Orangutan Conservancy

Photo from OC files. A new palm plantation where the rainforest once stood.

by Nadya Natahadibrata for The Jakarta Post

More than a million people worldwide have joined online calls for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to block the Aceh administration’s plan to open protected forests for commercial exploitation.

Rudi Putra, an Acehnese activist who won the 2013 Future for Nature Award, initiated an online petition on Avaaz.org on May 7, demanding the President step in to the plan. As of Saturday evening, the number of people who signed the petition, which is directed at the President, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan and Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah, had reached 1.2 million.

The petition was begun after a group of local environmental activists from Aceh signed an online petition on Change.org Indonesia against the draft spatial planning bylaw proposed by the Aceh administration, which put the province’s 1.2 million protected forests, home to numerous endangered species, at risk. More than 35,000 people have signed the petition.

“I live and work in the last place on Earth where endangered orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers still roam together, but it’ll be bulldozed to bits unless our President hears our call and steps in to save this unique habitat,” Rudi said on Avaaz.org, a global web movement that was launched in 2007.

This excerpt from a news article appeared in and is courtesy of The Jakarta Post. It can be read in its entirety here. 

With only a month to go before our fifth annual Orangutan Conservancy/ Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group (OC/OVAG)  Workshop,we have just been notified that our workshop is the recipient a large grant from the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.  The substantial grant will aid us enormously in realizing this year’s gathering of wildlife veterinarians in Bogor, Indonesia.

“It is incredibly exciting to get a grant from the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund,” explained Dr. Raffaella Commitante, board member of OC and the coordinator of the annual workshop.  “When someone has the confidence in our work to give us funding, it is a very strong validation of the important work we have been doing with our OC/OVAG workshops.”

And that work will commence again on June 24th in Indonesia when we unite the largest group of  orangutan veterinarians yet to share their knowledge and results with each other.  After the workshop these front-line heroes will go back to their field sites, which include wild, released and sanctuary orangutans,  across Indonesia and Malaysia to continue to contribute to the fight against orangutan extinction through overall health care.

OC thanks everyone at the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund for their generosity and belief in our ongoing mission.

Please read more about this important workshop on our OC/OVAG page.

But we still need your help too.  If you’d like to join us and support this endeavor please consider a donation now to the Orangutan Conservancy by clicking here.

Haze from fire and burnt tree stumps within recently cleared peatland forest; ©Ifansasti/Greenpeace

from mongabay.com

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has evicted Indonesian palm oil giant Dutapalma Nusantara for violating key principles for sustainability.

Dutapalma Nusantara, which is also known as Darmex Agro or Duta Palma, was found to have violated three RSPO principles: converting deep peat for a plantation, clearing forest without a high conservation value (HCV) assessment, and using fire to open land. The company repeatedly failed to address the issues, which were raised by the Indonesia Community Mapping Network via RSPO’s complaint system.

“The Executive Board finds that PT Dutapalma Nusantara / PT Darmex Agro have not demonstrated commitment to address the issue nor acted in compliance with the Code of Conduct,” said the RSPO in a statement posted on its web site. “Despite numerous directives from the RSPO to resolve the complaint, there was complete reticence and lack of response from the company. The company merely attempted to refute the allegations by using the issue of ownership of the companies involved.”

“Therefore, the Executive Board has decided to terminate the RSPO membership of PT Dutapalma Nusantara and PT Darmex Agro with immediate effect on the grounds indicated above. In concurrence with this, PT Dutapalma Nusantara/PT Darmex Agro must remove all references to the RSPO on its website and from all other communication in whatever form within seven (7) days from the date of this letter.”

This excerpt from a news article appeared on and is courtesy of mongabay.com. To read the full article click here.

Tripa rainforest burns in this 2012 image. (photo courtesy of SOCP)

Apriadi Gunawan for The Jakarta Post

Conservationists in Medan, North Sumatra, have urged the government to take swift action to stop the destruction of orangutans’ habitat, as their population in North Sumatra and Aceh was on the verge of extinction.

ProFauna Indonesia chairman Rosek Nursahid said their habitat had been decimated due to ongoing deforestation in both provinces.

He said the current orangutan population was estimated at around 6,000 with the largest concentrations in West Leuser, East Leuser and Rawa Singkil in Aceh, while a limited number could still be found in the Batang Toru Forest in North Sumatra.

Rosek added that North Sumatra and Aceh were vital for the conservation of orangutans because the Sumatran orangutan was only found in the wild in the two provinces.

“We are concerned that the Aceh and North Sumatra provincial administrations do not care about the orangutans; evident from the increasing amount of deforestation in both provinces, which has become a serious threat to the orangutan population,” Rosek said during a rally recently.

This excerpt from a news article appeared in and is courtesy of The Jakarta Post and can be read in its entirety here.

The photo is courtesy of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP).