The Orangutan Conservancy (OC) is pleased to announce that we’ve just assisted the Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) in acquiring two significant grants that will go toward supporting dual efforts being managed by the Indonesian-based conservation operation.
The Los Angeles Zoo has given grant funding to OC for BNF to continue their much-needed forest patrol teams to protect the Sabangau Forest area in and around their OuTrop research site. Left unattended, the vast area – home to many orangutans and other species – would certainly fall prey to illegal logging, palm oil growers, peatland drainage and fires and hunting as well. The Sabangau Community Team/CIMTROP patrol units cover a lot of land with just a handful of dedicated people, and they have proven to be a great deterrent to anyone who might be trying to exploit the threatened peat forest for negative reasons.
Within a few weeks of receiving that grant, OC also got some great news from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation that they would be providing a grant to BNF for an entirely new effort to be managed by the team. BNF has recently taken over management of a second research site in the Barito Ulu area of Central Kalimantan where they will be rebuilding and reestablishing the defunct Rekut Research Station. This vulnerable area is home to a significant primate population, and having the riverside research operation fully operational again will mean the rainforest and the animals there can thrive well into the future.
OC would like to thank both the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and the Los Angeles Zoo for their generosity in bolstering the projects that we partner with in Indonesia.
If you would like to help us with these and other Bornean and Sumatran orangutan programs please visit our how to help page.
