Protecting Rainforests for Wild Orangutans

True protection starts with people.

If we want to secure a permanent, safe future for Sumatra's orangutans, we cannot look at the forest in isolation. The long-term survival of these incredible great apes is completely inseparable from the wellbeing of the people who live alongside them.Successful, lasting conservation only happens when local communities have secure rights to manage their ancestral lands, backed by sustainable ways to feed their families without encroaching on the forest.

Because of your support, our frontline partners are putting the power back into the hands of the forest's rightful guardians.

Through deep ethnographic fieldwork and participatory research in North Sumatra, the teams have spent the last year mapping out clan dynamics, land use, and local decision-making. Now, those insights are being turned into legal, permanent protection for the rainforest.

Mapping the future: How the Solin Tumba clan is protecting the canopy 

Look at what your generosity has just unlocked in the critical Lae Ordi corridor—a vital strip of forest needed to keep orangutan populations connected:

The frontline team at TaHuKah has partnered with the Solin Tumba clan, whose customary land overlaps this crucial wildlife corridor. Together, they have completed two community outreach sessions to map out and document their customary land boundaries.

The result? The community has successfully formed a dedicated cooperative; the  first step towards securing legal forest management rights.This means the Solin Tumba clan are making progress towards becoming the legal guardians of these forests, unlocking income streams that do not require destruction of the forest 

600 Hectares Protected, 1,620 Seedlings Planted

Further into the landscape, the Sibagindar Village community is showing the world what community-led prosperity looks like. Having already secured a 600-hectare community forest through a successful Social Forestry application, they are now actively transforming their local economy:

• 1,620 Agroforestry Seedlings Produced: A newly supported agroforestry nursery has successfully raised 1,620 seedlings.
• 22 Hectares of Sustainable Farming: Community members have planted these seedlings across 22 hectares, diversifying their farms with forest-friendly crops like coffee, durian, and mangosteen. This allows them to generate a sustainable income without clearing a single inch of native forest.
• Stingless Beehive Boxes Installed: To expand sustainable income sources, community members received specialist training in forest honey production. TaHuKah has already installed ten stingless beehive boxes to kickstart this community enterprise, alongside exploring sustainable harvesting for rattan and sugar palm.

Skills for the Long Haul

Meanwhile, in Tenggulun, the frontline team at PETAI is replicating this community-centred success. Local residents have completed training workshops covering nursery management, organic fertiliser production, wild seedling selection, and polybag planting techniques.

These are not temporary fixes. You are funding the transmission of vital, lifelong skills. Because of you, local communities now possess the tools, the legal frameworks, and the sustainable livelihoods required to stand as the rightful guardians of the rainforest.

Thank you for investing in the people who keep the forest alive.

P.S. If you haven't heard the incredible news yet—history has just been made in the canopy! For the first time ever, a wild Sumatran orangutan was caught on camera using one of the artificial canopy bridges installed by our partners, TaHuKah, to safely cross a public road. This world-first breakthrough has already been picked up by BBC News, The Guardian, and CBS News! It proves that the structures you fund genuinely work and are saving this species from isolation. Click the link below to read the full historic report and watch the global coverage!

Links:

• Watch the orangutan crossing