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Massive extinction of orang-utan! The struggle for survival of our closest relatives! Already in 6 years the population of our next relatives can have disappeared from this planet. Guilty is the dwindling habitat, which makes the orangutan to one of the most vulnerable species from extinction. The incessant deforestation of tropical primary forests, the massive expansion of palm oil plantations, almost uncontrollable and destructive forest fires and the trade in these animals are the main cause for the exodus of our protégés. You want to prevent that? - On these pages you will find out how you can help! Support us and run your active protecting Species! Meratus shall not die! Only EURO 30 for a hectare of tropical forest Make a sustainable reservation where orangutan are protected! You buy symbolically protective forest for orangutan. The Meratus - Rainforest is home to about 350 orangutans. You can protect these animals sustainably and offer them a secure home. You will help us and you will get a deed for your support. As palm oil destroys our earth What do you know about palm oil? Do you know that you face it daily? – When driving a car, in your food in your medication? No? Maybe then you don´t know where palm oil comes from and how it destroys our environment. Read more here. All the latest from Borneo orangutan help Our newsletter is designed to provide you with all the latest information on new projects, trends and developments. Sign in - Please! Middle of the last century, allowed the animal protectors and behavioral scientist Prof. Dr. Bernhard Grzimek in a unique documentation of one of the most diverse areas on earth, the Serengeti lasting protection. Following Grzimek “Serengeti shall not die," we will bring our sanctuary nearby. How then it is a unique habitat, the rainforest in Borneo, with its fascinating beauty and priceless biodiversity. One of the last great rainforest areas of Borneo on the holy mountain Meratus is threatened by the destruction. In addition to countless animal and plant species are disappearing even rare indigenous peoples, and that traces of the unique species homo sapiens. This development is currently in all three global rainforest areas. Central Africa, in Amazonia, and in the most threatened rainforests of Borneo. There are almost no intact traditional villages of the largest indigenous ethnic group of Borneo, the Dayak, in this forest area. Moreover, the massive logging endangered the very species-rich forest (including the home of 350 orang-utans, already go wild in the 1990s). For this reason, the joint efforts of voluntary organizations fans for nature, Faszination Regenwald e. V. /Ulmer Initiative zur Rettung der Orang-Utans and the Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe saving the rainforest Meratus. Our Indonesian partner Alas lou taka foundation with its headquarters in Balikpapan East Kalimantan representing our cause locally. With primates helping primates (Netherlands), orangutan outreach (USA) and fansfor nature, Austria we are supported from strong partners. Our protection efforts follow a triad of objectives: the protection of a local indigenous Dayak community (the people of the two villages Tanjunsoke and Gurunggung) we also want to be a protection of the Meratus - rainforest and thus to make possible the survival of 350 great ape, threatened by extinction. About the protection of the people of the rainforest, we want to maintain the forest and in turn the inhabitants of the rainforest have a future secure. We to achieve with our efforts to preserve this unique habitat. Protect yourself with us Meratus - rainforest! Buy symbolic one hectare of rainforest for 30.00 EUR. Your help reaches us by check or direct bank transfer to following bank account: fans for nature, Germany is a registered non-profit organisation. Donations are deductible in Germany. Save us the population of the orangutans! The Indonesian government has given us the rights to acquire 150,000 hectares of land. This is approximately twice the area of Berlin. It is our duty to protect this country, and we like it very much to do this. Under our protection there will be no longer logging and no orangutan will be killed anymore. We will ensure that the territory in its biodiversity with the involvement of the local population is preserved. It is the rainforest area around the holy mountain Meratus. Please help us - You will receive one hectare of rainforest for 30.00 EURO Withit you create sustainable structures. They help with the symbolic buying of rainforest. With 30 EUR you can protect one hectare of rainforest. You will receive a certificate from us in the form of a deed. Create a better world with us. The Dayak settlements Tanjungsokes and Gurunggungs The two villages are located on the western edge of the Meratus biological reserve, but they are surrounded from the concession area of a large logging company "Balikpapan Forest Industry" (abbreviated BFI). Inspite of the huge profits which were earned for the logging in the region Meratus, the human population is very poor. The result is that the people works as a lumberjack or they farm in the biological reserve. Based on these knowledge, our goal is the for improving the social