Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Orphanage, Borneo
The desperate plight of Borneo’s orangutans is growing daily; the Nyaru Menteng Orphanage has completely run out of funding. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) who run the orphanage, need our help to stop the orphanage from closing and of course be able to give hundreds of vulnerable baby orangutans a future.
These beautiful, cute, animals are threatened by massive habitat loss mainly caused by human deforestation. The orphanage is a necessary lifeline for injured and distressed orangutans. Nyaru Menteng runs a successful rehabilitation programme and offers in many cases the only chance these wonderful orangutans have to return to the natural habitat in the wild.
The situation is so desperate that without immediate and ongoing funding the orphanage will close and the orangutans will be abandoned once more to face an unknown fate.
Their story – homeless, vulnerable and living in fear
An orphaned baby, her eyes hollow, her body gaunt from near starvation. She shivers as night falls, little hair to keep her warm. Her Mother dead, gunned down for protecting her, trying to find food for her offspring. Her brother lies dying from multiple gunshot wounds. As days goes by her condition worsens, she’s alone, she’s desperate and the little life she has left is draining out of her second by second. She needs help, she needs 24 hour care.
A Ranger from the orphanage finds her on a now common routine search for injured and distressed orangutans. She is given all the necessary care she needs and slowly makes a steady improvement, spending her days gaining strength, learning to climb trees and regaining her confidence. She will remain at the orphanage until she is four years old and able to be released back into the wild and a new beginning. Most orangutans that come to the orphanage are victims of the palm oil plantations replacing their homes. Starving adults, including mothers with babies are left with no other choice but to venture into the plantations for food and shelter. Here they are seen as pests and they become easy targets and are shot or wounded, sometimes brutally attacked, tortured and left for dead. Few arrive without serious injuries. Some have their limbs smashed, or gashed. Some have lost their sight from blows to the head. Others have the tips of their fingers and toes cut off. These loving, carefree creatures don’t deserve the despicable, horrific torment brought by the hand of man; the least we can do is give everything we can to support the caring professionals at the orphanage so that they can continue to do their magnificent work and so they can give every single orphaned orangutan a chance of a new life.
Q. Why are there so many Orangutan Orphans?
A. The destruction of their homes to increase productivity of Palm oil.
Who would have thought that bunches of black-orange berry-like fruits could be the cause of something so horrific and unfair. These trees bare crops that are harvested for their oil, oil that was once seen as a cheap alternative biofuel to petroleum that would help fight global warming. Sounds wonderful, however, it’s not that simple, in fact it having terrifying, disastrous consequences.
To make room for palm oil plantations, they ‘Slash & Burn' the rainforests, the home of orangutans and many other creatures. These plantations cover over 2.5 million hectares throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, where 85% of the world palm oil comes from, these plantations produce over 30 million tonnes per year to keep up with worldwide demand. These plantations and related industrial plants are mainly owned by corporate houses or multi-national organisations. The governments are releasing more and more rainforest to these companies to increase the oil production further. The funny thing is that ‘Slash & Burn’ farming methods releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, adding to global warming, than can ever be saved by using a biofuel!!
We may not be able to stop the increase in palm oil production, or the human intervention of natural habitats, but we can help the victims, we can make their lives better, we have to act now, we have to help with funding, we have to play our own small part in saving these wonderful creatures. They can’t fight for themselves, they don’t have a voice, but the have a heart, they have love to give and they need your help.
Please help us to help them.
