A review of 2022

2022 is rapidly drawing to a close, so we want to take the opportunity to reflect on the year and on all the wonderful things you’ve helped us to achieve – for orangutans, their forests, and their future, and for the people who are intrinsically linked with orangutan conservation in Sumatra.

For orangutans

Orangutans have one of the slowest life histories of any mammal (they almost always have one baby at a time, and there is at least an 8-10 year interval between births) so it is vital to monitor their populations and stay informed about anything that might affect them. Thanks to ongoing support from our global network, we can now continuously employ a range of methods, from surveys to sophisticated mapping, to pinpoint exactly where we need to focus our conservation efforts.

For rainforests

Our partner organisations have been busy rewilding sites in northern Sumatra this year, as usual – propagating, planting and nurturing native trees to fill the gaps where previous forest degradation has occurred. This helps the vital rainforest ecosystem remain diverse and healthy so it can support the thousands of species of animal relying on it. In addition to this work on the ground, we have used remote sensing to great effect to monitor threats to the rainforest and plan holistic solutions.

For people

Having welcomed an anthropologist onto our team in 2021, we have now expanded our work in this area and are supporting anthropologists in our partners’ teams in Sumatra as well. This enables us to run our programmes in a way that is socially just as well as environmentally sound. We are seeing amazing results – from significant expressions of trust from community leaders to lovely feedback from the women involved in agroforestry and permaculture initiatives at programme sites in Sumatra.

For the future

We are committed to running and supporting conservation programmes which are sustainable in the long term, as we want orangutans to thrive in resilient forests way beyond our own lifetime. We have therefore worked consistently throughout this year on building relationships with other NGOs, governments, the private sector, local communities and, of course, our frontline partners. This has brought about some amazing opportunities to scale up our work in Sumatra – more to come on this soon!

If the snippets above have piqued your interest, you can read about our approach in more detail here.