and economic situation of the village (it is 200 people distributed to 50 households). Because the local Dayak don´t have any posibility to articulate their rights and interests against the “global player” Balikpapan Forest Industry our Indonesian sister foundation (ALT) will support the habitants of Tanjungsokes and Gurunggungs to rescue their home. Let us preserve one of the most original parts of the lowland rainforest on Borneo. Support our projects and the Dayak - village! Projects to improve the social situation of the human population: partnership with the village school Scholarship programs for gifted pupils in the village Visiting from a German team of doctors Ecotourism: Construction of Guest Houses Construction of a research camp Ecological Reforestation Project It is not easy - but you can help us! Our Concept - 5 pillars to protect the rainforest To protect the rainforest at Mount Meratus wisely and sustainable it is neccessary to involve the locals. Only local people can protect their forest. Only we shall be available as trainers and give them the tools for a socially balanced and livable future. The project is divided into five parts. Education to get background knowledge, medical care as a confidence-building measure, self-determination because of ecotourism, a camp for basic research and future research and a scientifically-based reforestation project. We give you a simply overview of the components: Education Project Supporting the village school and a scholarship program for gifted students. To change the situation locally it requires the education of the indigenous Dayak communities. To impart knowlege to the children and young people of the village of Tanjungsokes and Gurunggungs it is an important contribution to help raise awareness of their future. It is our top priority, to support the village school in the community. In addition to preserving and maintaining the school, best teaching materials and competent teachers rank first. Furthermore, talented students of our sister city should receive the possibility on scholarships to secondary schools. Visit of a German medical teams 2. 2. Visit of a German medical teams An important measure of confidence-building is the provision of medical care. The local people will be taught that we take care of them and that they have a reliable partner. Only if we trust each other we can run our project with the Dayak-villages.An important measure of confidence-building is the provision of medical care. The local people will be taught that we take care of them and that they have a reliable partner. Only if we trust each other we can run our project with the Dayak-villages. The construction of a guesthouse The benefits of this project are urged to immediately. It is about independence. With the construction of a guesthouse in our sister city, we provide the Dayak an alternative source of income by separating them from the logging. With alternative income opportunities, they will be the protectors of the forest. The rainforest will be their source of income and deforestation threatens their situationSo the Dayak are the guardian of the forest. The establishment of a research camp The establishment of a research camp is essential. On the one hand, thisis the research of biodiversity and the effects of human interventions into the complex system of the tropical rainforest. On the other hand, the camp again has a definite economic benefits for the Dayak - communities. First the village would be involved in the construction of the camps. Later the camp would generating stable long-term yields because of the support of the research groups and perhaps the people will get an employment as research assistants. Ecological Reforestation The successful work of Dr. Willie Smits in Samboja Lestari has role model for this project. It is our target to replant the lost forest area effectually and sustainably. Again, the Dayak communities become active and act as a gardener of the rainforest. The elaborateness of the reforestation projects in the context of dissertations is developed on the scientific forestry faculty of the University Samarinda. A well-trained graduate lumberjack, will support this works very well. We need your help to realise it! You can sponsor a project. Herewith you support not only one orang-utan, but eventually 350 of our orangutans and their natural,the original rainforest. You decide which part of the project you prefer. Of course you could also support the whole project. You are important and you will secure with your contribution, not only the preservation of the rainforest and all its inhabitants, but a real alternative and the future of the indigenous people. You will help to make the world a little fairer, more social and more sustainable. The history of Maja and Momo (Inhabitants of Mount Meratus area) I'm Momo and this is my mummy Maja. I am just two weeks old and I find it very comfortable to be on the back of my great and powerful mother. She has long hair, in which I can hold on. And whenever I want, I get warm milk to drink and be cradle in the arm We are living on Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world. And with us there live about 30 000 other orang-utans. That has told me my mom. More beautiful the life could not