Save the orangutans
Adopt an orangutan through Orangutan Outreach.
There are currently six orangutans to choose from: Kesi, Fio, Grendon, Lomon, Tara and Dodo. Tara will be leaving the program soon (as she's slotted to move to a pre-release island). They all live at Nyaru Menteng except for Dodo, who lives at Samboja Lestari. In the near future, there will be more ways you can support Orangutan Outreach and help release orangutans back into the wild. >> more
Become an Orangufriend
The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) was founded by Hardi Baktiantoro, one of the heroes featured in The Burning Season. Join COP’s Orangufriends and help them to protect orangutan. Orangufriends is a supporter group of COP. By joining Orangufriends, you will have a lot of opportunity to help orangutan directly. >> more
Fundraise to participate in Rainforest Rescue’s Orangutan Adventure Treks.
By spending some spare time over the next year you'll be coached to raise $6000 to go to Sumatra, plant trees, trek through the orangutan rainforest, witness first hand what is happening, how to make a difference and how to save the orangutans. Your fundraising target will ensure at least one hectare is saved and fully rehabilitated and protect hundreds more from destruction. >> more
Borneo & Sabah unearthed - up close with the orangutans
Go wild in the jungles of Borneo, learn about highly endangered orangutans in rehabilitation at Sepilok, see proboscis monkeys by the banks of the Kinabatangan River, kayak through the rainforests in the Bau district, embark on a spectacular climb to the top of South East Asia's highest mountain Mount Kinabalu or experience an Iban village homestay. Want more? Check out Student Flights Borneo and Sabah packages, as well as our combos to Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi & Penang! >> more
Donate to the World Society for the Protection of Animals orangutan campaign.
You'll help provide urgent medical care for the many orangutans arriving injured and malnourished at Nyaru Menteng, the sanctuary featured in The Burning Season. You'll be helping with rehabilitation beginning with several years of intensive socialisation, and learning survival skills like climbing and building. Ultimately, your support will be vital in helping these orangutans reach freedom in secure areas of rainforest. >> more
Support the Australian Orangutan Project’s Safeguard program.
It gives practical support to the Orangutan Protection Units, the frontline patrols that are actually managing to deter illegal logging and land clearing in Borneo and Sumatra. They also provide much needed employment for the young men in the area whose only other option is to work in the palm oil plantations – or not work at all. >> more
Help the Borneo Orangutan Survival project raise money to buy small islands in Indonesia.
This will ensure orangutans who have been rehabilitated at Nyaru Menteng can be released back into the wild. Lone Droscher-Nielsen, who is featured in The Burning Season, established the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in 1999. Her rescue-and-rehabilitation centre cares for orangutans that have been displaced by the fires or attacked by palm oil plantation workers.>> more
Orangutans are the lone species of Asian great ape; all the others come from Africa. The South East Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra are the only habitats in the world where these gentle creatures exist. The Borneo orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus, morio and wurmbii) is classified as endangered by the World Conservation Union, with a population of 40,000 remaining in the wild. The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is under even greater threat: there are only less than 7,000 remaining, and the species is considered critically endangered.
Orangutans share 96.4% of our DNA, and are one of our closest relatives. They are the largest arboreal (tree-living) mammal on earth. The name ‘orangutan’ derives from the Indonesian/ Malay language, in which ‘orang hutan’ means ‘people of the forest’.
Orangutans are a keystone species for conservation. The diversity of foods they eat and their wide path through the forest means that they are crucial to the distribution of seeds which regenerate the forest. Indeed, some plants won’t even germinate until after they have been through the animals’ digestive system. The loss of the orangutans could have dramatic consequences for the ecosystem, with the subsequent depletion of thousands of plants.
As Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of Indonesia, says, “the polar bear represents the problems of melting ice caps but there is little we can directly do to help. The orangutan, on the other hand, represents a solution, an interlinked process in which we stop deforestation, save endangered forest wildlife and store greenhouse gas emissions. If we do all this right, we will ultimately save polar bears and the entire earth.”
Visit the companion website, www.theburningseasonmovie.com
