cows ate the leaves.

Feeding the cows is probably a simple and common thing for those who live in small villages and have cows. For these children from Islam Terpadu Elementary School, however, this simple thing became an extraordinary experience. It was probably the first time they ever saw a cow in their life. The participants on this visit were 1st grade students, 55 of them, and 5 of their teachers.

Feeding the cows was one of education activities we conducted during this school visit at Yayorin's Kampung Konservasi. This outdoor learning focuses to integrate knowledge the children learn from school with some field experiences. This way, students not only understand the theories and facts, but most importantly, understand and respect the knowledge they receive.

Another activity that the children found very exciting was when they were asked to plant vegetable seeds. This time, they planted pokchai ( a type of vegetable similar to chinese spinach) in black polybags. With enthusiasm they grabbed handfuls of soil that was already mixed with organic compost and put it in the polybags. Each of them made a little hole on the soil with a finger, put one seed in it, and covered it with soil. Finally, they carefully watered the planted seeds. The children really loved it!

Other than feeding the cows and planting vegetable seeds, the children also watched an environmental movie in our little theatre and listened to story-telling in the library. The morning passed by very quickly, and everybody was sad when we had to say goodbye.

Kampung Konservasi tries to use nature as a learning ”canvas”...where simplicity and friendship with the environment are keys to understanding and respect. By giving opportunities for young people to express themselves and learn by doing, we are actually influencing their behaviors and future choices. In the long run, we hope that they can then influence others around them, including the adults. When that happens, the world will definitely be a better place!

Thank you,

Riyandoko (Education Facilitator) & Sally (Yayorin)

Orangutans and water - an unusual mix

Thank you for all your comments and I'll do my best to respond to them soon. Another interesting thing happened on Sunday at Camp Leakey: Siswi almost completely submerged herself in water. Orangutans can’t swim though they do wade. The rehabilitated, ex-captives at Camp Leakey will also play with water but that is probably a behaviour learnt from watching the staff. What made Sunday interesting was that Siswi spent so long in the water. She sat there for a good fifteen minutes and actually bobbed up and down so the water rose up to her chin.

Siswi - adult female orangutan in the river.

I am quite convinced she was simply trying to cool off. However, that does not fully explain a) quite how an orangutan’s natural wariness of water could be so totally overcome; let’s not forget there are crocodiles in these rivers and b) how an orangutan who instinctively shelters from rain, which makes them cold, would on another occasion use water for exactly that purpose.

Siswi sitting in the river

Who knows whether Siswi would have sat in the water for so long if we had not been there and it is not a huge intellectual leap to realise water makes you cold and you can choose when you want to be cool or dry. However, none of that dry scientific reasoning detracts from the interest: orangutans are fascinating!

Interesting orangutan behaviour

Firstly, a big thank you to Brigiatta for your monthly donation and Maciej for your donation of $100. As you recently visited Tanjung Puting National Park and Camp Leakey this post should hopefully be of interest to you. In July, we discussed why the orangutan Riga shared her food with her mother, Rani. The reason may be biological or social but what is certain is that it is a rare event between adult orangutans; which is why it was surprising to see it happen again on Sunday – but this time with another twist.

Tom - dominant male

Tom is the undoubted King of Camp Leakey; the dominant male. He doesn’t have to share anything with anybody if he doesn’t want to. On Sunday, he sat down with his bucket of milk and proceeded to slurp away at it with Siswi looking enviously at him. Tut then came up, she had not been to the afternoon feeding so may have been hungry. Tut is Tom’s mother but subordinate to Siswi, so she approached warily.

Tom, however, passed over the bucket without hesitation (and all Siswi could do is continue to look on greedily!).

But what made all this doubly interesting is that it points to an answer to one of the big remaining questions of orangutan research: do they recognise their own parents/offspring? In reality, there is no more reason for Tom to share his milk with Tut than with Siswi (indeed, Tut is not in season but Siswi could be) and yet he did willingly. Why? It would be interesting to think Tom knows his mother and that was why he acted favourably towards her but like so much about orangutan behaviour we still have a lot to learn.

Thank you,

Stephen

PS Apologies for the rain spot on the photo.

Camp Leakey Tanjung Puting National Park

Thanks to Georgina Kenyon who has written this short piece for us about her experience making the BBC radio programme. "It’s embarrassing to say but I can’t remember being that interested in orangutans…until I saw the big male Kusasi coming straight for Stephen and me at the feeding platform at Camp Leakey.