be, but there are these terrible things, my mom seems to have great fear. Even in my first days of life she told me what was happened to her when she was a young orang-utan. These were terrible things: Large mobile monster - Bulldozer – they pushed over our beautiful trees effortlessly. Until there was no longer a place to eat or to sleep or to escape. Every day these bulldozers came back and with them the people who had aimed at the young orang-utans - in order to sell them. It is also happened to my mother Maja. Long time she had to endure to be squeezed in a small cage, until one day she had the good fortune when animal welfare campaigner of the Mount Meratus Camp found and rescue her. It was very hard for my mom to recover. Only with a lot of love, she could be influences to seperate from her apathy to win back the lust for life as an orang-utan. The baby sitters in the camp had to teach her many things without which an ape cannot survive in the wild; what plants to eat? How do you capture the delicious ants? How do you built a stable bed for sleeping? How do you don´t get lost in the tangle of trees in the forest? My mom had to learn a lot, finally, she was separated from her mother at the age of six month. In the camp Mount Meratus Maja found a new home and felt secure. She met a nice orang-utan man and beared a child – Momo. Although we live in freedom, we often visit the people in the camp. And well, our small family could feel really good: We have both of us, we have enough to eat and we are free. But unfortunately my mom have worried again. Despite many efforts by the animal welfare campaigner from Mount Meratus camp the forest is becoming increasingly scarce. They do not have enough money to buy more areas. And they can not prevent that timber merchants always invade our park, and lumber our large trees. The history of Maja and Momo on Borneo is repeated every day anew. And it is not only disastrous for the environment in Indonesia, but it is a symbol of the impact of uncontrolled globalization of our time. Unfortunately, the story of Maja and Momo is no fairy tale, if so you just have to wait long enough and it would turn out well. At the moment the end is still open, but without help from the outside the orang-utans in Borneo will be in danger. Willie Smits has founded the world's largest primate protection project on Borneo. Now there 1300 orangutans because their mothers were killed and the jungle has been destroyed. Smits says, only if he helps them, he can remain human. It was a single animal, that has made Smits to the mentor of orphans: UCE 1989 lay half dead in a market in Balikpapan, discarded by a dealer. Smits took the litle monkey. It has grasped at him, traumatized by the death of his mother. With milk and diapers, he took care about the female. Soon acquaintance brought another baby monkey and then yet another. 1300 of confiscated orangutans currently live in the various rehabilitation stations. Smits has a name given a name to all. The babies are living together with 100 women from the indigenous Dayak people. They replace the mothers, which were killed, giving them the bottle and change their diapers. If the monkeys are still small, the women talk Dayak to them, and later they change into Indonesian – they do it in the same way how they do with her own children. First, two small animals come in one cage, then they come in larger enclosure and then learn to climb and build nests. Many of them suffer from tuberculosis or hepatitis when they arrive, they were infected by humans. Only when they are healthy and have learned to survive in the wilderness, they are reintroduce. Approximately three years does it take to care for a monkey. Euro 3600 and immeasurable love does it cost to save his life. For a better future for the orangutans and humans - please help wherever you can! The fragile Peanut The orangutan girl, born in September 2007 on the palm oil plantation "PT KMB Antang Kalang" in the central of Kalimantan was seized. It hasn´t overcome the trauma of losing her mother but it got on very fast in the new group. Her surrogate mother brought her back into life by very close contact. „She is a nice little girl," says May of the station Nyaru Menteng. Peanut loves mangoes and pineapples! Her way up to reintroduction is long - we would like to accompany Peanut and give her a financially secure future. Please help us! Hercules The situation of the adult orang-utan men is particularly tragic. In fact, the Giants have to walk alone in a large piece of rainforest. We are forced to confine these wonderful animals in relatively small cages. There we hold them captured for years in unnatural surroundings.It is a stress, when the men are forced to hear the "Long Calls", that are mating calls coming from the adjoining cage. Normally it is a sign of strength and affirmation in defence of the area. „To hear a gigantic orangutan crying and sobbing in his cage is the worst experience, in the orang-utan protection you can make," says Helmut Huber, who despair of this. All projects with adult animals have the problem that there is no lobby for the giants. Of course, the babies are cute, but the Giants need our help, too. Now Hercules is about 16 years old. He arrived the station on 28 September 2002. At last