Orangutan Information Centre

Search:

Featured Video

Guidelines for Visitors of Bukit Lawang Part 1

Guidelines for Visitors of Bukit Lawang Part 2

Please visit our Video Page

Donate

You can Help our Work
Read More

Spread the Web

Greetings:

Welcome

Welcome to the Orangutan Information Centre's website. We are a non-profit organization sponsored by the Sumatran Orangutan Society who is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their habitat.

We promote public awareness of the plight and value of this critically endangered species and its unique habitat through grassroots educational programs and empower local communities living near the last remaining orangutan habitat to work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.

We welcome any involvement in our efforts to create an environment committed to long-term conservation of orangutan habitat through environmental education.

Please feel free to surf our website and contact us if you require any more information about orangutans or their conservation status and what you can do to help!

Latest Post:

The Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU)

As human populations encroach into wildlife habitats to meet their livelihood needs, competition for space and resources leads to increased levels of conflict between the two1 . Indonesia is losing massive amounts of forest cover per year2 , with virtually the entire rainforest habitat of orangutans exploited to some extent3.

Forest cover on Sumatra was reduced by 48% from 1985-2007 due to logging, infrastructure projects, internal migration, and plantation development 4,5 . There are now less than 864,100 hectares of Sumatran orangutan habitat left, and the trajectory remains downward6.

The Sumatran orangutan has experienced a drastic decline in population, with the most recent survey reflecting just 6,600 left in the wild, from an estimated 85,000 in 19006. With the expansion of agricultural developments into forested lands, incidents of HOC can only be expected to increase, also exposing orangutans to higher levels of hunting and poaching for the pet trade7,8,9.

The Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU) has been working in communities adjacent to the GLNP since 2010, conducting human-wildlife conflict mitigation, mapping areas of reported/potential conflict, and educating people on best practice methods of mitigation and prevention. Thus far the team has responded to 48 cases of orangutans crop-raiding, safely moving them back into the GLNP. Furthermore, the team has encountered and subsequently helped rescue 7 orangutans that were being held illegally in the areas visited.

This project addresses the problem of human conflicts with the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan (*Pongo abelii*) in agricultural landscapes adjacent to the Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), Sumatra, Indonesia. The Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU) is a roving team that responds to conflict situations and reports of crop-raiding in agricultural areas across northern Sumatra. Forest-adjacent communities affected by human-orangutan conflict (HOC) are offered training in best-practice methods of safely and humanely protecting their crops from orangutans, and data is collected regarding the extent and severity of this problem.

Resolving HOC is a conservation imperative because Sumatran orangutans are amongst the most threatened primate species in the world1 . The nature, causes, and possible solutions to HOC have recently been named as important practical questions in need of answers2 . The HOCRU is a specialist unit addressing this problem, and administering direct, immediate help to these critically endangered apes in conflict situations.

The Indonesian government’s National Action Plan 2007-2017 for the orangutan considers human-orangutan conflict to be a priority area for intervention3 . Several other policies also refer to the need to address this problem, including the 2004 North Sumatra decree (No.522.51/2235.K), and the National Ministry of Forestry 2008 decree (Regulation No.48). As part of our programme, an additional province-wide decree was issued in North Sumatra in 2011 (Governor Decree No.188.44/536/KPTS/2011). This programme is therefore tackling a problem that is recognised as a serious threat to the survival of orangutans.

