Setting out to save orangutans
Oct 31, 2011
WSPA supporters from across the UK are preparing to trek through unmapped rainforest to save orangutans from cruelty on WSPA’s Borneo Jungle Explorer trek.
WSPA’s exclusive trek is the only way you can visit the orangutans at the WSPA-funded Nyaru Menteng sanctuary, but it is not for the faint hearted.
Participants will journey through the Kalimantan, an area containing an ancient, remote rainforest and spend time with the Dayak people also known as the ‘legendary natives of Borneo’.
The group set out on November 3 and will spend ten days climbing mountains as high as Ben Nevis in the heat and humidity of the rainforest, walking along narrow paths slippery from the latest downpour, wading across streams and inching across bamboo pole bridges.
Nyaru Menteng is the world’s largest orangutan sanctuary and rehabilitation project, where over 1,000 traumatised orphaned and injured orangutans are cared for and helped along their journey towards rehabilitation in the wild. The trekkers’ physical and fundraising efforts will be rewarded with the chance to observe the sanctuary’s residents from a safe distance.
WSPA supporter Neil Robbins has been training hard for the trip, and has lost four stone in weight in preparation. He said: “After dreaming of seeing orangutans in the wild and feeling that I needed a goal to focus on in life, this was a perfect challenge. I’m combining an adventure with the opportunity to raise money for a cause I truly believe in.”
Life at the Nyaru Menteng sanctuary
Orangutans are among the ten most threatened animals in the world – in the last five years, around 20,000 orangutans have perished.
All the orangutans at the centre are in need of the physical and emotional care delivered by dedicated centre staff, in preparation for independent forest futures. Before arriving at the sanctuary they may have been injured in machete attacks, rescued from the pet trade or found starving.
As they regain their health at the sanctuary, adult orangutans move into large socialisation areas. Here, they can be peacefully introduced to other orangutans of a similar age and size. Very young orangutans will live in a nursery, cared for by trained staff who offer emotional comfort and introduce the small apes to their peers.
The Foundation’s staff also teach the orangutans survival skills – finding food, climbing and building nests. This intensive process can take years; each ape progresses at a different pace depending on age, health and personality, but the sanctuary is pushed to the limits, as more and more of Borneo’s forests are destroyed to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.
WSPA Community Fundraising Manager Jane Rockliffe said: “Lots of people will have seen the orangutan sanctuary on TV but the reality is that’s as close as most of them will ever get. The sanctuary exists in pretty inaccessible dense rainforest, and these trekkers will be some of the few westerners who will actually get to see the orangutans in person.”
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