D I P L O M AT I C A| NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Saving the orangutans of Borneo By Janie Dubman
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The job of caring for today’s needy orangutans is enormous and complex.
Orangutan Foundation International’s founder, Biruté Mary Galdikas.
forests where orangutans live are increasingly devastated by wildfires, which used to be very rare in these humid jungles. Logging, both legal and within protected areas, continues to damage and degrade wildlife habitat. When 26-year old Biruté Mary Galdikas — a Lithuanian-Canadian primatologist — arrived in Indonesia in 1971, her goal was to study wild orangutans. But within a month of setting up camp in a remote part of what would become Tanjung Puting National Park (the camp she named Camp Leakey in honour of the famous anthropologist who was her early mentor), a young female orangutan named Akmad was brought to her cabin, likely orphaned by illegal loggers in the park. After Akmad came many more, eventually leading Galdikas to establish the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine in the village of Pasir Panjang, where her Indonesian husband dedicated the forest around it for the jungle school described above. Today, the OCCQ is home to 311 orangutans. Most of them are in the process of rehabilitation from physical and psychological wounds received at the hands of humans, and once they reach eight to 10 years of age, they will be released back into their native forest home. Orangutan Foundation International Canada supports this work by providing funds to purchase fruit for
daily feedings, paying salaries of local caregiving staff and helping to maintain the sleeping quarters and jungle gyms of the young orangutans. Besides care and rehabilitation, orphan orangutans need safe habitat to return to. That is why we sponsor the purchase of remaining forested lands in our area, and then ensure that they continue providing habitat to orangutans and wildlife by taking active stewardship of that land. Firefighting and patrols that OFICanada sponsors help protect these forests from constant encroaching threats, while a large-scale native tree reforestation program helps heal forests damaged by wildfire and human land use. The mission of caring for today’s needy orangutans, while simultaneously working to provide them with a secure and viable future in their own ancestral jungle, is enormous and complex. Much of the time, it feels like pushing a boulder up a hill with no visible summit. However, the countless hands, hearts and minds who have generously contributed to this mission for the past half century provide the oasis for the soul that we all need to keep going. Visit www.orangutancanada.ca/ donate/ to donate. Janie Dubman is an OFICanada board member. WINTER 2021 | JAN-FEB-MAR
COURTESY OF ORANGUTAN FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL
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red-headed youngster takes a bite of a banana and slowly chews it while gazing off into the distance, her brown eyes thoughtful. Then, in the manner of kids everywhere, she seems to surge with energy and makes a sudden lunge for the woman sitting nearby, cartwheeling and running right into her lap. After a quick cuddle, the young adventurer takes off again, and, within seconds, is five metres above ground, swinging and swaying on a slender tree-branch. The woman is not concerned because this morning, she is caring for little ones that are very similar to, but much more agile than, human children. She’s at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) in Central Kalimantan, an Indonesian province in the south of Borneo, and the playful youngster is Meli Two, a sixyear-old orangutan female who is part of Orangutan Foundation International’s orangutan rehabilitation program. Her caregiver is Ibu Epi, an indigenous Dayak woman whose job is to provide the care, attention and guidance that Meli Two lost when she was orphaned. The natural ‘jungle gym’ where they spend their mornings is a parcel of land belonging to a hereditary community elder, and today it is dappled with golden sunshine slanting through enormous leaves, and humming with the sounds of countless birds and insects. It is a piece of Borneo preserved from time immemorial, a lush green relic of the world’s oldest jungle. However, just past the edge of this 80-hectare sanctuary, a louder and harsher reality prevails. The ubiquitous mopeds of Indonesia roar up and down large, paved roads and tiny rutted side streets alike, and just a few kilometres in almost every direction, Borneo’s jungle is shrinking. The main culprit is palm oil plantations. Cheap because of its fast growth and the low costs of land and labour in the tropics, palm oil can be found in everything from Halloween chocolate to soy milk to body wash and 90 per cent of it is grown in Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia — the two countries where almost all of the world’s orangutans live. The total area of land in Indonesia dedicated to palm oil has doubled since 2008, now covering more than 13 million hectares, most of which was once forest. In addition, the