we were able to release Hercules from his cage. Now he lives on an protected island which is acquired of the rehabilitations center. There, he feels very comfortable. But he needs that we will continue on our help, because he can never care for himself. Palm oil The biggest threat to the wild orangutan is in the cultivation of palm oil. Since the boom of agricultural fuels the demand for palm oil downright exploding. Within the last 10 years has doubled the world's palm oil consumption is 30 million tonnes. The palm oil is flowing into our car tanks and exacerbated by the destruction of tropical rain forests, in addition, the carbon dioxide emissions massively increased. Most orang-utans in Indonesia on oil palm plantations shot down, captured or maimed. On oil palm plantations? Yes, because their natural habitat is cut down, they are forced to search for food on plantations elsewhere. There are peaceful orang-utans easy prey for hunters and poachers! According to the United Nations in the year 2022 about 98 percent of the world's rain forests will be destroyed. By plundering the rainforest is also the human population deprived of their livelihoods. Likewise, the orang-utan is also affected by the decline of forests affected. Only occasionally he found in Sumatra and Borneo place to live. The rapid deforestation of tropical primary forests, the massive spread of oil palm plantations uniform, large destructive fires and the national and international pet trade to the decline in distribution and the extinction of the last orang-utan populations further. The Indonesian government supports the export of timber. Sustainable forest management, environmental protection and ecological thinking are still dreams of the future for a state, which belongs to the most corrupt worldwide. Between the government and the affected person - no matter whether person or animal - is the timber corporations and the palm oil industry for which profit maximisation has the first priority. Palm oil is a component of many products of daily necessities and one of the main reasons for the rapidly progressing destruction of the rainforest in Indonesia. The consumption of palm oil is rising dramatically, especially as an energy source in the form of so-called agri-fuel. The rapid spread of oil palm plantations is the cause of the fragmentation and loss of habitat of the orang-utans. Often wild orang-utans come to the plantations and eat from food shortages, the palm branches. By the plantation owners, they will be hunted and killed. For the palm oil companies of the illegal timber trade is an additional source of quick profit. Therefore, they preferred to lay plantation out in rainforest areas, which are to be cleared first. Solution proposals aim to establish protected areas, to integrate the local human population in the rain-forest protection measures and contribute to the Indonesian environmental legislation to be strengthened. Land rights and land conflicts are becoming commonplace. Small farmers are forcibly or illegally pushed off from their land and where licenses were awarded to oil palm plantations is often not be expected on paying for demages. Moreover oil palm plantations create fewer jobs per hectare than the original forest of the local population provides. Thus originate plantations Establishing a oil palm plantations the company is building roads and clearing country after acquiring a state permit transformation. The entire vegetation is removed. All wood that is not valuable enough to be considered, for example, if a first logging took place, is sent to pulp mills sold or burned. This is the cheapest method of land clearing. Where burning is prohibited by law, it will be removed mechanically. In Indonesia, the mechanical cleaning average 2.3 times more expensive than burning. Only three years after planting can be harvested. The cost of establishing a oil palm plantations vary from 2,500 to 3,500 U.S. dollars per hectare of which the company is usually a large part must raise externally. The sale of cleared wood can procure the necessary funds for the plantations. This is derived from the fruit The oil palm is favored particularly because of the high oil content of her red fruits. Both flesh and seeds are used for production purposes. Palm oil is derived from the flesh of the primary product. Palm oil is used for a wide range of food and other products. Harvested fruit must be processed locally because they spoil quickly. The advantages of the palm oil in comparison to other vegetable oils: a high melting point and the fixed condition of his Olein element at room temperature. This is derived from the fruit The oil palm is favored particularly because of the high oil content of her red fruits. Both flesh and seeds are used for production purposes. Palm oil is derived from the flesh of the primary product. Palm oil is used for a wide range of food and other products. Harvested fruit must be processed locally because they spoil quickly. The advantages of the palm oil in comparison to other vegetable oils: a high melting point and the fixed condition of his Olein element at room temperature. In the main producer countries has a hectare of oil palms in general two to four tons, but there have been High yields of up to 10,6 tonnes of