How can we assure forests for orangutans, forests for all?

Found only on the forested islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the three species of orangutans are critically endangered. Making their home in fruiting canopies, their future is rooted in the survival of their forests. Those same forests are disappearing and becoming fragmented under pressures of human development and expanding agriculture, specifically palm oil, an additive that appears in 50% of our everyday groceries and toiletries.

 

Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program

A Woodland Park Zoo Conservation Partner

Woodland Park Zoo partners with Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (GPOCP) dedicated to preserving Bornean orangutan populations and forest habitat in and around Gunung Palung National Park. Recognizing that most threats to orangutan survival are human induced, GPOCP strives to develop a human community that is aware and motivated to conserve and protect the orangutans, their habitat and the biodiversity within this rainforest. Since its inception, GPOCP has evolved into a landscape level conservation organization, working towards the protection of the park and surrounding ecological areas.

Good News for Orangutans

Creating Eco-Friendly Livelihoods

GPOCP is working with villagers on creating and stocking small fish ponds as an economically efficient and sustainable non-timber related livelihood opportunity.

 

 

 

 

Orangutans are great apes—a family of primates that also includes all gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans. Every species of great ape, with the exception of humans, faces a risk of extinction and is listed as endangered or critically endangered. Orangutans are the most arboreal of all the great apes, meaning they spend most of their lives foraging, eating, sleeping and raising their young in tree canopies. They are native to the tropical forests of Indonesia and Malaysia and their survival is directly connected to the health of those forests.