What an animal!

I also loved walking through the forest, following the other orangutans as they were looking for food– those four hands and those eyes!

I’ll always remember my stay that night on the klotok and listening to the sounds of the Borneo jungle – the rowdy chainsaw beetles and the gibbons at first light and watching the butterflies and the birds of prey.

I have always thought the issues surrounding conservation can be very complicated - so many threats, so many issues.

Yet I was impressed by the pragmatism of the staff at the Orangutan Foundation; they made all the problems facing the jungle appear manageable.

A big ‘thankyou’ to all the team at the Orangutan Foundation-everyone went out of their way to help me make the BBC radio programme."

An Interview with Kusasi

One of the rules of working around orangutans is to never get within arm’s reach of them.  On Saturday, in the middle of an interview with a journalist, I was horrified to find Kusasi less than 2m away and coming straight at us. If I was horrified, I dread to think what the journalist thought!  Her tape contains the memorable line “Time to GO!” 

The problem was we were watching Unyuk and her baby who were joined by Uning and Ukraine.  When we arrived at the feeding station Unyuk, who has a reputation for being naughty, was sitting peacefully with Mr Otter.  They looked like two neighbours having a chat.  Mr Een then walked up and Unyuk went over to say hello to him.  Shortly afterwards, Uning and Ukraine swung in.  Uning is Unyuk’s daughter so we were looking at three generations of their family:  Unyuk the mother and grandmother; Uning the daughter and Ukraine the grandchild.  It was a captivating sight.

Rather too captivating:  never forget what is going on behind you!  Een’s eyes went wide and he slide off to the side. I turned around and there was Kusasi. All I could see was him!  I won’t say he was going for us, but I will say he was moving in a straight line for Uning and we were in the way.  Look at the photos:  the vine Uning is holding onto at the start is the very same one Kusasi is on: she had the sense to get out of his reach.

  

I grabbed the microphone case and pushed the journalist with my other hand.  Kusasi passed behind us stopping in the spot recently vacated by Uning.  Once heart-rate and blood pressure had returned to normal we got some photos.  Just look at the size of his arm! 

That evening, I left the journalist to spend a night on her boat in the park, and I travelled back to Pangkalan Bun.  The sunset was spectacular.  The sky was every shade of red which was reflected off the still black-water of the Sekonyer River.  It felt as though we were speeding through fire. 

 

Back at the office, I saw the education team had returned from their field trip.  From the state of the car it looked like they had had their own adventures! After all of which, I would like to say thank you to Julie (Art for Gorillas) and Adam Hardy for their sympathetic comments.  Adam, I agree with you: there is no comparison between an 8mb broadband internet connection and a fast-moving 120 kg male orangutan.  I’ll stop complaining.

Fed Up…

To start with the fun stuff, I was over at the Care Centre today. As always I was saddened by the number of orangutans we have in captivity but I was still amused by some of their antics. Of course, I popped over to see Montana who I thought was looking particularly like King Kong.

A few of the hundreds of orangutans at the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine

Montana

Unfortunately, my general mood was less than cheery. I don’t wish to burden you with my whinging but I am really fed up. For the whole of this year the electricity supply here in Pangkalan Bun has been abysmal but this month has been extraordinary. Every second day we suffer a four to five hour black out. Today, we had no electricity from 9 am to 4 pm, hence my trip to the Care Centre. Throw into the mix a truly awful internet connection and you have a recipe for frustration. Last night I had to do emails on a 14kbs dial-up connection.

I promised the UK Office I would be better at writing my blog more regularly. I hope you can understand now why it is not always so easy….

No doubt things will get better so thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest!

Stephen.

- Mara, thank you very much for your $50 donation.

Here, there and everywhere!

I hope the orangutans appreciate it! In the past two weeks, I have gone from Pangkalan Bun to Jakarta and back, Sukamara and back, and finally to Sebangau National Park and back; the last journey involving a cramped 10 hour overnight bus ride. In all that time, while I have seen their nests, I did not once lay eyes on a wild orangutan :-( This is an extraordinary amount of travelling, particularly so late in the year which is usually our quiet time. The meetings in Jakarta concerned the potential for protecting forests through the carbon markets, a process know as “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” or REDD. REDD as a conservation tool is in its infancy though many groups are exploring how it could be applied in Indonesia.

Multi-stakeholder meeting with communities surrounding the Lamandau Reserve.

