Protecting Rainforests for Wild Orangutans

As a way to build trust with the local communities, we have established permaculture demonstration plots in two villages.

After a series of community meetings, the communities agreed to provide two hectares in each village for establishing the permaculture demonstration plots. 

The aim of permaculture is to create agriculture based on the naturally occurring environment in a self-sufficient and sustainable way.

More than 20 households in each village have actively participated in the permaculture activities. 

The field team has provided additional training to all women who participated in the project. This included how to make compost and organic fertilizer, how to select seeds, how to plant seeds, and how to maintain fertile soils. 

The first harvest has already taken place, mostly used to feed the needs of the villagers. However, around half of the women that participated in the permaculture programme managed to sell surplus vegetables harvested from their fields on the local market. This allowed them to earn some additional income for their households.  

In general, the permaculture has received substantial support from the communities. Nearly 80% of village households participated in the permaculture activity, and felt a direct benefit from the presence of the programme.

We will explore options and opportunities with the communities and co-develop approaches that will support forest-friendly livelihoods throughout the target villages.

It costs approximately $120, or $10 per month, to help to train 20 women in a year to set up and manage tree nurseries to restore degraded areas of rainforest and secure the future for orangutans and their forest homes.

This work wouldn’t be possible without your generous support. Thank you for enabling local women to conserve the rainforests for both the orangutans and for future generations. 

Links:

• Read more here

Our programmes focus on three unique and precious ecosystems - and you are helping to conserve them!

Leuser

The Leuser Ecosystem spans 2.6 million hectares and includes lowland and montane rainforests and over 185,000 hectares of carbon-rich peatlands. It is a crucial source of clean drinking water and agricultural livelihoods for over four million people. It is also the last place on Earth where orangutans, elephants, rhinos and tigers live together in the wild.

West Toba

The West Toba landscape covers an area of approximately 50,000 ha on the southern border of the Leuser Ecosystem, with the northern part designated nationally as a Key Biodiversity Area. The three Sumatran orangutan populations in this ecosystem are too small to be viable in isolation, and could become functionally extinct without the establishment and maintenance of ecological corridors.

Batang Toru

In late 2017 a new orangutan species was declared – the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis). With fewer than 800 individuals remaining in several sub-populations, it is not only the least numerous of all great ape species, but probably the most threatened as well.  Found only in parts of the 105,000 ha of the Batang Toru ecosystem in the Tapanuli highlands of North Sumatra, they make the protection of this landscape a global conservation priority.

Thank you for your continued support.