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About the Orangutan Foundation (www.orangutan.org.uk)

The Orangutan Foundation UK, established in 1991, is an international chapter of the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), which was founded in 1986 by Dr. Biruté Galdikas, recognised as the world's leading expert on orangutans.

Dr. Galdikas embarked upon her study of wild orangutans, now in its third decade, with the encouragement of the late, renowned Dr. Louis Leakey. Dr. Leakey also supported Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees that has spanned 40 years, and the late Dian Fossey's 19 year study of mountain gorillas.

Orangutans are in grave danger of extinction because their rainforest habitat is vanishing at an unprecedented rate. The biggest threat is permanent agriculture in the form of palm oil plantations and more recently illegal logging and gold mining within protected areas.

The Foundation actively conserves the orangutan and its habitat whilst supporting long-term research on the ecology of orangutans and other fauna and flora within their rainforest habitat.

In 1997 the OFI, through the influence of the Foundation, was instrumental in securing a one third (100,000 hectare) increase in the size of Tanjung Puting National Park (more information). In addition to this Dr. Galdikas successfully lobbied the Indonesian Government for a wildlife reserve in Central Kalimantan. Lamandau is the new orangutan release site consisting of 76,000 hectares of expired logging concession.

Another vital development took place in 1998 when the Foundation, in conjunction with the Ministry of Forestry, founded an urgently needed Orangutan Care Centre in Central Kalimantan (more information). This provides a quarantine area and clinic for the treatment and rehabilitation of confiscated orangutans. The Care Centre complements the work of the rehabilitation centres in Borneo and Sumatra which, since 1971, have returned close to 1000 orphaned orangutans to the forest. However, it must be stressed that rehabilitated orangutans will never replace the wild population.

Our objectives also include educational programmes in the UK, fundraising and increasing public awareness. Please use the menu options on the left to explore our website and learn more about our organisation.

The Orangutan Foundation is a member of the Species Survival Network (SSN) and a supporter of their work. See www.ssn.org for more details.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.ORANGUTAN.ORG.UK