Your donation will protect orangutans
Illegal encroachers are a massive threat to the future of the orangutan. Please help us stop them before it’s too late.
Last year we asked you to help us secure vital orangutan habitat - and you did! Together we protected an extra 93,900 acres of rainforest in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem, creating a critically important sanctuary for the 170 released orangutans who call it home. Thank you!
But whilst we’ve taken a massive step forward, we are still far short of the 445,000 acres and 2,000 wild orangutans we need under our permanent protection if we are to secure this gentle species from extinction.
And we are still battling day and night with illegal land encroachers, who surround our buffer zone and will not stop while there’s jungle left to plunder.
But we’re not stopping either.
Will you make a donation today so we can grow our game-changing program? I promise you we need to act fast.
Your gift will go straight to the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem in central Sumatra, where we and our partners continue to develop what has now become one of the most successful orangutan rehabilitation and release programs in the world. 170 orangutans have now been reintroduced into protected areas of the forest, five babies have been born, and many more are working their way through jungle school right now, finally gaining the lives they deserve in the wild.
But we now need to expand this program – and secure more forest surrounding our protected area if we’re to save the orangutan from extinction.
Because as you read these words, vital orangutan habitat throughout Sumatra is being bulldozed. Orangutans are being killed and displaced at a rate they simply cannot regenerate.
With only 14,000 left in the wild, thousands killed each year and a birth rate of just one baby in nine years, the maths is gut-wrenching - Sumatran orangutans will be extinct within the next few years unless we pull out the stops right now.
And today, that’s what I’m asking you to do. Please help us secure the future of the orangutan. Your donation will make a significant difference.
The fact is there is so much more we can be doing – right now.
Your gift will help us increase our Wildlife Protection Units, so they can penetrate deep into unprotected areas of the jungle, exposing illegal logging camps, untangling poachers snares and providing a watchful presence day and night. With a massive 9% of the jungle surrounding our protected area illegally destroyed in just one year, the extended presence our Wildlife Protectors is critical for the survival of orangutans, particularly for the young males who love to roam over vast distances.
Illegal encroachers won’t stop, but nor will we.
Land encroachers don’t waste a minute in Indonesia – they are insidious and pervasive, working around the clock to illegally clear land for palm and other agricultural development. There is big money to be made in these enterprises – and the only way we can stop them is by expanding our Wildlife Protection Units and being equipped to protect more land as it becomes available.
And with your help, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
Our Wildlife Protection Units are a formidable force against the relentless threat of illegal land encroachers, but they also provide vital awareness and education to local communities, guiding them towards sustainable land practices and sharing a genuine respect for their unique wild heritage. Our Wildlife Protectors also play a vital, long term role in monitoring released orangutans, carefully assessing how they are adapting to their new jungle environment over many years.
No one person or organisation can save the orangutan, but together we can.
The Orangutan Project has always worked closely and collaboratively with local and international conservation groups, because we know that’s the most effective way to protect Asia’s unique wildlife – both now and well into the future.
As an orangutan supporter, you play such a central role in this work, and as we near that tipping point where we know our programs are working but that our time is desperately short, your help becomes more important than ever. With only 14,000 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, we urgently need to expand our program at Bukit Tigapuluh – and we need your help to do it.
Please give your most generous gift today and help us win this fight.
Alongside supporting Wildlife Protection Units to protect our 170 released orangutans, your generous gift today will help provide around the clock care for the orangutans currently in the Bukit Tigapuluh rehabilitation program and will support ongoing rescue operations, saving countless displaced, injured and illegally caged orangutans every year.
Your donations help us achieve so much
$22 will provide fresh food for one rescued orangutan for one month.
$75 will help us secure and patrol 25 acres of rainforest.
$164 will support costs for a Wildlife Protection Officer for one week.
$2,205 will provide everything one young orphaned orangutan needs for one year, including food, medical costs, wages for human carers and extensive jungle training.
Every orangutan you help rescue makes a difference, because we know the vast majority of orangutans who make it to the Bukit Tigapuluh rescue centre go on to thrive. And this is in spite the horror they’ve almost certainly experienced beforehand.
Orphaned, displaced or kept in cages as tragically sad trophies, every orangutan in our care has a story to tell. And yet, when they’re given a second chance, they take it – quite literally with open arms. And that’s what gives me so much hope – every time we provide sanctuary to a rescued orangutan, every time we secure rainforest on their behalf, every time we protect against poachers - we’re not only pushing back extinction, we are making a profound difference to a gentle, sentient being.
When you give your gift today, you’ll be making a difference to hundreds of orangutans. You’ll be supporting them to be fully equipped with the skills they need to survive and you’ll be making sure the jungle they go on to explore is vast, regenerated and fully protected.
I won’t lie to you, this is not an easy task. The encroachers will always be looking for land to develop, the poachers are getting ever more audacious. Every year, we need to raise $494,937 just to fund our Wildlife Protection Units and keep our rescue, rehabilitation and release program at Bukit Tigapuluh at its current capacity.
But I promise you, it is worth it. For every acre of jungle protected, for every orangutan who regains their dignity, safety and their freedom – it is worth it.
This tax year we need to raise $330,885 to meet our targets and be in a position to grow this world renowned program.
Please give a generous tax-deductible donation* and together we will save the orangutan from extinction.
* donations in Australia and the USA are tax deductible, in the UK we are registered fof Gift Aid