The annual festival 'Earth Day', on 22 April, was celebrated with a series of celebrations which lasted well into May.
Under the slogan "Every day is Earth Day, an environmental talk show for students and an exhibition were held. The event represented the culmination of a series of activities organized by the BOS Foundation together with a consortium of Indonesian environmental organizations. Guests of honor such as the Mayor of Balikpapan and Environment Minister Mr. Gusti M. Hatta visited the festivities.

" BOS Foundation really puts a lot of work into it's projects," said Minister Hatta appreciatively on a tour of Samboja Lestari. The Minister was accompanied by representatives of ASEAN from Thailand and Singapore. In addition to the orangutans, what particularly impressed him was the Foundation's forest fire-fighting programme and the Malayan sun bears' area. He agreed to visit the projects together with Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan one more time .

Numerous school groups from the region took part in the activities . In the environmental talk show, the students could discuss current environmental problems of their homeland. Students were invited to take part in both a poster design competition and their own Power Point presentation on the current situation of the orangutans. The best poster and the most informative Power Point presentation will have its premier and be discussed at an environmental seminar in Balikpapan in late May.

Another popular event was the 'Environmental Treasure Hunt' in Samboja Lestari, with a quiz and tree planting. Young people tested their knowledge of composting and plant species in Samboja Lestari's arboretum.

The "Earth Day," was originally founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson on 22 April 1970 and was intended as a day on which humanity rethinks its own consumption and behavior and considers environmentally friendly alternatives. Today this day is celebrated in more than 175 countries, BOS Foundation would like to use these events to bring the critical situation of the threatened orangutans to young peoples' attention and create awareness of environmental problems in their homeland.

Dear Supporters of the Create Rain Forest Project. 

We reported in a previous article that a workshop was to take place  from 6-8 April this year to discuss and evaluate the various aspects of the project in Samboja Lestari including afforestation and land right. This workshop was initiated by BOS Germany to clarify uncertainties so that the the planning and successful implementation of the project can continue.  A key aspect is the uncertainty of land  rights. The Indonesian Land Rights System has its idiosyncracies: preventing areas of over 10 hectares from being commercially available which instead remain the legal property of the Indonesian state.  Added to this there is the Adat, the traditional Common Law, which is also superimposed onto the agricultural and national legal systems.  These areas of Samboja Lestari belong therefore to the Indionesian State and are granted to the user as leasehold or consessions by the government.  Samboja Lestari covers an area of 1850 hectares. However, BOS Foundation's rights for the use of this land varies considerably.  Half of the so-called Land Use Rights granted by the BPN (National Land Agency) are for periods of 20-25 years.  With this BOS Foundation has about 900 hectares with a solid basis for planning and working over the next few years. Even so, different plots of land have been granted different periods of time, which will run out in the next 9-16 years respectively and will then have to be extended. For the other half of Samboja Lestari BOS Foundation has up to now only been granted so-called 'Land Management Rights' with no legal right to plant trees.  Should trees be planted anyway, there is the danger that the area be cleared by the government at any time and released to others for other purposes.  To protect and sustainally reforest these areas it is possible to obtain certificates from the Land Agency which convert Land Management rights to Land Use rights.  BOS Foundation is currently working on this.  These land rights are necessary before any reforestation can begin in these areas. In addition, the  licences for the other half of the site  granted through BPM must be extended. Besides these two large sites there are some smaller plots of land in Samboja, less than 10 hectares in size, which haven been purchased privately and which are really and truly the property of BOS Foundation.  In addition to these issues of land rights, the plan to involve the local population has to be reviewed.  Up to now, the plan has been to provide the local families with a ring of sugar palm trees around Samboja Lestari which they could manage, and which would function as a fire-wall at the same time.  This plan has to be assessed, both in terms of its economic sustainability, for example its financial return, as well as for its technical feasibility.    

We will give you a more detailed report on the outcome of the workshop as soon as it is available!

Dear supporters of the create rainforest-project,

2009 was a very successful year.  A total of 2052 of you made donations to the Forest Creates Life Project in Samboja Lestari amounting to 152,016 Euro covering 50,672 square meters in total.

