The population of both Borneo and Sumatran orangutans is rapidly dwindling, along with their environment. Outside of captivity, they can only survive in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysian islands.

Rainforests are being destroyed due to logging, palm oil production, acacia plantations, mining, and fire. Without the forest, the endangered Borneo orangutan and the critically endangered Sumatra orangutan are facing extinction.

The Orangutan Foundation

The Orangutan Foundation along with its Indonesian partner, Yayorin, has developed a strategy for environmental conservation where the remaining populations of orangutans are known to exist.

The first step is to protect what is left of the rainforest. This is accomplished via increased patrol and additional guard posts to prevent human destruction. Along with protection, there are plans to plant more trees and management of forest sustainment with funding from eco-tourism efforts and trading carbon.

This conservation effort is presented to and supported by the local communities, logging concessions, government, and other organisations that are stakeholders in the preservation of the orangutan population.

More than its immediate plans, the Orangutan Foundation also focuses on creating long-term initiatives. These will combine the need for community development with suggested ways to keep this from damaging the environment.

It is of vital importance to educate the human populations that live near the orangutan’s habitat and ensure their cooperation; therefore decisions must be mutual and compatible but still founded on scientific reasoning gleaned from available evidence.

Results of Environment Protection

Preserving the rainforests will protect the orangutan’s habitat and this conservation effort will also result in added benefits. These include:

• Combating climate change and global warming and reducing carbon emissions, 25% of which are emitted during deforestation.
• Making orangutans ambassadors for rainforest preservation, one of the most biologically diverse geographic areas in the world and home to numerous other endangered species.
• Offering long-term economic rewards to local communities that allows residents to maintain traditional lifestyles in addition to preserving the ecology.
• Preserving an ecosystem (rainforests) vital to purification and regulation of water supplies, moderation of water damage, and maintenance of topsoil lost due to weather and construction.

The Orangutan Foundation is committed to not only saving these endangered primates, but to protecting the natural resources rapidly dwindling in Indonesia.

The habitat of orangutans must be protected in order that they thrive. They have very few predators; the main threat to their existence is encroachment on their environment due to development and depletion of resources.

Find out more about Borneo and Sumatran orangutans and the differences between orangutans and chimpanzees.