Our Projects
Our projects in Sumatra operate through the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC). We founded this organization in 2001 in collaboration with a group of dedicated Indonesian conservationists to raise awareness of environmental and orangutan conservation issues amongst local communities living in North Sumatra and Aceh.
Orangutans are excellent ambassadors for their
rainforest home. They are highly charismatic, and draw a great deal of
attention to the forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, which are vitally important
in the global fight against climate change. Environmental education is at the heart of all our
work in Sumatra. Our projects leave a lasting legacy by
empowering the next generation of Indonesian conservationists. Our grassroots projects focus not only on
wildlife conservation, but also assist rural communities to protect and improve
their environment and surrounding forests, increasing their practical engagement with local
conservation issues.
Our projects range from restoring degraded land in the
Gunung Leuser National Park and areas devastated by the 2004 tsunami, to
running hugely popular Orangutan Festivals for local school children and our
touring educational roadshows. We have pioneered a conservation curriculum for
schools in North Sumatra, and have
established a scholarship programme for local university students to promote
orangutan research. Our community forestry schemes reinforce national park
buffer zones and provide sustainable alternative incomes for people living
adjacent to natural orangutan habitat. We have helped local people to plant
over a quarter of a million indigenous tree seedlings to date. We have two
OranguVans on the road, equipped with environmental libraries and film
screening equipment for our mobile conservation cinema.
Our goal is to
expand these existing programmes to reach even more communities. The success of
orangutan conservation in Indonesia lies in the hands of the local people.
Find our more about our tree replanting and environmental education projects.
View a film of Panut Hadisiswoyo, Director of the Orangutan Information Centre, introducing our tree replanting project within the Gunung Leuser National Park: