FROM NYARU MENTENG, FOUR REHABILITATED ORANGUTANS ARE RELEASED IN BUKIT BAKA BUKIT RAYA NATIONAL PARK

The Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park Agency, together with the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation and other parties, are releasing more orangutans in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR). The release of these rehabilitated orangutans is part of an effort to protect and preserve Bornean orangutans in Kalimantan.

Central Kalimantan, 18 May 2022. Four orangutans – two males and two females – from the BOS Foundation’s Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre are scheduled for release today into TNBBBR in Katingan Regency, Central Kalimantan. The four orangutans have completed a lengthy rehabilitation process in the BOS Foundation’s Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. This activity is the first orangutan release conducted by the BOS Foundation in 2022.

NUR PATRIA KURNIAWAN, S.HUT., M.SC., Head of the Central Kalimantan BKSDA said, “This conservation effort needs to be supported by everyone. The Central Kalimantan BKSDA is responsible for all orangutan rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts in the province. We would also like to call on the local community to be more actively involved in efforts to protect orangutans and their habitats. Orangutans play an important role in the forest ecosystem, and their function can only be realised if they live in the forest. Together, let’s join hands in protecting wildlife; let’s protect our forests and their biodiversity for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”

SADTATA NOOR ADIRAHMANTA, S.Hut., M.T., Acting Head of TNBBBR added, “The utilisation of the Hiran watershed as an orangutan release area since 2019 is our way of optimising the distribution of rehabilitated orangutans released here in the national park. These collaborative efforts have helped to create independent and sustainable wild orangutan populations. Four natural births have been recorded in TNBBBR since orangutans were released for the first time here in 2016. This is a remarkable achievement, particularly since the conservation status of the Bornean orangutan is still listed as ‘Critically Endangered’. It is our obligation to not only help them survive but to help them live safely and live in prosperity.

“The TNBBBR agency, together with the Central Kalimantan BKSDA and in collaboration with the BOS Foundation and other stakeholders, has succeeded in releasing 186 orangutans into the forest of the TNBBBR since 2016, including those who will be released today. Together with other stakeholders, we will continue to work towards a future for the Bornean orangutan, which, as a species, plays a very important role in maintaining the quality of the forest and the integrity of the ecosystem.”

Dr. Ir. JAMARTIN SIHITE, the BOS Foundation CEO said, “The BOS Foundation is very happy to finally be able to release these orangutans, all of whom have gone through a lengthy rehabilitation process and are now ready to live in the forest. We see it as a wonderful stroke of luck that this release will also commemorate National Awakening Day and International Day for Biological Diversity. We are currently in the third year of the COVID–19 pandemic, but we are still fully committed to safely releasing orangutans from our rehabilitation centers into the forest.  The pandemic may have presented a new obstacle for us, but it is not insurmountable and it will not stop us from working to save the orangutans and their habitat.

“We humans rely on wildlife and biodiversity–based resources to meet all our needs, both as our source of basic sustenance and for economic opportunities. On this National Awakening Day and International Day for Biological Diversity, let us commit to tackling the many threats facing wildlife by using natural resources in a sustainable manner.”