Indonesia: BOSF aims to release 200 orangutans by end of 2017

N.Adri The Jakarta Post 9 Jun 17;

Conservation group Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) says it aims to release 200 orangutans into the wild this year.

“We have declared 2017 the year of orangutans’ freedom,” BOSF CEO Jamartin Sihite said in Samboja Lestari, Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, on Wednesday. Samboja Lestari is an orangutan treatment and recovery facility BOSF manages in Samboja.

Sihite said 100 out of the 200 orangutans were fit to be released into their natural habitat. Meanwhile, 100 others had been moved from their cages to forests on several islands before getting released into the open forest.

“They comprise orangutans rehabilitated in Samboja Lestari and Nyaru Menteng,” he said. In these two facilities, BOSF rehabilitated around 600 individual orangutans of various ages.

Sihite said 20 orangutans were ready to be released from Samboja Lestari. They would be released into the Kehje Sewen forest in East Kutai on July 11.

Located in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Nyaru Menteng is a treatment and rehabilitation facility for Central Kalimantan orangutan. Meanwhile, most of the species rehabilitated in Samboja Lestari are East Kalimantan orangutans.

Central Kalimantan orangutans that are ready for release will be sent to a tropical forest in Murung Raya regency.

“An oil palm company has agreed to provide 100 hectares of its concession area for the orangutan release site. These areas are still covered by natural forests that are rich with biodiversity,” said Sihite. (ebf)