Mittermeier RA, (2009) Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2008–2010. Arlington, VA: IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group (PSG), International Primatological Society (IPS), Conservation International (CI).
Meijaard E, et al. (2011) Not by science alone: why orangutan conservationists must think outside the box. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: The Year in Ecology and Conservation Biology
Soehartono T, et al. (2009) Orangutan Indonesia: Conservation Strategies and Action Plan 2007-2017. Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia Primate Association (APAPI), and Orangutan Conservation Services Program (OCSP).
Madhusudan MD (2003) Living amidst large wildlife: Livestock and crop depredation by large mammals in the interior villages of Bhadra Tiger Reserve, south India. Environmental Management 31: 466-475.
Gaveau DLA, et al. (2009) The future of forests and orangutans (*Pongo abelii*) in Sumatra: Predicting impacts of oil palm plantations, road construction, and mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation. Environmental Research Letters 4: 1/11.
Husson S, et al. (2009) Orangutan distribution, density, abundance and impacts of disturbance. In: Wich SA, Utami Atmoko SS, Mitra Setia T, van Schaik CP, editors. Orangutans: Geographic variation in behavioral ecology and conservation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.pp. 77-96.
Laumonier Y, et al. (2010) Ecofloristic sectors and deforestation threats in Sumatra: identifying new conservation area network priorities for ecosystem-based land use planning. Biodiversity Conservation 19: 1153–1174.
McConkey K. (2005). Sumatran orangutan (*Pongo abelii*). In World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation. (ed. J. Caldecott & L. Miles), pp. 184-204: University of California Press.
Wich et al. (2011) Orangutans and the Economics of Sustainable Forest Management in Sumatra. UNEP/GRASP/PanEco/YEL/ICRAF/GRID-Arendal.
Brown E, Jacobson M (2005) Cruel Oil: How Palm Oil Harms Health, Rainforest and Wildlife. Washington: Centre for Science in the Public Interest.
Shepherd C, Sukumaran, J, Wich S (2005) Open season: An analysis of the pet trade in Medan, Sumatra 1997-2001. Traffic Southeast Asia.
Hadisiswoyo P (2008) Orangutans and Farmers: A Perceived Human-Orangutan Conflict study in seven villages near Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. School of Social Sciences and Law, (unpublished) MSc thesis. Oxford Brookes University

Orangutan in News:

About Us

OIC is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their habitat. We promote public awareness of the plight and the value of this critically endangered species and its unique habitat through grassroots educational programmes and empower local communities living near the last remaining orangutan habitat to work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.

The OIC has established wide links with both government and non-governmental organizations including the Sumatran Orangutan Society, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), USAID Orangutan Conservation Services Program, UNESCO, Conservation International (CI), Fauna and Flora International (FFI), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the North Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Office (BKSDA), Bapedalda (Environmental Impact Assessment Agency of Indonesia), FK3LI (Indonesian Conservation Cadre), the Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Education in Langkat and Deli Serdang, and the Gunung Leuser National Park Office.

Our Projects

OIC consists of three main divisions: Conservation, Education, and the OranguVan Mobile Awareness Unit (MAU), all of which are supported by the Information Development and Production division. However, as all of our work runs on the same theme: working to save the Sumatran orangutan and its rainforest ecosystem from further degradation - often our programs (and people!) work inter-connectedly. The Orangutan Information Centre works to:

Raise public awareness of threats to and conservation strategies for the Sumatran orangutan through community education and global communication
Educate and empower Sumatran youth through environmental education and awareness projects for local schools
Promote sustainable community development initiatives in local communities through training and capacity building in local communities
Collaborate with other local and international NGOs and businesses working towards parallel goals

New Film

New Film about Guidelines for Visitors to the Gunung Leuser National Park.

A film on guidelines for visitors to the Gunung Leuser National Park has been produced by the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC) in conjunction with Source of Indonesia (SOI). This film, which runs for 15 minutes, is available online and will be screened to all visitors wishing to attend an orangutan feeding session in Bukit Lawang or to go trekking in the national park. The film is an instructional film which summarises the key guidelines that must be respected by visitors and guides in order to reduce any negative effects on orangutans’ natural behaviour and also prevent disease transmission between orangutan and humans as well as vice versa.

Watch the Film on OIC Video Archive Page

Pocket Guidebook

Pocket Guidebook for Visitor of Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan

Orangutan Information Centre Sponsored by Some Organization has produced Pocket Guidebook to Visitor of Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan Ecotourism Site. This Guidebook will be given to all of Visitors who visiting Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan. If you have plans to visit Bukit Lawang or Tangkahan, we suggest you to download the Digital Version so you can learn about Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan much before you arrive there.