We went to Sukamara for a “Multi-stakeholders Meeting” when we bring together representatives from all the communities surrounding the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve as well as the local Government. The two-day meeting was a great success, helping us set our plans and targets for next year. Truly, we are receiving an incredible amount of support from the local Government.

The trip to Sebangau was arguably the most interesting, not least because I had never been there before. Sebangau was only designated a National Park in 2004 and yet is home to arguably the largest population of orangutans in any national park. Estimates consistently show a population of over 6,000 orangutans. Our reforestation team and I travelled there to see the land rehabilitation research being undertaken by the Centre for International Co-operation in Management of Tropical Peatlands (CIMTROP).

Research into peat swamp rehabilitation.

CIMTROP's is a pure research project, experimenting with different techniques, habitat types and tree-species to find what works best in degraded swamps. Our work is rather more applied – we want to cover a much larger area than the research project does but there is no sense in reinventing the wheel, or worse, repeating mistakes already made, so it was a valuable visit.

Interestingly, at the edge of the CIMTROP study area a team of Japanese scientists have erected an environmental monitoring tower which is some 40m high. I have always wanted to have an observation tower in Lamandau. Having climbed to the top you had to conclude the view was great.

The climb. Not one for the faint-hearted!

The view

Isam -Orangutan Foundation Land Manager at the top of the tower

Orangutan Foundation's Reforestation Team looking a little tense on top of the tower!

Sunset

Isam, our Land Manager who had never been anywhere near as high in his whole life, was finally persuaded to let go of the hand rail. Once on the ground though he did agree the climb was an adventure worth having.

Thank you Patrik W, Lucia C, Mia B and Wanda H for your recent donations. We really appreciate your support. We are now only $205 short from reaching our $5,000 target – please help us reach this by the end of November.

Thank you,

Stephen

Orangutan driving a message home in London

Stephen is out in the field all week and so won't have any internet access. Hopefully we'll hear from him when he gets back. We thought we'd show some photos from last week. Helen, who volunteers one day a week in the UK office, has written a short piece about driving an orangutan around London (don't worry it wasn't real!) on Orange Day. Over to Helen....

"One of last week's Orangutan Awareness events involved the London office borrowing a G-Wiz (electric car) in order to highlight the effect deforestation and carbon emissions have on the plight of the orangutan. I was happy to offer to drive the car around for the day with the company of my very own orangutan!! I drove around central london and tried to stick to the roads where there would be the most pedestrians so that as many people as possible might spot the car.

As it was 'Orange for Orangutans" day I wore an orange t-shirt and one of the bright orange hats that Ashley's mum knitted for us. I think the hat helped alot as people would spot the bright orange out of the corner of their eye then notice that not only was I driving a g-wiz emblazoned with stickers but that I had an orangutan sitting in the passenger seat.

I had a very amusing time especially whilst driving up Constitution Hill. I had timed my drive so it was just after the changing of the guards when there tends to be more people outside the palace. Whilst we were waiting for the guards to trot up the hill and back to their stables a gentleman in the taxi in front noticed the orangutan. He pointed it out to his friends in the taxi and they all had a good look and a giggle! I also had lots of waves from people on buses whilst stuck in traffic. Hopefully lots of people noticed us and read the stickers and were persuaded to join the Foundation."

Thank you Helen for being such a sport and thank you Gwiz for the use of the car.

One year on…

It has been nearly a year since Stephen started this blog on the 23rd November 2007 and so far you have donated US$4,680 towards our programmes in Central Kalimantan, Borneo. This money has been spent on; buying medical supplies for the orangutans at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine; for enclosure repairs (remember the escapees!); fire beaters and equipment to tackle forest fires in Tanjung Puting National Park; and more recently the new feeding system for released orangutans in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We are hoping to reach the $5,000 target by the end of November. What we really need at the moment or what the Indonesian field staff need is new equipment. On our donation bar under One Time donation there are the options Uniforms or Compass & Wrist Watch. A donation for one of these would be a practical and useful contribution towards our work. Please consider a donation to support our work this month.

On behalf of Orangutan Foundation in Indonesia and the UK thank you for your interest and support over the last year.

Cathy

(UK office)

Kampung Konservasi (November blog) - Sustainable Agriculture

An exciting development just happened at Kampung Konservasi this week that we would like to share. We finally published the first book on cabbage cultivation using the alternative agriculture method that we develop at Kampung Konservasi. Why is this exciting? The book is the result of long, hard work of our agriculture facilitator, Mr. Suwardi, who is now famous as “the cabbage man”.

