News - BOS International

28 February 2012

Four orangutans were released into the wild on Indonesia's Borneo island on Tuesday, an official said, as the country ramps up efforts to protect the animals from extinction.

This week Astrid, Monic, Tantri and Tarzan will be released back to their long awaited home in the forest, the Betikap region in  Central Kalimantan.

The first of many. The latest updates on the release can be found here.

Meet the team who are working on the release program.

A mother and baby orangutan, facing certain death, were rescued from hunters armed with machetes, knives and ropes. 

When the Rescue team arrived, the mother gave no resistance, which is extraordinary behavior for a wild orangutan, suggesting she was totally exhausted from being chased all night.

Hunters can be paid up to A$150 for each orangutan they kill.

The good news is that the release site was the Kehje Sewen site which was funded by Australian BOS donors including a significant contribution by John Cochrane.

View the Release video or

You may recall the note we sent around in October about baby Himba, who was rescued by a wood collector in Central Kalimantan. He had brought baby Himba to Nyaru Menteng in a small cardboard box.

We now bring you an update on his wellbeing.

Since the 1990s, BOSF has worked to rehabilitate captive orangutans and reintroduce them back into the wild. It now has a total 850 orangutans in rehabilitation — 650 at a facility in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan, and 200 in Samboja Lestari.

A recent Jakarta Globe article highlights the various stages and challenges of orangutan rehabilitation.

Photo: A baby orangutan at a Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation rehabilitation center in East Kalimantan on Jan. 11. (JG Photo/Fidelis E. Satriastanti)

24 November 2011
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) has reported that tuberculosis infections have delayed the release of 650 captive orangutans back to their natural habitats.

BOS Foundation 11th October 2011
What began as a regular Sunday at the Nyaru Menteng Project, turned into an afternoon of heartbreak.

2 August 2011
Around five o'clock in the afternoon in the Samboja Lestari project area in East Kalimantan usually means happy time for the sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) living in the area's sanctuary - it is feeding time.

7 July 2011
Since 2002, on a 2,000 hectare plot of deforested land in the Indonesian state of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, an organization called Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) has been regenerating forest to create habitat for orangutans.

14 February 2011
At 4 PM today the Chairman of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation Board of Trustees, Prof. Dr. Bungaran Saragih, will meet Prof. Dr. Emil Salim, the Chairman of the Presidential Board of Advisors and Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the Chairman of UKP4 (Presidential Working Unit for Development Monitoring and Control).

18 January 2011
The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry has issued the final permit for an Ecosystem Restoration Concession (ERC) to PT. Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia (PT. RHOI), paving the way for the eventual release of rehabilitated ex-captive orangutans into the area.

8 November 2010

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation brought together its various sister organisations from around the world in October to strengthen their collaborative effort to conserve the Bornean orangutan and its habitat.

25 September 2010
Orangutans are the only great apes native to Asia, with most now only found in forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra. The species is still under threats due to ongoing habitat loss.

9 September 2010
Nearly 150 orangutans remain at the Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation center in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, despite being deemed ready for release back into the wild.

25 August 2010
With a permit already in hand, PT Orangutan Habitat Restoration Indonesia (ROI) is preparing to release orangutans into Borneo jungles after years of being held in rehabilitation centers.

23 August 2010
Free At Last: First rehabilitated orangutan in 9 years to be released into the wilds of Borneo.

19 May 2010
A reforestation scheme in Borneo could radically reshape wildlife protection, land conservation, and indigenous stewardship - simultaneously.

18 February 2010
Gorillas, orang-utans and a cyanide-eating lemur are among the world’s 25 most critically endangered primates, scientists have said.

20 November 2009
Orangutans may find a new home once the Forestry Ministry grants private companies and nongovernmental organizations forest concessions covering over two million hectares for ecosystem restoration purposes.

13 November 2009
Early next year, some 75 orangutans will relocate from a wildlife sanctuary to a remote forest in Central Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo.

28 October 2009
On the 13 Oct 2009 confiscation team of BOS Nyaru Menteng received a report saying that a local Palangkaraya citizen wanted to hand over his orangutan pet.

6 September 2009
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) has successfully released 46 orangutans back into the wild.

31 August 2009
Forest fires are breaking out in the Sabangau forests in Central Kalimantan jeopardising the lives of the estimated 8,000 wild orangutans living there.

July 2009
Separated from land by rivers, the large red orangutans of Samboja Lestari forest park, East Kalimantan, are completely off-limits to humans.

1 May 2009
My biggest wish is that people in the western world could understand what is happening here in Borneo, and how the demand for palm oil is devastating the rainforests and contributing to the extinction of the orangutan.

12 April 2009

Conservationists have discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia — perhaps as many as 2,000 — giving a rare boost to one of the world's most critically endangered great apes.

Founder of BOS, Willie Smits, gave a 20 minute speech at the recent TED conference in the US. He explained the concept behind the Samboja Lestari reforestation model and how it is working for the environment and for the people.

24 February 2009
WHEN he's in Scotland, GP Dr David Irons runs an accident and emergency unit in Stranraer, but when he's in Borneo his patients are much hairier, and more orange. That's because he's Medical Director of Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), and at their rehabilitation centre at Nyaru Menteng, he heads a team meeting the medical needs of around 650 orangutans and 200 staff. About 150 of his young, hairy charges are playing around him as we chat.

2 January 2009
A comprehensive article in this month's Scientific American by Jane Braxton Little traces Willie Smits's project to restore the rainforest at Samboja Lestari, the "everlasting forest".

14 December 2008
A sad and tearful farewell to another Nyaru Menteng orphan. Michelle Desilets asks that some good come out of the loss of Ucon. You can do this by donating to support the many orphan orangutans in our care.  And tell the government and manufacturers that the cost of products containing palm oil is unacceptably high. 

28 October 2008
In July, we reported on the rescue of Kerry by Centre for Orangutan Protection from the illegal pet trade. Kerry found a new home at the Nyaru Menteng rescue and rehabilitation centre.

18 October 2008
Close to the city of Balikpapan on the Indonesian island of Kalimantan, it took conservationist Willie Smits just a few years to plant an entire new forest to create a sanctuary for threatened orangutans.

6 October 2008
Last week's edition of Al Jazeera’s 101 East focused on the fight to save the orangutans.

6 September 2008
Somebody stuck a crate in my face at the market in Balikpapan. Looking out between the slats were the very, very sad eyes of a baby orangutan.

7 August 2008
The following article outlines the thinking behind the Samboja Lestari model

4 August 2008
At BOS, our ultimate goal is the release of healthy orangutans back into the wild - so it’s always gratifying to be able to give our supporters good news about just such an event - the first translocation programme of 2008.