Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program is working to save:
Orangutan (Pongo pygameus wurmbii)
Endemic to the island of Borneo (the other species, Pongo abelii, is endemic to the island of Sumatra). With an estimated population of 2,500, Gunung Palung National Park has the largest group of the wurmbii subspecies, and an estimated 5-10% of the remaining wild orangutans worldwide. International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listing is Endangered.
Habitat
Gunung Palung National Park is 90,000 hectares (about 222,000 acres), and encompasses seven habitat types, including one of the last intact lowland rainforests on Borneo. GPNP obtained national park designation in 1990, but has continued to face threats from illegal logging and hunting. In addition to illegal logging, the areas surrounding the park are particularly threatened by the establishment of oil palm plantations and clearing for agricultural activities.
Critical threats to wildlife
Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program Success Stories
- From 2006-2008, GPOCP did presentations for 4,298 students, took 495 students on fieldtrips, helped train 702 teachers and reached an additional 1,471 students through extracurricular activities. Students now come to GPOCP to initiate their own conservation-oriented projects after becoming inspired from our field trips and lectures. The word has also spread among teachers, who ask that GPOCP provide advanced training so that they can teach conservation education on their own.
- Mass media campaigns reached locals with twice-weekly radio programs (200,000 listeners), a mobile cinema program showing nature documentaries (4,000 villagers) and the distribution of 2,500 newsletters. Results showed awareness of endangered animals rise from 8% to 91.5%! Moreover, locals have been inspired to action; for example, a young man who heard on the radio programs that pet orangutans are illegal brought the young orangutan that he had been given as a wedding gift to GPOCP's rescue center.
- From 2004-2008, GPOCP identified almost 200 illegally held animals in the area, and worked with the authorities to free 69 orangutans, 14 gibbons and 10 other protected species from illegal containment. The combination of education work and investigations have seen a dramatic reduction in illegal logging, with 18 individual perpetrators prosecuted in recent years.
- Local people are now much more sensitized to the need to conserve their forests and are seeking alternative income solutions. Several GPOCP projects such as village gardens and a local fisherman's cooperative have already led to increased income in these communities.
- Capacity building with GPOCP staff and other NGOs and student groups has led to the development of a cohort of local conservationists. Two staff were selected to attend the International Primatological Society's annual meeting in Uganda in 2008. GPOCP’s support of Edward Tang to earn a bachelor's degree from the prestigious national university in Jakarta has seen him thrive and become one of the leaders of his cohort in the school's conservation biology program.