Pak Suwardi - photo by Yayorin

I remember the first time Pak Suwardi joined the Kampung Konservasi team. He came all the way from Magelang, Central Java, where he was a successful farmer and an experienced community facilitator. He seemed to me as a “typical” Javanese farmer: calm, quiet, simple and hardworking. Kampung Konservasi was nothing like it is now. The area was practically empty, just high grass and a few young trees. The first thing Pak Suwardi noticed was, of course, the sandy soil. He told me that he had no idea what to do with it because he had never seen anything like it before. We then agreed that the only thing that he could do was to do as many trials as possible and learn from them.

Barren/sandy soil - photo by Yayorin

Cabbage Demonstration Plot - photo by Yayorin

Pak Suwardi has been working so hard since day one. He wakes us as early as five o’clock in the morning and works on the demonstration plots right away before the sun gets too hot. He has tried so many different things, planted so many seedlings, spoke with so many people and made many “mistakes”. The amount of physical work that this man can do is incredible! He has changed the face of Kampung Konservasi, almost all by himself. Before we knew it, we had wonderful harvests of tomatoes, chilies, string beans and cabbage! The cabbage was a major thing because nobody has ever grown cabbage in Borneo before. Just like most vegetables available in this area, cabbages come from Java, shipped across the sea.

The book to be distributed to local farmers.

Now, all of his experiences and findings, especially on cabbage cultivation, are written in a simple book that will be distributed to the local farmers. This book will be the first of many. Yayorin plans to publish a series of books on alternative agriculture, based on real experiences and field trials. These books are powerful tools that we can use to further our education efforts.

Terima kasih,

Sally (Yayorin)

Orangutans in London.

Just received this photo and comment from Le Pain Quotidien (the sustainable and community-aware bakery and restaurant) who have been helping us celebrate Orangutan Awareness Week in London.

I bet this wasn't in the job description!

"I worked very hard raising cash instead of hosting as it's impossible to do anything in that costume. I only had 1 banana and there was definitely no monkey business. Also I now stink."

Thank you LPQ!

Thanks Sheryl for spreading the word on your blog (http://nothoney.wordpress.com)and at work - much appreciated.

Orangutan Awareness: A Personal View

After my last my about the day at Camp Leakey I received a short email from the Office reminding me that I was supposed to be writing about Orangutan Awareness Week! Whoops. Sally and the Yayorin team will be able to tell you of all the activities. I thought I would offer a simple, personnel view on why I have always supported the week.

We all need trees.

We know how to save orangutans – you just stop chopping down the forest and hunting them. Leave them alone and they will be just fine. But that isn’t happening. The situation here in Borneo and in Sumatra is very bad. Just yesterday, we were told of a proposal to convert another 10,000ha (100km2) into an oil-palm plantation. Not all of that land is forest, but a lot of it is and I guarantee there are still orangutans, monkeys, hornbills and a host of other birds and smaller mammals living there.

Spot the difference.

What lay behind the local government’s decision to give up more forest? There are a host of reasons but perhaps the ultimate explanation is simply that the return from logging and palm oil translates to cash whereas the returns from standing forest are often intangible. That is a balance that has to be rectified. Which is exactly why Orangutan Awareness Week is so important:

- The loss of orangutans and their habitat is irreversible.

- Consumers need to be aware of the true cost of the products they buy. The driving force behind the move towards sustainable palm oil is consumer pressure.

- National governments need to be aware of the impact of the trade decisions they make. The US is to be applauded for its recent amendment to the Lacy Act which will go a long way to stopping the import of illegally felled timber.

- Here, the local Government needs to be aware that floods which plague the riverside communities are linked to deforestation upstream.

- Farmers need to know that there are alternatives to slash and burn agriculture, that their household income can improve by better use of the land.

- There are huge ethical issues involved in the loss of orangutans as a species let alone the abhorrent killing of individuals. I feel this keenly and am sure many of you do too. However, climate change has now made the loss of their habitat an ethical issue too: tropical forests can play a significant role in mitigating against climate change. Truly, saving orangutans can now help humankind.

Without Orangutan Awareness Week how many people will know of the link between this smoke from forests and the rise in sea level? Without the work of groups like Yayorin how many people will learn it doesn't have to be this way?