palm oil. Palm kernel oil which is extracted from the seeds, can be used for similar purposes, such as palm oil used. Palm kernel oil contains about 80 percent fatty acids (palm oil 50 percent). The seeds can be stored for a longer period and thus transported over long distances and elsewhere are being processed. One hectare of oil palms can introduce 0.9 tonnes PKO. The grist of the Palm kernel is made from ground , dried seed husks. It is mainly used as animal feed. Although the grist of the Palm kernel as a byproduct of the Palm kernel oil production is viewed, its importance in the animal feed market. Omnipresent, but invisible Palm oil can be very versatile to be used. Therefore, it appears also in a variety of products. Food From pastry on ready meals and sauces to chocolate bars - everything which contain vegetable oil or fat, can also contain palm oil. Even for frying, it will be used. Leaders - when it comes to used in Germany overall quantity of palm oil - is the margarine. Cosmetics and Toiletries Whether it is about herbal soaps, creams, or lipsticks, - A variety of these products contain palm oil or derived substances. Not for nothing was the first palm oil-WWF study in 1998 in the English version, "Lipstick Traces in the Rainforest." Washing and cleaning From palm oil produced surfactants care in washing and cleaning agents for cleaning The company Henkel in Düsseldorf, got, for example, the beginning of the nineties a lot of praise for a chemical substance by renewable resources to replace. However, at that time was not yet known what price the rainforests often will have to pay. Industrial Materials In many paints and varnishes are also palm oil and palm kernel included. In In lubricants, oils and candles, it is also often used. Animal Feed Palm kernel meal is becoming more common for the use of factory farming. It serves as a replacement for the now banned meat and bone meal. For special applications such as milk replacer is also used palm oil. Declaration Anyone who reads even a product declaration? But even those who read it will not be usually wiser. Whether there is palm oil in the products included, remains mostly a mystery. In cosmetics and detergents, it is very difficult to see palm oil because it has been chemically transformed in a variety of substances - for example in washing-active substances. All cosmetics or detergents are generally suspicious of palm oil. The food industry uses palm oil to 90% in pure vegetarian products. This is particularly obscene. Especially vegetarians and vegans who have chosen their diet in such a way so that no animal is suffering, yet unwittingly participate in it. For this reason we ask everyone: Until there is no labeling requirement, please ask the manufacturer to see if palm oil is part of the product. Boycott the companies who remain obstinate, and not by local palm oils (rapeseed, sunflower, hemp) replaced. Assistance for the environmentally conscious wood purchasing Everyone who buys wood, may contribute to depletion of forests. The wood shopping guide guide will help to prevent this. It lists the most common species and shows a color scale from green to red, the wood you can buy in good conscience, in which the danger of overexploitation, and from which timber you can better leave your hands off. Timbers should be safe with the FSC label or seal of Naturland. These come from controlled environmentally and socially responsible forest use. Illegal logging Experts estimate that now 90 percent of all logging in Indonesia without official permission or supervision. That is not only to the detriment of nature, but also to the detriment of the government, the major tax revenue lost. To stop illicit business and to protect the valuable timber resource for the future, the Indonesian Government has decided the export of ramin ban, three years ago. But searches of the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a small but professional working environment organization have shown that there are still smuggled large quantities of ramin from Indonesia. Straight from the famous Tanjung putting national park in the south of the island of Borneo, one of the last areas of the threatened orangutans. Wood is misbrand By truck or ship to neighboring Malaysia, its two states of Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo island directly to the adjacent Indonesian Borneo. There, the wood suddenly get a new name in the export documents as it is called ramin from Malaysia. And Ramin from Malaysia may be traded legally. Even in Malaysia the timber industry is suffering under shortage of raw materials, Malaysian Ramin is also rarely. Cheap goods from Indonesia that suits some traders just fine. The EIA research releaved, supported by reports from the WWF, but also by the local authorities: There is a brisk illegal ramin trade between Malaysia and Indonesia. The ports of entry are known, the names of irresponsible dealers and also the tricks with which they deceive customs officers - if they do not bribe. This all is documented on film. China and EU, the main customers Apart from China most ramin comes in the EU. There it is procecced, by Tuscan picture frame mainly. More than 11,000 tonnes of ramin – coming from Malaysia officially - Italy imported according