Bring Back the Forest

As part of this, we are trying to buy an ex palm oil plantation right on the border of the Leuser Forest and transform it into a new rainforest home.

We have the chance to buy it for £870,000 (US$1.1m).  Together, we can restore the forest and establish a safe rainforest home for orangutans.  We aim to secure and reforest the 360 hectare plot and then actively manage it to create a buffer zone to protect this part of the Leuser Forest from further incursion.

Please DONATE now.  You have already given the incredible sum of £318,269. We have paid the first downpayment We have until the end of November to raise a further £275,000 for the second payment. Help us buy the plantation and create a secure future for orangutans.

What does SOS want to do?

A highly strategic plot of land on the edge of the Leuser rainforest is available for purchase. Currently managed as an oil palm plantation, the land lies within the home range of several of Leuser’s most iconic species, including elephants, tigers and orangutans.

Once lush biodiverse rainforest, the land is now an oil palm plantation, and a wildlife conflict hotspot. A herd of elephants regularly travels through the plantation, causing damage to crops and property; in October 2017 an elephant calf was killed in retaliation. A stranded orangutan has been evacuated from the plantation and returned to safe forests, and a plantation security guard has been arrested and jailed for poaching, having admitted to killing two tigers.

If we can purchase and restore this land, the extensive border between the plantation and the intact forests of the Leuser ecosystem would allow us to create a buffer zone, as well as a rainforest home. This would protect the forest from incursions and protect the wildlife from conflict with people and from poachers. SOS will raise funds to buy the land, and our Indonesian partner NGO, Yayasan Orangutan Sumatera Lestari (YOSL), will own and manage the land.

Why this piece of land?

The land proposed for purchase is currently a ‘weak spot’ on the eastern border of the park in terms of access for illegal activity – securing and reforesting it would enable the land to be actively managed as a buffer zone to protect this stretch of the Leuser border from incursion. The site is a human-wildlife conflict and poaching hotspot, and strategic for the prevention of elephants entering community lands and plantations.

How much will it cost?

The overall total cost of buying the 360 hectare plot of land is £870,000 (US$1.1 million). We need to pay this in three instalments, which are due in September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019.

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