We all have to be involved in this and that’s why Orangutan Awareness Week is international. The bottom line is whether to destroy forests or to save them will remain a choice that many people will have a hand in making. Only with complete awareness will we all make the best choice and orangutans are the perfect flagship or ambassadors for the forest.

What we all need - forests "lungs of the planet"

There are half-a-dozen or so places, Tanjung Puting National Park and the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve among them, that are safer today than they probably have been at any time for the past thirty odd years. Saving them has been a battle and we are now working on securing the peace. We can be proud of those successes but they are not enough. Certainly, we can not be drawn into trading off a few parcels of safe forest for devastation elsewhere. As the 10,000ha mentioned above shows, the battle lines are still being drawn. That has to stop.

The battle lines

I was touched to see the blog by Art for Gorillas on the Wildlife Direct. ). If children in Rwanda can be galvanised to care for orangutans what can’t be done?

As always, thank you for your support,

Stephen

The Origin of Orangutan Awareness Week - by Gary Shapiro, Ph.D. Chairman, Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative.

Todays blog is a guest post by Gary Shapiro, Ph.D. Chairman, Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative.

Many orangutan groups work throughout the year to raise funds to support projects in Indonesia and Malaysia where wild and rehabilitant orangutans are found. But in 1995 when I was vice president of OFI, I began promoting the idea of a special week for orangutans as a way to focus collective attention on the plight of the species. While it was started under OFI’s banner, Orangutan Awareness Week became increasingly celebrated each year in November by more and more organizations and individuals.

At schools, zoos, malls, parks, restaurants and other public places, people learned about the orangutan and why its survival is being threatened. Importantly, people learned how they could help save the orangutan by participating with the various organizations that were doing the important work in the field.

In late 2004, my wife Inggriani and I started a new organization, the Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative (OUREI), and asked Parliament member and former Miss Indonesia, Angelina Sondakh to be our Indonesian “Ambassador”.

Angelina Sondakh - photo from Orang Utan Republik

One of the first things we did was lobbying the Indonesian government to recognize and support Orangutan Awareness Week through OUREI. During the process, it was suggested that the name be changed to Orangutan Caring Week as the Indonesian word for “awareness” did not sound as good as the word, “caring”. It also occurred to us that Orangutan Caring Week conveyed a more appropriate level of involvement we were seeking by the Indonesian people. We all agreed that being aware about orangutans was not enough. Collectively articulating a concern about orangutans would lead to the people demanding that more be done to save the species. So in November 2005, the Indonesian Minister of Forestry in a press conference at the Parliament Building, officially proclaimed “Pekan Peduli Orangutan” or Orangutan Caring Week.

Sumatran Orangutan Education Consortium pass out information and meet with visitors to Sun Plaza Mall, Medan. Photos from Sumatran Orangutan Education Consortium.

A dozen Indonesian conservation and orangutan groups held an exhibition in the lobby of the Parliament Building in celebration of the special week. The press and television media helped spread the message to millions of people throughout the archipelago.

With official recognition, Orangutan Caring Week has been celebrated in Indonesia each year since that time.

Children's drawing classes, OCW 2007. Photo from the Sumatran Orangutan Education Consortium.

Photo fair at Islamic University of North Sumatra 2007 - Photo from the Sumatran Orangutan Education Consortium

Every year the event spreads to more cities and organizations including Java, Borneo, Sumatra and Bali. It is also acknowledged in other countries around the world including the UK, Australia, and the USA. While some organizations are still continuing to promote Orangutan Awareness Week, we should remember it is the collective message that is most important. Surely if we do our job well, we can enroll people to not only become aware of the species but to move them to action.

This year, Orangutan Caring Week and Orangutan Awareness Week are being celebrated over a 2 week period. From November 9-22 orangutan organizations and inspired people will be hosting a variety of events at various locales. On the island of Sumatra for example, the Sumatran Orangutan Consortium, an association of eight organizations (including Sumatran Orangutan Society, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, Fauna and Flora International, the Orangutan Caring Club, Friends of the Orangutan, Leuser Foundation, the Orangutan Conservation Services Program, and OUREI Indonesia) will be holding a rally in Medan Square, passing out literature, screening films, and having open discussions on college campus.

Organizations in other countries will also be participating in events to draw attention to the great ape’s plight. In the UK , Orangutan Foundation will be holding “Orange for Orangutan Day” on November 14 and other awareness activities during the week. The Sumatran Orangutan Society will be holding events at Oxford University and surrounding areas. The Australian Orangutan Project has events taking place in a couple of their chapter regions: Western Australia and Queensland. Zoos such as the Greater Los Angeles Zoo are using the opportunity to increase awareness about all the apes including the chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, orangutan and gibbon (Ape Awareness Day: November 9). San Diego Zoo is holding Great Ape Awareness Days, November 13-16).

