Primate Protection

Orangutans, the world’s largest tree-dwelling mammals, once roamed from India and South China to Indonesia. Today, the two existing species of orangutans in the wild can be found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Already considered critically endangered, both species, which together number an estimated 60,000 animals, could disappear within two decades because of poaching, logging, fires, and other threats, say conservation experts.

The Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation, a nonprofit group in Borneo, has been working since 1991 to save the distinctive red-haired primates from extinction.

The charity runs two nature-conservation projects and two orangutan centers where orphaned animals and those rescued from captivity are taken. The orangutans are first quarantined, and then taught the skills needed to survive in their habitat. Gradually, they are released into a protected forest area, where they continue to be fed and monitored until they can survive on their own.

The group also works with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry to identify and shut down illegal logging and animal-trading operations. And it teaches local people about alternatives to the farming and deforesting operations that threaten the habitat of the orangutans.

The charity’s annual $2.5-million budget comes from numerous sources, including the Gibbon Foundation, in Liechtenstein, and from donations to the group’s 12 sister organizations in the United States and elsewhere.

Here, Lone Drescher-Nielsen, who works at one of the centers, prepares to release an orangutan into its habitat on the island of Borneo.