Yogyakarta Orangutan Center
On June 24th we had an amazing meeting with the Sultan of Yogyakarta.
His Highness
will be the Patron of our new Orangutan Center in Jogja...
From left, Dian Tresno, Simon Garth Purser, Radya Bharata, Jeni Shannaz, Willie Smits, His Majesty the Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Richard Zimmerman, Tarko Sudiarno, Darek Figa, Dudung Pakpahan, Femke Monita, Pramudya Harzani, Leo Hulsker.
*****
Orangutan Outreach is developing a new
state-of-the-art orangutan facility in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. Please note, all sketches are preliminary and cannot be reproduced without the permission of Orangutan Outreach.
The primary goal of the center is to create a facility that will be more enriching, stimulating and fulfilling for orangutans than any site in existence today. Designed by Willie Smits, the center will encompass his work from the last 20 years, including the Schmutzer Primate Center in Ragunan Zoo in Jakarta and Samboja Lestari in East Kalimantan. The philosophy of the center will be based on Willie's profound understanding of the minds of orangutans as described in his book Thinkers of the Jungle.
There will be two smaller introduction domes next to the main one. Here we will integrate orangutans from Ragunan Zoo-- and other uniquely difficult cases-- who have never touched soil before. Some of these cheekpadder male orangutans have been in cages for more than 30 years!
In the middle of the main dome there will a giant tree, made of concrete and steel but completely overgrown with enhanced drip-fed fig cuttings in various parts of the crown. In a matter of five years, the roots will anastomize to form what may turn out to be the worlds largest living tree with an internal man made skeleton. The tree's inside chamber will be able to be used by researchers as well as for a wide range of enrichment activities for the orangutans.
This new facility-- in combination with the existing orangutan facilities on the land that we own (40 acres) like the quarantine, education center, etc.-- is to be managed in cooperation with the Royal Family of Yogyakarta. The center will ultimately be a transit center for more than 200 orangutans presently illegally kept by individuals that we have mapped out already, so that they can regain their health, be monitored, socialized, genetically screened and eventually returned to one of the rehabilitation centers in Kalimantan or Sumatra. But for those orangutans who cannot make it back to the wild-- such as amputees, blind orangutans, severe cases of hospitalismus, Downs Syndrome orangutans and those with incurable diseases-- the dome will become a permanent sanctuary-- a place where the orangutans can live out their lives with dignity, comfort and safety.
The
sanctuary will be an educational facility and a place for scientists to
dig deeper in the mind of our cousins. We will connect the center on
line with orangutans around the world and allow them to interact with
our own specially designed software, which will allow people around the world join in to
watch, understand, appreciate and help the orangutans.
There are so many more aspects to this project, one particularly being the link with zoo keepers and zoos around the world. Yogyakarta will be a place for them to work with hundreds of orangutans and to learn how to better help the orangutans in their home facilities.
Background Information
Yogyakarta is a world famous cultural capital on the island of Java, known primarily for the magnificent Borobudur and Prambanan temple sites. “Jogja” is even in this modern age a very important Sultanate with a very popular and visionary royal leader, who has recently co-founded the Yogyakarta Nature Conservation Foundation.
Java has a population of more than 120 million people and is the commercial hub of Indonesia with more than 90% of the Indonesian economic activities taking place there. That commerce includes, unfortunately, a large amount of illegal animal smuggling and trading activities. Most of these activities involve people who are well aware of the law but also know that there is a very large degree of "flexibility" for people in Indonesia with enough money.
The expansion of oil palm plantations on previously untouched areas of rainforest in Kalimantan and Sumatra over the last ten years has led to a massive loss of valuable orangutan habitat. The overall loss of biodiversity has been staggering and unprecedented. The stream of orangutan victims has progressed unabated over the last decade, and there are now more than a thousand orphaned and displaced orangutans living in rescue and rehabilitation centers throughout Indonesia-- all awaiting a chance to be released into a forest that continues to disappear.
Willie Smits, the founder of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), and Richard Zimmerman, founder of Orangutan Outreach, have done a thorough evaluation of the present situation and come up with an action plan that is sufficiently realistic to be implemented immediately.
There are hundreds of orangutans in the wealthier areas of Java being kept as illegal pets. Initial surveys show more than two dozen orangutans in need of confiscation immediately in the Jakarta capital alone. The starting point with these orangutans is law enforcement. Special teams that can do undercover work and operate in tandem with Indonesian law enforcement and the Ministry of Forestry's special field police will be needed. In short, without effective law enforcement and confiscations, the poaching and illegal trading of orangutans will continue.
There are also literally dozens of orangutans known to be living in dilapidated zoo facilities that can no longer afford to support them. Many large male cheekpadder orangutans are being kept isolated in very small cages, just awaiting their slow death under dire medieval conditions and completely lacking in adequate nutrition, companionship or any form of enrichment.
The primary goal of Red Ape Relief is to develop the Yogyakarta rescue facility into a state-of- the-art orangutan transit and care center for the newly confiscated orangutans to be moved into the rehabilitation process and to provide those innocent victims who cannot be returned to the wild with a sanctuary where they can live out their natural lives with dignity.
The Ministry of Forestry has recently issued stringent new regulations for bringing orangutans back to the forest. The orangutans need to be genetically screened and be completely healthy before they can be sent back to the rehabilitation center closest to their place of origin. Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University has Indonesia‟s best veterinary faculty and will allow us to do exactly this. Red Ape Relief will finance the cooperation between the university and the Yogyakarta Nature Conservation Foundation.
To be clear while many healthy orangutans will only pass through the center in Yogyakarta there will be many who will never be able to return to the wild—either because of incapacitation, disease or due to habituation to humans. These orangutans will need to live under human care for the rest of their lives, and they deserve to do so with dignity. Yogyakarta will provide this opportunity as a permanent sanctuary for them. The facility will be partly modeled on successful sanctuaries in the United States such as the Center for Great Apes and Save the Chimps.
We have a clear plan on what is needed, but technical solutions alone are not enough. In order to make a permanent change what is needed is political and general support. In the government people frequently change positions and there are constant changes in policies. This is not the case with traditional institutions. This is why Orangutan Outreach will work directly with the Royal Family of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in running this comprehensive Red Ape Relief program.
The Sultan of Yogyakarta is one of the most respected individuals in Indonesia. Over the course of many years, he has proven his dedication to nature conservation issues, especially when it comes to setting up protocols to avoid conflicts between local people and wildlife. With the Sultan's support, we will build a publicity campaign around the Yogyakarta Orangutan Rescue Center by working closely with the Yogyakarta Nature Conservation Foundation. The oldest daughter of the Sultan, American-educated Gusti Pembayun, is the chair of the Foundation's board of trustees. The Sultan, himself, is supporting the project.
So we have a clear understanding of what is needed, a solid strategy to deal with the problem and a feasible way to obtain support from very influential people and institutions. What we need now is the financial means to realize the Red Ape Relief program.