to EU estimates, in the year. But dealers, salesmen, and authorities are powerless to end the illegal trade of ramin. Because nobody can differ legal ramin from Malaysia from illegal ramin from Indonesia. For many envirnmentalist a boycott seems to be the correct answer. But this is not the answer. It would merely take to more uncontrolled cheep ramin which will be exported to China. No forest would be saved therefore. What does this for us consumers mean? If you want to buy tables, chairs and couches from an environmental and socially responsible timber industry, you should look for a trustworthy proof of origin. Most manufacturers make their goods with promising certificates, but consumers should pay attention only to the internationally valid seal FSC. If you want to pimp up the balcony or terrace with new equip of wooden garden coming from environmentally-friendly forest management, you must take care: Many dealers promote with fancy labels and convincingly-sounding certificates although - but in reality the customer is misled. Because the proof of origin is often self-made and offer no guarantee for an environmentally friendly and socially responsible product. The consumer can be only sure that it is an environmentally friendly and socially responsible managed forest original when there is wood with a label. It is the only ecological wooden certificate meeting the basic requirements of environmental associations and consumer associations. These include products with the sealing of FSC and Naturland. FSC is called for Forest Stewardship Council and it is an independent organization composed with environmentalists, business representatives and social organizations. The members have to define the minimum criteria for sustainable forest management and are acting worldwide. The FSC label as the only certificate currently offer the possibility worldwide to observe the processing of the tree in the forest to the garden chair in the DIY store completely. In other words: Even social minimum standards are respected. Tropical garden furniture - teak, for example - are weather-resistant and warm hues are very popular, but they are recommended only with the FSC seal. What can you do? Ask the seller for the exact origin of their wood products! If the company isn´t able to tell where the wood comes from: stay away!Ask the seller how their company guarantees that the products are not produced from illegal timber. And how the company can prove it? Do the company only count on the informations giving from there contractors (without presenting a written certificates) handle with care. Don't accept being fobbed off by such junk. Get copies of authentication, certificates and declarations, and environmental certifitates and send it to environmental organizations for checking. Ask for products from native hardwoods and prefer native timbers particularly if they are accompanied by the certificate of Naturland or FSC. Attention: “ native” woods such as Nordic spruce, pine, birch and larch sometimes come from illegal trade and overexploitation (especially Russia). Depletion Woods from North America are often Hemlock, Red Cedar and Redwood. If you buy garden furniture from indigenous woods such as beech, oak, pine or larch, you make the best ecological choice. If we cover our demand of wood with domestic wood we have the advantage that the transport distances are short - this is an environmental protection - and we are also take off the pressure of the tropical forest regions. The "Borneo orangutan Help" is the international daughter of the European primate protection organizations "Borneo Orang-Utan Hilfe" and "fans for Nature Germany". The german "Borneo Orang-Utan Hilfe" with more than 100,000 members is the largest voluntary, European Organization to protect the orangutans in Indonesian Kalimantan which are threatened immediately from the extinction. The tasks of the Borneo Orangutan Help International are: raising public awareness of the problems of biodiversity and forest protection awareness training about the factors destroying the habitat of primates The organising of the own Meratus protection project to preserve the last lowland rain forests on Borneo Collection and fundraising activities for the benefit of the Orangutans targeted protests Consumer education Events and presentations about protected animals. Active support for projects to release the animals back into the wild and to protect the forest Thank you: We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continuous support. All kinds helps like monetary contribution, reports, and pictures. To Construct this page, it would be very difficult to get such a good result without the help of the following persons and / or organization (in alphabetic order): Dr. Bernhard Lohr (chairman, Verein-Faszination Regenwald/Ulmer Initiative), Bettina Faßbender (administration German Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe), Brigitte "Gitti" Wicht (administration German Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe), Christoph Pueschner (photographer), Dagmar Michel (artistic adviser - administration German Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe), Florian Litz (photographer), Funda Sen (administration German Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe), Gerd