ORANGUTAN EMERGENCY APPEAL

(Video courtesy of Ashley Leiman Orangutan Foundation)

What’s the problem?

85% of Bornean orangutans live in forests outside conservation areas, forests that are rapidly being destroyed for agriculture, especially oil-palm plantations. Scores of orangutans are constantly being rescued from forests that have been obliterated. The government units that were set up to manage these forests just don’t have the capacity to protect them or the other species living there, leaving the orangutans at huge risk. But rescuing orangutans from already destroyed forests is not enough. For the species to survive, they need large areas of forest in which to live, and protection from hunters who shoot the mothers to get their babies for the local pet trade.

So we’re funding a special project to ensure that orangutan habitat is properly protected. Will you help us?

What we are doing to save orangutans

The decline in orangutan numbers is devastating. We must take action now to prevent the forests they live in from being totally destroyed. Our team is working with two Forest Management Units to give them urgent support to protect the orangutans’ homes. This work is really crucial. Rescuing orangutans from already destroyed forests is not enough. For the species to survive, they need large areas of forest in which to live, and protection from hunters. Safeguarding the remaining habitat is the only way orangutans can survive in Borneo.

It is vital that we do something now to protect the forests which orangutans depend on.

Learn more…

Orangutan expert and Programme Manager at the Orangutan Foundation, Dr Ade Soeharso, answers some questions about the lives of orangutans, the dangers they are facing and ways anyone can save them now. Read our Orangutan Q&As here. 

Please donate today so we can protect
the orangutans’ remaining habitat

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Thank you