Orangutan Foundation

After my last post about releasing Kath and Jutak into wild I thought it would be appropriate to tell you more about our work in the Lamandau reserve. Seeing orangutans being released back to the wild is incredibly rewarding and one of the most satisfifying parts of the job but it also comes with a huge responsibility. We have to make sure that we can provide long-term protection to the forests, and this is where the challenge really begins!

New guard post in Lamandau built by participants from our volunteer programme

The Lamandau Ecosystem Conservation Partnership (LECP) is an exciting new partnership for the Orangutan Foundation. It has been funded by the EC to maintain functioning tropical forest ecosystems in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, which support sustainable rural development. The Partnership comprises the local Ministry of Forestry for Central Kalimantan, Yayorin and the Orangutan Foundation.

Our focus is the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. It is important not only because it is an area of high biodiversity and a release site for orangutans but also because of its economic importance for local people. Local communities have the right to the sustainable use of non timber products.

Rattan - non timber product

We believe that in order to provide real protection for Lamandau we must work with local communities. We and our partners are working to achieve the following:

-Improving the protection of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve from illegal activities.

-Improving the education and awareness of communities around the reserve on the importance of conserving forests.

-Facilitating efforts to increase the economy of communities around the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve in a sustainable manner.

-Reforestation of Lamandau Wildlife Reserve to improve its capacity as a conservation area.

Last week LECP participated in the Development Exhibition that was held by Regional Government Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan. This exhibition was held in order to celebrate the 48th anniversary of Kotawaringin Barat. LECP with dozens of organizations and institutions had exhibition stands.

Regent Kotawaringin Barat being shown our stand

Regent Kotawaringin Barat, Mr Ujang Iskandar, officially opened the exhibition. He stopped by at the LECP stand and observed some of LECP activities that were displayed on the walls of the stand. Regent KoBar was very pleased with what has been done by LECP, especially when we gave him the picture of his house, which was taken from a helicopter while we were doing an air survey!

Children taking part in our environmental quiz

During the exhibition, we organised a quiz and played some movies with an environmental theme. We had 100′s of visitors participating but the children were the really excited ones because we gave away prizes if they answered the quiz questions correctly.

We hoped, by taking part in this exhibition, the LECP project will be known by Kotawaringin Barat community. By learning about us they will hopefully like the work that we are doing, and afterwards support all of our activities!!

We really appreciate that Wildlifedirect has given us this opportunity to raise awareness about the orangutan, its rainforest habitat and our about work. Thank you Faye B and Sheryl B for supporting our work with your generous donations. We are making a difference with your help!!