Schuster (author), Helmut Huber (chairman, Fans for Nature), Jay Ullal (photographer), Katrin Pein (photographer), Maik Gray (translator english website), Mara Michel (artist), Markus Kappeler (zoologist), Matthias Müller (administration German Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe), Tom C. Gerhard), Dr. Tom Deutschle (chairman Faszination Regenwald), Dr. Willie Smits (conservationist and animal rights activist), Wolfgang Bauer (author), et al. Responsible for the website: fans for nature e. V. chairman Mr. Helmut Huber Mail: Helmut Huber Bischoff-Otto-Str. 14 D - 94501 Aldersbach Germany Responsible for content: Borneo Orang-Utan-Hilfe chairman Mr. Ralf Michel mail: Ralf Michel Rechts dem Albach 10 D - 55627 Merxheim Germany mail - support supervisor: Maik Gray - The end of the tree kings Sapran the hunter clannish to the Dayak headhunter is as comparatively well.Because he invested more patience than other poachers, coffers is filled better: Does he discoveres an orang-utan mother in a tree, he waits, if needs must for hours until it clims down to one of the lower branches. Only then, he fires with his old army gun. The 53-year-old man from Parenggean smirks "If they do not fall so deep, the survival rate of babies is higher. Usually up to 70 percent of kids dies, but with my method, 17 of 20 babies whose mothers I shot had survive the fall. "Sapran recieves for a little ape 100 000 to 150 000 rupiah. These are 10 to 15 euros. The international black market value of an orang-utan is 30,000 euros. Little Orang-utans are a wanted commodity. Hadschi Saprani, owner of a store in squalid Pundu the village in East Kalimantan says: "Two collectors from Tanjung Puting a man and a fat woman who come here regulary. I sold the man a baby for 150 000 rupiah just yesterday.” The National Park Tanjung Puting search small orangutans as a tourist magnet,” the Mecca pilgrimage said. But this business runs bad: "Previously, the lumberjack delivered one pup at least daily. But now we can get no more than one baby per week." Orang-Utan-seller in Tanjung Puting national park will receive four to five million rupiah (400 to 500 dollars) per baby - a fortune in Indonesia. At the "front", where the chain saws abolishs the past about 30 kilometers wide strip of lowland rainforest of Borneo, it´s be alive with the red apes. The animals have fled to this place like the desperate passengers on the stern of the sinking Titanic. Like castaway they sit alone or in small groups in trees in the endless Alang-Alang Lake. Some wander about aimlessly in palm oil plantages or half-starved they stagger around into the villages. "These animals are usually for many months on the run from the people who destroy their habitat and hunt them," says Smits, "and they can not be further from exhaustion. For the many monkeys there are not enough food today. An adult orangutan need an area in intact rainforest of 100 hectares to find fruits and leaves enough. How haggard the refugees are, the small Nungki demonstrates: "At its milk teeth, we can see that it would be more than two years old." says Smits. "But it weighs almost as much as a seven-month-old baby. Its mother must be starved and therefore not have had enough milk." After driving jolty three, the Daihatsu stops at the gate of Smits orangutan reintroduction project in Nyaru Menteng near the city of Palangkaraya. Although it is after midnight, helpers with mouth protection welcome Nungki in the clinic of the Center, where he is fed and carefully examine deficiency diseases, parasites and infections. The homeless shelter for displaced orangutans bursting at the seams, because a glut of red apes befalls them since the beginning of the year. Who does not want to believe that the orang-utans have reach the end times, will get no better news here: The ruthless destruction of the primates which the British researcher John MacKinnon called "our cousins" , aims to its highlight. In the first four months of this year, the three largest rehabilitation centers "Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation" (BOS) in Jakarta Wanariset and Nyaru Menteng (the latter two on Borneo) from Smits have admit 105 orang-utans "2003 is our worst year - a catastrophe," Lone Dröscher Nielsen groans. She is the head of the station Nyaru Menteng. The Dane has to attend 200 orangutans including 50 babies and 30 infants. The shaggy pupils, which cheep as chicks, scramble about in Diaper jumbled confused in laundry baskets, and share soft kisses, look lovely, but they are traumatized invariably. They are undernourished or sick and still suffering from anxiety state. Many of them have just survived surgery or infection. There is the little Pluto, who comes with severe burns to the center and Bali the red dwarf with fever, an infection of the fingers, crasched leg bones from a bullet , and shot in the left lung and the right axilla. There are Mickey and Kasper, who were caged in a tiny dark wooden box with pneumonia for days. and Gobbin who had typhoid fever. All the little monkeys are constantly in search of someone to hug them or someone to cling to. The psychology professor Anne Russon of York University in Toronto, Canada who research in Nyaru Menteng says: “Because the loss of the