Space To Flourish: Case Study
For orangutans to thrive in the wild we must secure and expand the areas where they can live. Part of their habitat lies outside protected areas and is subject to various different designations and land uses. We and our expert local colleagues work with a range of stakeholders – including indigenous and local communities, private companies and governmental institutions – who manage, interact with or have tenure rights in forests. Our engagement strategies recognise the different roles, perceptions and values of each stakeholder, and the unique opportunities they bring for maintaining and protecting orangutan habitat. We complement this by developing and applying sustainable finance models to support essential conservation activities.Together with our partners, we have rewilded more than 2000 hectares of orangutan habitat over the last decade. Working with our frontline partners, we ensure the right trees are planted in the right places. Planting a monoculture, while increasing tree cover, would not create a flourishing ecosystem, so our partners carry out biodiversity surveys of the nearby area to ensure they plant a mix of tree species that closely match the surrounding forest. They also monitor the trees once they have planted them, giving them a higher chance of survival in case of damage from disease or animals.
It is also crucial that the people living near rewilding sites are actively included in the planning and implementation of the rewilding, something that our partners have decades of expertise in. In this way, we ensure it is not only the trees and animals that have space to flourish, but people too.
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