Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 13256650

The primary goal of the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation is to conserve the Bornean orangutan and its habitat in partnership with local communities, local government and other stakeholders. An Indonesian charity established in 1998, BOS manages two orangutan rescue centres – Nyaru Menteng in Central Kalimantan and Samboja Lestari in East Kalimantan – in order to address the problems of orangutan trade and weak law enforcement, and provide rehabilitation and care to 800 orangutans, all of whom were either illegally captured for pets or are victims of habitat destruction by land conversion to oil palm plantations, fire or other unsustainable human development practices. The ultimate aim is to reintroduce these orangutans back into the wild and provide long-term protection to them and their habitat.

In 2011, following an intensive survey effort covering thousands of hectares of forest in Central Kalimantan, BOS identified and secured a suitable release site located in the Bukit Batikap Conservation Forest. Here lies over 35,000 hectares of primary lowland rainforest, nestled in a valley deep in the heart of Borneo. This site fulfils all IUCN and national criteria for ape reintroduction and the first orangutans were successfully released here in February 2012. Building on that success, a total of 131 orangutans have been reintroduced into Batikap, where an in-situ Orangutan Monitoring and Protection Team use radio-tracking to locate the orangutans and check their health and physical condition, collect detailed data on their adaptation and meet and socialise with forest users from the local community. The site is estimated to be able to support 350 orangutans, which if achieved will become the newest of just 33 remaining wild orangutan populations of viable size, a major outcome for orangutan conservation in Borneo. The project therefore has a focus on long-term habitat conservation and protection, in partnership with local government and community stakeholders. A community development team works to improve the lives and social welfare of the village communities in and around our areas of work, in order to synergise orangutan and habitat conservation with poverty alleviation, sustainable economic development and good governance. The reintroduction program is progressing well and a large majority of released orangutans are successfully adapting to life back in the wild.