For more information about Orang utan Republik and how you can help visit www.orangutanrepublik.org

Thank you,

Gary Shapiro

Orangutans at Camp Leakey

I began my monthly report to the UK office by saying “as September was quiet, so October was busy” and I still think that was an understatement! We seem to have been on the go constantly since the holidays which marked the end of Ramadan at the start of October. You will be pleased to know however I have had the chance to spend some of that time looking at orangutans. And yes, I had my camera.

One afternoon spent at Camp Leakey, in Tanjung Puting National Park was particularly memorable. There were very few visitors and it felt as if we had the forest to ourselves. Tom, the dominant male, was around, looking as big as ever.

However, it was Princess and her baby Putri who made the real impression. Princess actually walked to the feeding site with us and when I say walked I mean walked. She was not bipedal (walking on two legs) the whole time but she did amble in front of us for a time. That was her chance to show off!

Next it was Putri’s. Once she and her mum had had their fill, they relaxed on the benches on which visitor’s usually sit. Princess began grooming Putri who lay back and loved it. No doubt, if she had been a cat she would have been purring. She got so comfortable when she rolled over she almost toppled off the bench.

Above us two other youngsters played high in the trees (apologies for the dark photo!).

However, the sun was setting and storm clouds building, so we had to leave the orangutans in the forest and hurry back to camp. We made it just before the heavens opened.

Save The Tripa Swamps - Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme

Ian Singleton, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme's (SOCP) Director of Conservation, has kindly written todays post for this blog to mark Orangutan Awareness Week 2008. This last few years we, at the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), have been kept very busy trying to save the Tripa peat swamps on the west coast of Aceh. Our “normal” work tackles all aspects of orangutan conservation (SOCP photo gallery) in Sumatra including:-

1. Confiscation, quarantine and reintroduction of illegal pet orangutans 2. Research, surveys and monitoring of wild populations 3. Education and awareness raising 4. Habitat conservation, especially the Batang Toru Forests of North Sumatra and the remaining peat swamp forests of Aceh’s west coast.

The Tripa swamp forests probably harbored around 1,500 or more orangutans at the beginning of the 1990’s but in the years leading up to the fall of the Suharto government and the escalation of the Aceh separatist conflict much of these forests were allocated as oil palm estates. Some of these estates cleared their land, established drainage canals and even planted oil palms in parts of their concessions, but all were then left abandoned during the conflict between 1999 and 2005, during which time they became overgrown and drainage canals became blocked and stagnant.

Destruction of the Tripa Swamps (photo from SOCP)

Digging Drainage Canals (photo from SOCP)

Over the last year or two, however, some of them have resumed operations, meaning new forest clearance (logging, burning etc), new drainage canals, clearing some of the old oil palms and planting with new ones. Naturally, many of the activities of these estates is not consistent with existing laws. For a start, peat of greater than 3 m depth cannot legally be converted, and much of the area under these estates has been measured by SOCP and found to be up to 5 m deep or more. There is also a moratorium on all logging in Aceh, issued by the Governor in 2007, but implementation of this regulation in the field is still lacking.

Much of the peat due for conversion is more than 5 metres deep and stores huge amounts of carbon. (photo from SOCP)

The destruction of the Tripa peat swamps not only endangers the 250 or so orangutans still surviving there, but also has major implications for climate change and for local communities. The peat swamps store vast amounts of carbon, which will all be released to the atmosphere over the coming years if the clearance and drainage is allowed to continue. Drying of peatlands also results in subsidence of around 1 m in 20 years, extremely worrying in an area on the coast that is already only around 1 m above sea level. Given this, the development of these swamps makes no sense, not even economically.

Due to the urgency of this situation, SOCP has been working extremely hard to bring all these issues to public attention. We have been lobbying local and national governments and our education department has been focusing on the local communities in the area. The issue has already been broadcast on international TV programs and published in both national and international media. It seems now that people are beginning to take notice, but we must continue to be diligent.

For more information on this issue please visit our website and download the Tripa value report. Also see a recent article 'Urgent Action Needed Over Sumatran Peat Forest Logging' in the Telegraph.