In 2009 an estimated 12,391 trees were planted in Samboja Lestari at various locations  amounting to a total area of approximately 539,600 m². Among the tree species planted are fruit trees, timber trees, and various rare species from East Kalimantan.
From the start of planting in 2000 approximately 55,203 trees were planted in an area of about 1154.08 hectares by 2009. In the nursery are currently about 19,236 seedlings, 17,649 of which are ready for planting.

The rainfall in the area increased from 1665.63 mm in 2008 to 2088.96 mm in 2009. Whether this is due to the increased forest cover cannot yet be assessed  however and  needs monitoring over several years.  In spite of this increase, fires did break out in and around Samboja Lestari in 2009.  Fortunately, only one of the 11 registered fires spread to plantations which, because access to this area is extremely difficult, destroyed nine hectares. The rest of the fires could be kept outside Samboja Lestari boundaries.

In addition to the afforestation and maintenance activities, also numerous information and training opportunities were offered. So there was training for the pupils of Samboja school on how to produce compost  to strengthen environmental consciousness. On World Environment Day a bazaar with fruit stands and discussion about books was organized and on the anniversary of the Republic communications  training was held for all employees of BOS Kalimantan.

In November and December, a workshop was held for the use of geographic information systems and the create rainforest web site. A total of 15 BOS employees of Samboja Lestari attended the training, which was initiated by BOS Germany. The aim was firstly to strengthen the know-how regarding geographic information systems so that information can be combined with maps, making it easier to monitor and evaluate the project. It also set out to help the team understand how funds are raised world-wide and (for example) enable those working in the Lodge to show visitors around the grounds. 

With the afforestation and rehabilitation of more than half of the total 1800 hectare area BOS Foundation can now show that it is possible to transform an area completely overgrown with Imperata cylindrica (alang-alang grass) into a man-made forest. The project is unique in its success! In addition to land rehabilitation, the area offers room for Samboja Wanariset's Orang-utan Reintroduction  (to the wild) Program, for the world's largest collection station for sun bears and the  Samboja Lodge, an  attraction for ecologically-minded tourists .

BOS Foundation is also currently trying to establish  Samboja Lestari as a drinking water catchment area for the nearby city of Balikpapan  thus, besides a monetary income, ensuring  a sustained interest in securing the area. 

The Samboja Lestari Project was launched in 2001 on the basis of the master plan by Dr. Willie Smits. Now, eight years after its start, the project should be evaluated. The current status of the project is to be compared with the objectives of the master plan, and successes and weaknesses of project components have to be worked out.

For this reason, the BOS Foundation has organized a workshop set for 6 to 8 April, where, as well as members of BOS Foundation,  representatives from the provincial and district governments, the surrounding communities,   BOS International, BOS Germany and other NGOs will also attend.

We hope that all parties will leave from the workshop with a strong vision and renewed strength and Samboja Lestari will continue to be a showcase project for others to emulate.

mongabay.com: Rhett A. Butler: March 01, 2010

It is no secret that orangutans are threatened with extinction because their rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Ten years ago, Shawn Thompson, a writer, former journalist and university professor, set out to chronicle the threat to orangutans in a book released in March 2010. The book is called The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing Species. The book spends most of the time talking about the nature of orangutans and the relationships between orangutans and people. But the ultimate underlying message is there about the source of the peril to orangutans and the solution. Thompson says that the problem of saving orangutans has to do with communications and human nature.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SHAWN THOMPSON

Mongabay: Why do you say the problem has to do with communications and human nature?

Shawn Thompson: We already have more than enough information to know what the problem is and how to save orangutans. But the information stays locked within a relatively small group, mainly scientists and environmentalists, who are a kind of small subculture on the planet. This group tries to communicate by being very sensible and rational, but the message doesn’t get across. The general population doesn’t realize what orangutans are and that they are much closer to extinction than gorillas and chimpanzees. The scientists and environmentalists communicate how they know best, in a sensible and rational way, as though they are talking to their own subculture. But they are talking across cultural lines to a mass audience, which listens and behaves in a different way. So I wrote the book to try and break through that. I went back to basic issues that move a popular mass audience and tried to write a book that would appeal to hearts and minds, to have people fall in love with orangutans, which then becomes the “reason” for saving orangutans, the incentive. We need to feel that orangutans are part of our family. And, of course, in terms of evolution and genetics they are.

Mongabay: Where does human nature come in?

