Orangutan Conservation Programme SOCPEvery year one million hectares of rainforest fall victim to legal or illegal overexploitation. As a consequence, the orangutans are losing their habitat. The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme SOCP is fighting to prevent these great apes from dying out and to protect their habitat, the tropical rainforest.

BackgroundThe orangutans are victims of the rapid deforestation of the rainforest. Their habitat is being cleared to pro-duce timber and for new palm oil plantations. Indone-sia has now become the biggest palm oil producer in the world. We can no longer imagine today’s industry without the versatile and inexpensive vegetable fat. One in two products at supermarkets contains palm oil. But nature is paying a high price for this. In most cases it is valuable tropical forests which are the victims of the palm oil plantations. This means that as well as the orangutan, many other species are also lo-sing the basis of their existence. In addition, slash-and-burn agriculture and the drainage of swamp forests release large quantities of greenhouse gases, and the chemicals which are sprayed contaminate the soil.

Another reason why the orangutans are endangered is the trade of orangutan babies. These are seen as a sta-tus symbol. To get to the young animals, the mothers are shot dead. In many cases, the young orangutans also die when falling from the tree. If a baby survives the fall, it will often die later in captivity because of the stress caused by the traumatic experience.

Treatment of rescued animals in the quarantine station.

Training of the orangutans in the reintroduction station.

MeasuresReintroduction to the wild of captured orangutans:Orangutans kept illegally as pets or endangered are confiscated and given medical treatment in the SOCP quarantine station. Then the orangutans are taken to one of the two reintroduction stations. Here they are prepared for life in their natural environment before being released.

Quarantine Station

Reintroduction Stations

Research and monitoring Research provides the basis for successfully returning orangutans to the wild and protecting their habitat. In its four research stations, SOCP takes care of long-term research projects. This is because observing orangutans in the wild over several years is the only way to find out what is needed to protect them.

Research Stations

Protection and conservation of the habitat SOCP advocates the expansion of conservation areas and the improvement of protection in already existing conservation areas. The SOCP team runs campaigns and information activities to protect the orangutans and their habitat. The programme advocates sustaina-ble palm oil cultivation.

Rainforest Conservation

Establishment of a new Sumatran orangutan popu-lation in the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, Central Sumatra, where the orangutans had died out. As a result, the chances of survival for the species are greatly improved.

After many years of lobbying by SOCP, in 2014 the government decided to declare Batang Toru as pro-tection forest. This means that the local orangutan population, which is genetically very different from the northern population, is being given lasting protection.

Successes So far, 347 orangutans have been taken to the qua-

rantine station and given treatment there.

In Jambi and in Jantho, a total of 265 orangutans have been successfully reintroduced to the wild.

The close cooperation between SOCP and the local authorities has led to a significant improvement in law enforcement. The authorities are able to confis-cate so many more illegally held orangutans than before.

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PanEco is a non-profit foundation with headquarters in Berg am Irchel. Since 1996 we have been actively invol-ved in nature and species conservation and environmental education in Switzerland and Indonesia.

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