mother is much worse for them than any disease. For an orang-utan child her death means the biggest disaster imaginable." The female monkey that lives five to seven years alone with her child in the treetops, and almost always has physical contact with him, is for the pup the center of it´s universe. " Russon says: If the mother dies, goes for her child in the world.” In spite of all the routine in handling with animal suffering Lone Dröscher-Nielsen and Willie Smits are always shocked what people can do to orangutans. Her owner chopped the right hand of the three year old Emen because it had stolen an egg. Poony had to play CDs in a brothel on the Trans-Kalimantan highway, drink alcohol and to suffer forced sex from humans and the chain smoking twelve years old Friska which lived in the house of a high officer in Jakarta. She siped Coca-Cola and licked at chocolate got so fat that it´s legs couldn`t bear it longer (normal is about 50) Barely better than the handling with the senseless pain of the creatures Smits can cope with the fact that the world is apparently not interested in how rapidly the orang-utan perish on Borneo and Sumatra. The two islands, together about three times larger as Germany, are the last refuge of the red apes, which once played to millions in the forests throughout South Asia. Today there are an estimated 12 000 - tendency to fall rapidly. The exitus of the orang-utans is programmed, because even after the euphemism Indonesian official statement, the lowland rainforest on Borneo will be destroyed not later than 2010. The closely related animal which disappears from the earth right now, little research exists. We know that the quiet and thoughtful acting orang-utans are more intelligent as the gorilla which is a tad dull and the hyperactive chimpanzees. Anne Russon says:"Orang-utans are planning ahead. They brood until they have solved their problem. In their spatial sense, their orientation and their visual memory, they are one step further than human. An orangutan knows every tree in his area and knows exactly when and where the fruits are ripe and knows the shortest path to reach. This works so well as if the monkeys have GPS. "Their way of communication is too subtle for people: According to Smits the hairy animals communicate about 90 percent of its embassy in the first half second of an encounter with some tiny changes of the eyes and lips. The rest is body language. Smits is convinced that the monkeys are capable of reading in human eyes, he says: “They are able to look into your heard.” When Willie Smits came to Indonesia in 1985 as a forestry scientist from the Netherlands, he had nothing to do with orang-utans. He built nurseries and explored how to increase exotic woods by cuttings. In the end of 1989 Smits stumbled upon a dying baby orangutan. It lay on a garbage stertorously . The dealer had throw it away like a rotten fruit because it died. Smits took it home and nursed the baby, whom he named Uce. Previously, however, he checked her methods - and found unfair practices. He was mainly bothered by the fact that the scientist reintroduced orang-utans without a quarantine and medical examination. It was known that monkeys who had lived together with humans, often associated with hepatitis and tuberculosis were infected, and that hepatitis A can efface wild population. Smits established BOS in 1992. Today the deforestation of Tanjung Puting is approximately 85 percent. The "Mawas" project from Smits, is a reservat of Borneo. With it´s currently 364 000 hectares it become the last hope of the orang-utans. Mawas should be increased enlarged on 700,000 hectares - with the help of Shell, and "debt for nature swaps". In the wake of such "exchanges debt for nature" developing countries will be abate a part of its foreign debt as compensation for nature protection. We meet Uce in the nature sanctuary BOS Sungai Wain in Balikpapan, where she lived since 1992. We had expressed the wish, if possible, to photograph Smits with his first orang-utan. Only every few years, he sees the animal. A ranger found UCE random, a few days later during a patrol. He said to the female orang-utan, which comes only rarely in the vicinity of humans: "Willie wants to see you." And actually she stayed with her baby UCE Matahari near the ranger station and waited for Smits. Approximately one hour Smits spoke with UCE until he allay her fears of the strangers, and Jay Ullal the star-photographer made three Polaroid photos of mother and child. UCE grab for the photos avid and looked at them again and again, one after the other. She showed them to her child, it looked surprised at his own image and then it smiled happy to it´s mother. "It recognizes itself," Smits said, astonished Then UCE kissed the photograhes - and wiped the dampness with her arm off. As UCE wanted to return to the forest, she had a problem because the photos disabled when climbing. She seemed to think: To whom she should give the photos: to her saviour Smits, or to Ranger Misri, whom she barely knew? UCE chose the forest ranger. And that was wise: While Smits only visits her once in a blue moon, Misri was on the ground - and with him the photos. Report from the Stern Online, 21 Mai 2003 by Gerd Schuster - author "The thinkers of the jungle." -