Thank you,

Ian

Short film of Tanjung Puting National Park

Please take a few minutes to view this short video 'Fragile Haven' about Tanjung Puting National Park by David Willis (it may take a few minutes to load but is worth waiting for). Tanjung Puting National Park is one of the world's largest areas of protected tropical peat swamp and heath forest. The Park has more than 4,000 orangutans making it one of the largest remaining populations in Borneo. Please click on this link (Protecting Tanjung Puting National Park) to read more about the Park and our work there.

Make it an orangutan week!

It's Orangutan Awareness Week 2008! A focus for groups or individuals to hold fundraising events and raise awareness of the threats to orangutans and their rainforest habitat. Stephen will be blogging throughout the week and we will also bring you a couple of guest posts. Gary Shapiro, Orangutan Republik Education Initiative will blog about how Orangutan Awareness Week began and Ian Singleton from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme will report about their efforts to save the Tripa Swamps in Sumatra. This year we decided to highlight the important role the orangutan’s habitat, the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra, has in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation is the second largest cause of global warming. Andrew Mitchell, Director of the forest conservation organisation, Global Canopy Programme and a trustee of the Orangutan Foundation said, “If deforestation is the front line for forests in the war on climate change then orangutans are the ambassadors being burnt at the stake. Emissions from deforestation are equivalent to 36 million people flying from London to New York every day and unless this is halted we will lose the fight against Global Warming. The global community has one year to agree a workable mechanism for including forest emissions in the global climate deal to be agreed next year in Copenhagen. We along with our orange cousins watch with fear and hope." Read Andrew Mitchell's Director's Journal.

I know Stephen has used this photo before but I think it is well worth using again.

Orangutan Foundation programmes protect orangutan habitat by preventing the destruction and burning of the tropical forests and this helps to reduce global warming. We are also investigating whether it is possible to utilise carbon markets in order to conserve the Belantikan Hulu Forests. Please visit our website to find out more about what we are doing and how you can help. View short film on Tanjung Puting National Park   If you're doing something for orangutans this week we'd love to hear from you and it still isn't too late - go orange for orangutans this Friday!

Brigitta, many thanks for your monthly donation - this regular support is very important to us.

Thank you,

Cathy

Orangutan Foundation (UK Office).

Go orange for orangutans!

Hello again, Stephen is hard at work showing EU correspondents all of our programmes in the field at the moment, so I thought I would use the opportunity to a) ease his workload and b) let everyone know about Orangutan Awareness Week.

Put the dates in your diary now!

The 10th - 16th November is Orangutan Awareness Week. This week was initiated over 10 years ago with the intention of creating a focal point for fundraising and awareness activities for our supporters. This year we decided that we want to make it easier for more people to be a part of this event and so I came up with the idea of “Orange for Orangutan Day” on Friday 14th November. The concept is simple: as an individual you wear orange clothing, an orange wig, or even dye your hair orange to raise awareness and generate funds for our conservation programmes.

To make it work even better, we ask you to organise your own Orange for Orangutan Day, maybe at work or at school. If everyone involved pays just £1 or $1.50 to do this then we will be able to raise huge amounts of money to invest in conserving the orangutans and their forest home. Interest so far has been amazing, and we are really excited about how people are cottoning on to the idea. In London, restaurants are putting orangutan dishes (tropical fruit salads or sweet potato "orange" mash) on their Special's menu and a London taxi cab will be driving around with an orangutan (not real of course) passenger!

In Indonesia, Yayorin, our partner organisation, are focusing their efforts for Orangutan Awareness Week in and around Pangkalan Bun. They are showing films at schools and villages; participating in a talk show on a local radio station; and putting up campaign banners in strategic points in the town of Pangkalan Bun.

On this blog, during 10th -16th November, we hope to bring you some guest posts. Ian Singleton, Director of Conservation, from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme is going to post for us. So make sure you check out this blog during Orangutan Awareness Week.

Go on, go orange for orangutans!

Please go to our website for more information about how you can become involved and for fundraising materials.

Many thanks,

Elly

Volunteering again…seven years on

Our volunteer programme is now in its 10th year, which is testament enough to its success. Paying volunteers inject an income and workforce into our field projects and without volunteer participation our orangutan release sites would not be nearly as smooth-running or numerous as they are. In the past, volunteers have also built guard posts, constructed portal gates across rivers to block illegal loggers and constructed the Pondok Ambung Tropical Research Station. This year the teams have built a release site at Camp Mangkung (see former post “Orangutan Release Site Nearly Ready”).