Shawn Thompson: It will be hard to save orangutan because it goes against the nature of how a large group of people behaves. We are not talking about individuals, but mass behaviour. That is something I understand from my years as a journalist. The mass of people don’t think about orangutans and the rain forest when they are trying to save money in a grocery store or buy a piece of furniture or fight a war or get married and raise children, all of which is part of our biological programming. You can change individual behaviour, but changing mass behaviour is very radical and you need to make deep rooted changes to do that. It can’t be superficial.

Another aspect of human nature, sad to say, is how fragmented scientists and environmentalists are. They fight among themselves and lose sight of the big picture. I saw that a lot writing my book and I see that in the university where I work. People behave too much like chimpanzees. It would be a better world if people behaved more like orangutans. I am joking, of course, but only partly. There is some truth in the jest.

Mongabay: So how do we save orangutans?

Shawn Thompson: To save orangutans, you have to save the rain forest. As the rain forest goes, so go orangutans. That’s my mantra. Save our kindred, save our primate family and you save everything else. The scientists and the environmentalists know that. The habitat of orangutans is being destroyed in Borneo and Sumatra by the palm oil plantations primarily, and also by logging for timber and pulp and paper. That message is clear and simple. Spending a lot more words on that is obviously not having a strong enough effect, although that’s not a reason for not continuing to promote the message. Recently Unilever, the giant producer of consumer goods and the world’s biggest buyer of palm oil, announced that it would stop buying palm oil from a supplier exposed in a BBC documentary. The supplier was collecting palm oil used for Unilever soap and margarine. So we can all feel a little leaner and cleaner over that. And we want to use positive reinforcement and support the ethical companies. Unilever previously stopped buying palm oil from the largest producer in Indonesia. So that’s good. That’s progress. Before that, in 2008, Unilever announced that all Unilever’s palm oil will be certified sustainable by 2015 and that the company supports the call for an immediate moratorium on any more deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil plantations. But there is still so far to go.

Plus, if we want to save orangutans, we have to evolve morally as a species, another huge task. I’m not sure we are advanced enough morally as a species to save another species. It can’t just be a few dedicated souls. It has to be an act of the mass of humanity. We have to change our basic attitude on the planet. And that’s a huge task. Ultimately we can’t legislate the survival of a species or force it on own species. Our species has to find the will and desire in itself. Meanwhile, orangutans plunge onward toward extinction. That’s disheartening

Mongabay: Is the situation with orangutans discouraging? Are there hopeful developments?

Shawn Thompson: I knew it was pretty hopeless for orangutans when I started the book. It doesn’t get better, but you feel encouraged being with people who have a fighting spirit. If you have to spend your last hours on the planet with anyone, that’s the kind of people you want to be with – at least for me. It is thrilling to be around a Willie Smits or a Lone Droscher-Nielsen. I often asked the people working with orangutans why they were so committed to such a quixotic task. It didn't seem to deter them. They are that kind of people. And I am that way too. I think that orangutans are doomed but that you should still work your darnedest to save them, no matter what. That’s the message I got from Ian Singleton in Sumatra when we talked about it. I think that’s the idealistic streak in me and in the people I talked to as well. I must be some kind of a cynical optimistic, if there is such a thing.

I think the human spirit of the people who care about orangutans is wonderful and, even if it is a long shot, I am cheering them on and I hope that comes across in the book. I didn’t think a gloomy message would do any good, but I also didn’t think the message should hide the critical situation. I hope the book catches the spirit of those fighting for orangutans and giving orangutans the best chance to survive against depressing odds. I guess I want to live in a bit of an idealistic world where we have a chance of saving orangutans despite the terrible reality of the situation.

Mongabay: How do we address the situation and take political and environmental action?

Shawn Thompson: I think it’s important to be practical about how we apply influence and where we apply it to take political and environmental action. I don’t think the salvation of orangutans and the rain forest will ultimately come from the West. Activists and consumers in the West are still crucial and we still need the initiatives, such as clear labeling of products using palm oil, the sustainability certification process of organizations like the Rainforest Alliance and land conservation in Borneo and Sumatra coming from organizations like the Orangutan Conservancy and the Orangutan Land Trust. We need to encourage producers to use sustainable practices by buying their products instead of just attacking and punishing the offenders. We want to use positive reinforcement as consumers. Positive initiatives from the West are important, as is diplomacy from the West.

