Community Agroforestry, Reforestation and Education (CARE)

This community engagement programme fosters the creation of villages that serve as models of conservation-oriented living. We promote environtmental education, awareness, and habitat protection, whilst supporting sustainable development and livelihoods. This programme is targeted on a number of critical communities adjacent to orangutan habitat. In each village, a community-based work initiative is formed and maintained by the people themselves

Through repeat visits and continued engagement with our environmental education component, strong relationships are formed, high levelss of sustainable living infrastructure developed, and ultimately higher standards of action and commitment can be developed in each region. The goal of the CARE is to develop environmental programmes compatible with local needs and then to pass over the management to the communities themselves

Each individual project is managed by the community as a whole, with the goal being for them to become financially self-supporting in an environmentally friendly manner. Thus there is high inherent incentive value for local people to support these initiatives, all of which serve to help conserve orangutans and their forest homes.

Since 2001, about 6,164 farmers in 53 villages around the Leuser Ecosystem have been involved in a various educational training programme in order to improve their sustainable agricultural practice and improved sustainable agricultural practice and more than 10,000 people participated in awereness-raising activities.

In addition, in collaboration with Orangutan Republik Foundation we are also implementing the Orangutan Caring Scholarship (OCS) scheme to support much-needed study into orangutan ecology and conservation in Sumatra for Indonesian University student. Up to 2020, 273 Indonesian students from local universities in North Sumatra and Aceh provinces have been awarded funding.

The scholarship covers the full four years of tuition needed for each student, as well as a stipend for orangutan/habitat -related research. Up to the end of 2019, 101 students have completed their study and almost 20% of them have become key numbers of the conservation movement across Indonesia, and will help inspire others to care for nature and their environment.