Orangutan Conservancy

The word orangutan comes from the Malay words “Orang” (meaning: person) and “Hutan” (meaning: of the forest). The word Orangutan translates to “person of the forest.”

Although exact population counts are difficult to ascertain, the scientific community generally agrees that there are somewhere between 55,000 and 65,000 wild orangutans left.

The Orangutan Conservancy is proud to announce our new and improved Wild Adoption Program. This adoption program is in partnership with the Orangutan Kutai Project (OKC) and the Kutai National Park Authority to help support and bring awareness to wild orangutans’ conservation.

Five great apes exist on earth today, two of them are on the brink of extinction, two are decreasing rapidly in population, and one is the most abundant primate species on earth.

While exact orangutan population counts are always a challenge – various estimates put current counts at between 50,000-65,000 orangutans left in the wild – we do know with certainty that 2,000 to 3,000 orangutans are killed every year.

Orangutans are endemic to rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in the Indonesian Archipelago. Rainforests of the Far East, including Borneo and Sumatra, may be some of the most complex. Borneo and Sumatra support 10% of Indonesia’s known plant species, 12.5% of its mammals, and 17% of its other vertebrates.