But I think that salvation for orangutans has to come from the East, from Indonesia, which in spite of fighting a bitter colonial war against the Dutch still respects westerners, if not always western politicians. So, in the West, we need to support and help nurture a made-in-Indonesia solution, with an eye on consumerism in India and China as a huge market for products from Indonesia that are affecting the rain forest. And I suspect that will come from women in Indonesia, especially the new generation of young women, as it is in other parts of the world, in the West too. It will come out of the deep values of women and their sensibility, although we men will also help. I got a sense of conviction about this last summer as I traveled through Indonesia talking to politicians and activists there.

I think it is typical of the situation that my book will probably strike a chord with women between the ages of 15 and 25 and women in their 50s like me. I will do my male best by writing a book and trying to inspire people, but it is my girlfriend Wendy and women like her who will save orangutans. Look at Lone Droscher-Nielsen and Michelle Desilets and so on. Even on Facebook I notice that I am connecting more with women than men on this issue and I notice how the women speak a different language about orangutans than men, although men like my friend Gary Shapiro stand out and I find it thrilling to listen to Gary talk about his “adopted daughter” the orangutan Princess, who he taught sign language in the jungle in the late 1970s. Gary is fearless in getting sentimental about orangutans and yet he has an empirical streak that I don’t quite understand. I don’t get how he integrates those elements, but he does and functions well in a crazy world. But then he is also married to an Indonesian woman, Inggriani, so maybe that explains it.

Lone Droscher-Nielsen in particular is someone we want to watch. I think she has the potential to emerge as an important global leader in the fight for orangutans, if she doesn’t burn out first and bear the weight too much of endless individual orangutans needing endless help and shrinking forests and the desperate need to raise funds. I wish she could fight the fight without having to worry about funding. Lone needs our support. I’d like to write a biography of Lone, which the world needs, but I don’t think she is ready for that yet. I think women in the West need to support women in the East. That would be a powerful alliance to save orangutans and the rain forest. That might work. Those women need to connect and get organized together.

I didn’t get this political in my book. I didn’t write a political book about orangutans because I thought we needed to win a large, mainstream audience for orangutans first. I thought that should be my role as a writer, although now that the book is written I’d like to be more vocal about want needs to be done, if that will help.

Mongabay: Why are orangutans so special for you?

Shawn Thompson: I think I empathize more with orangutans than gorillas and chimpanzees because I understand better their solitary, introspective side, unlike the more social gorillas and chimpanzees. You need a solitary, intuitive side to be a strong writer, which creates a clash with other things you need to be a writer. With orangutans – who would make good writers, by the way – I like their quiet, thoughtful, feeling nature. If you use your eyes in a gentle way, you feel like you are having a conversation with them. If you slow down and enjoy the sensuality and joy of the natural world, you feel like you are in touch with them. That’s not scientific, of course, but then orangutans aren’t studying science. They don’t have to justify themselves that way. They are living in the world we think we have to study. I also like the people who like orangutans and they made orangutans special for me. They were my guides, my gurus.

I started to notice the intimacy that a few privileged people had with orangutans and I liked that sense of an intimate relationship you could have with a member of another species. I really got that watching Willie Smits and Lone Droscher-Nielsen with young orphan orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng facility in Kalimantan, Borneo, and the vet Rosa Garriga in Pasir Pajang. There was a very special moment for me when Willie took my son Pearce and me at night into a dormitory for young orangutans and we watched them sleeping. I saw how much that moved Willie and it moved me too. It was a combination of watching Willie being moved and feeling moved myself and watching orangutans asleep. There is a real sweetness and tenderness in being allowed into that protected space of another living, sentient being asleep and lost in dreams. I have that with my girlfriend Wendy too. I also enjoyed sleeping on the deck of a boat on a river in the jungle and feeling that I was under the stars of orangutans and breathing the air of their trees and the fresh plumes of their stardust. My son was with me then too.

It is not just about experiencing orangutans. It is about sharing the experience, like Willie did with me, like I did with my son, like I hope to do with others with my book. I meant the word “intimate” in the title of the book on many different levels.

Mongabay: What’s next for you?