When I joined the programme the main buildings were all up and there was just cementing, attaching of doors/windows and a load of painting to do. I arrived mid-afternoon to the sound of hammering, sanding and Bon Jovi (music, preferably cheesy, is always a necessity for motivation in the afternoons!). The river had risen sufficiently to render the camp an island and it instantly reminded me of Big Brother just for the sheer lack of space.

I always tell volunteers about the lack of “head space” when they are flung together as a group for 6 weeks with no email/phone etc, but even I myself was not quite prepared for the lack of physical space to move around. These guys had had it for four weeks, and yet they were still upbeat and working hard, joking and laughing (admittedly quite a few Oreos were eaten, but we all need a sugar fix every now and then). It just goes to show, provided you have passion for the cause for which you are working, you can keep motivated whatever.

I happily got stuck in to the work for the short while I was there and was delighted to manage not to remove any thumbnails, or cement anyone to the floor! It was so good to just get down to work, have a bit of chat, and not be stuck looking at a PC. The work is physically quite tough, but to be able to step back and see the finished product at the end of your time there really does make it worthwhile. This could explain why we had to take several pauses during the work…..

I can honestly say that the programme really has not changed at all since my first time; the only difference is that the Indonesians assistants are more into wearing boardshorts than combats these days and there is a greater range of chocolate snacks brought into camp to cheer up flagging volunteers.

I was also pleased to slip back into the way of life there where evenings are spent drinking tea and chatting and learning Indonesian with the local guys working there. It really does make you re-assess how we spend our time back at home. In fact, the volunteer programme seems to make everyone take stock of their lives, motivations and beliefs when they get home. It may sound clichéd, but all of our feedback to date suggests that volunteers see the programme as a time when they saw another side to life as well as thoroughly enjoyed themselves whilst doing something constructive and beneficial for the orangutans and the forest.

I left the volunteers on the final stages of the building, safe in the knowledge that they would get their reward going to Camp Rasak to see an operational orangutan release site. Apparently they all loved it, which is perfect; the fruits of their labour should be echoing the activity of Rasak in a few months, and they can all be proud. Some people are even talking about coming back next year, so maybe they will be able to see it in action. Thanks to Jordi Clopes for all these photographs.

If anyone wants to know more about the volunteer programme then please have a look at the brochure on our website. Volunteer Brochure

I am now (sadly) back in the UK and the contrast to the Indonesian laid-back culture could not be greater. Madness seems to have hit, and the interest in Orangutan Awareness Week and Orange for Orangutan day (November 14th) is all consuming…..

Visiting Orangutan Foundation Programmes

As you will no doubt know from Stephen’s posts about a month ago, I recently ventured out of the London office and over to Pangkalan Bun (Borneo) or, more accurately “the field”. This was not my first time there; my employment here (for my part!) is the result of me being completely overwhelmed by the plight of the orangutans when I stumbled upon the Volunteer Programme in 2001. Amongst other things, I now run the Volunteer Programme here at Orangutan Foundation and continue to get enormous pleasure from arranging for people go over to Indonesia for what pretty much always ends up as a life-changing experience. The small size of the UK office means that I have my fingers in many of the Orangutan Foundation pies and so my trip out there was also to see the programmes that I write about day-in-day-out. In short, it was an amazing trip and reminded me that I work primarily to save the orangutans and their home, something that seems to slip the mind in hectic times.

The highlight was most definitely going to Camp Rasak (orangutan release in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve) and knowing that the orangutans I saw in the trees were primarily orangutans that would have been in the Orangutan Care Centre on my last visit in 2001. A close second was Belantikan. It really is a beautiful area and needs to be saved.

It not only has orangutans but is some of the most amazing forest that I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot). Time is key too – in an eight hour journey there we drove through oil palm for six hours and heavily logged areas for one hour.

Oil Palm Plantation

Logging on the journey to Belantikan

It really was quite surreal –little dumper trucks carrying kernels or actual palm oil were the only traffic on the road…..and they seemed to infiltrate EVERY bit of land….

Seeing this destruction on the way really enforced how important our work with Yayorin, our Indonesian partners, in Belantikan is for these forests, its wildlife and the local communties who live here.

Catching up with the Volunteer Programme seven years on was one of the main reasons for me to go to Indonesia. I said I'd try and post about my time on the programme so I'll do this in the next few days!

Thanks,

Elly

Development & Volunteer Co-ordinator UK Office