Shawn Thompson: I want to continue writing about wild animals. Before the orangutan book, I wrote a book about federal prisoners in Canada and the United States, from my time as a prison reporter. And before that I wrote a travel guide. I’d love to write another book about the great apes, but there are too many people better equipped to write about gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos than me. I was all set a couple of years to head off to the Congo to write about bonobos, but the funding from my university fell through at the last minute, and a lot of it is about having the time and funding to write these books. The publishers can’t finance them. But, if my orangutan book catches on, then I will have a mandate to continue to write about wild animals and their problems, and that is such a satisfying mission to have. I can live with that mission.

The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing Species

Shawn Thompson divides his time between Seattle, Washington State and Kamloops, British Columbia. His website is a-new-leaf.com and he can be found on Facebook with intimateape (at) hotmail . com

The EU and some European countries plan to classify palm oil plantations as forest  so that, according to a recent document,   rain forest will be destroyed to make way for 'sustainable forestry'. 

 The felling of the rain forests for biofuel would no longer be a breach of the criteria which at present protect sustainable forests.   Environmentalists are outraged by this move.

"Continuously forested areas are defined as areas where trees have reached, or can reach, at least heights of five metres, making up a crown cover of more than 30 percent" as defined by this paper.  The areas can be forest, forest plantations and other plantations such as oil palms. The changeover from quick-growing copses into agricultural crops can however be a breach of the criteria.

In short, variety-rich rain forests which nourish thousands of people may be cleared and converted into "organic" diesel, while human cultivation like tree plantations may not be converted into rapeseed or corn fields. Neither rich animal and plant life nor ecological criteria play a role.  Big and green = forest is how it goes .  

 Environmentalists are shocked.  “Speeding up the expansion of palm oil plantations to provide cars and lorries with petrol in Europe will have catastrophic results for the climate, the biodiversity and the people living in the forests”.   Adrian Bebb from Friends of the Earth is convinced that if the new EU Commission wishes to deal with the problem of climate change and the loss of biodiversity, this change of criteria must never become law.

Over the past two years the EU has been working on the regulations set out to control the use of "organic fuels " which, in 2008, were under critical scrutiny. Rising food prices – the slogan “Food versus Fuel “ and a reported increase of the greenhouse gas emissions  has put more pressure on the Union. The fact that only palm oil plantations should remain unaffected is no accident, say observers.

Using an aggressive PR campaign of articles, web pages, blogs and by the creation of Pro-palm oil organizations like World Growth there has been an attempt to play down the catastrophic ecological consequences of  palm oil production and to gain favor with the EU.

Both the EU Observer and Mongabay.com suggest that the lobby efforts of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) have been successful in putting their case forward.  Obviously the Malaysian Palm Oil Council had asked the lobbyists of GPlus to turn the mood in Brussels and the European towns.

The EU committee usually does not comment on information which has leaked out, however a speaker said to the EU-Observer that the new commission has not yet taken a stand on this point.  A decision will not be made until March, but since the leak, discussion between different departments of the EU has escalated. 

Sources: EU-Observer, Mongabay, Lars Dittmer, BOS-Deutschland

Translation: Elizabeth Pankhurst

 An emergency at the BOS Foundation in Indonesia – the orangutan Corporal was brought to the team with severe body burns

 The young orangutan was given to the BOS staff on December 16, 2009 – in a horryfying condition. Large chunks of his left arm were cut off, the flesh was slashed and hung in pieces from the bone.

The people who had brought him were from the neighbouring town of Samarinda. The accident had not been reported immediately – it can be assumed that the animal had suffered several days  before he was taken to the station. At the time the young orangutan was given to the care of BOS, his injured arm had started to rot. The dead skin had started to spread all over the remains of his arm.

The arm had to be taken off at once. The BOS medical team was supported by doctors from the army hospital in the area. The operation went well, but still the doctors worried about the post operation phase, in which orangutans, due to the pain, tend to be aggressive.

So did this young male – it bit the doctors and aggressively refused any treatment by the team. Yet the little orangutan was brave, therefore he was swiftly named Corporal. At times two team members had to hold him during his medication. Also his feeding was problematic – Corporal could not eat by himself, but also rejected to be fed by BOS staff.

Unfortunatly it got worse. A few days later his right hand also showed signs of decay. Within few hours the whole balm was affected. A second amputation was inevitable. This time a specialist supported the team. Corporal lost his second arm up to the ellbow.

The whole team hopes that Corporal will live – it is likely that he will depend on the team for the rest of his life, if so. Let's hope that he is brave and will find his ways to lead a life worth living, like Kesi – she has only one hand left.