In our latest project, the “Orangutan Haven” on Sumatra, we sensitize Indonesian and foreign visitors to the threats to the rainforest and its inhabitants. We impart knowledge about biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development in a variety of ways. Let us introduce our holistic environmental education project!

Trips by Swiss PanEco staff to our programmes in Indonesia are very important to ensure a good cooperation with our local partners and staff. My name is Melina Erdin and I have been working for PanEco for one year. In June I visited our programmes in Indonesia for the first time. I would like to take you with me on my journey and give you an insight into my travel diary.

One of the preconditions for implementing successful environmental protection programs is to raise the level of knowledge and general awareness among the population. For this reason, PanEco is committed to contribute to environmental education in both Switzerland and Indonesia. More than 20 years ago, we initiated the Environmental Education Centre PPLH Puntondo on the island of South Sulawesi and we have supported it financially and professionally ever since. Learn more about the activities of the PPLH Puntondo!

Orangutans are fascinating animals. And nature photographer Maxime Aliaga succumbed to this fascination many years ago. He has compiled his most beautiful photos in an exhibition that was shown in the Alte Kaserne in Winterthur in June 2023.

It is anything but easy to release young orangutans who have spent most of their lives in the care of humans, into the wild. Each year we release an average of 15 animals in our two reintroduction centers. Read about what could go wrong and how we try to prevent this from happening.

A year with some changes has gone by – in terms of personnel as well as in the three programmes: Bird of Prey Station Berg am Irchel, Nature Centre Thurauen and the Orangutan Conservation Programme in Indonesia. As an organisation as well as a team, we have developed further and taken on new challenges. We invite you to take a look at the recent past and browse through our three programmes!

They are small, inconspicuous, and easy to operate and and have proved invaluable for scientific work in remote areas such as the Sumatran rainforest. Wildlife cameras can provide us with important data on the biodiversity of the orangutan hbitat. See below who blundered into our cleverly placed camera traps last year!

How do we measure the impact of our work in Indonesia? How do we evaluate the implementation of our projects and programmes? Together with our sister organisation YEL and other long-term partners, we run a total of seven programmes in Indonesia. Last month, one of our grant projects was reviewed by the British funding organisation UK Aid as part of a three-year programme.

In November 2022, Brigitte Spillmann joined our team as coordinator for the seven PanEco programmes in Indonesia. The biologist has spent years studying the behaviour of orangutans in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo, experiencing the primates and their habitat with full intensity.

Hope, a female orangutan, was brought to the SOCP rescue and rehabilitation station with severe injuries. She was able to recover from her physical injuries, but psychologically she is still very vulnerable. In this article we will describe to you the special challenges required to care for traumatised animals.

Have you ever wondered what it is like in our SOCP quarantine and rehabilitation centre for orangutans in Sumatra? We have produced a video that takes you on a tour through the centre. You will get an overview of the facility and learn about the daily work of the SOCP team on site. Take the tour with us!

On Sumatra, near the large city of Medan, a home for Orangutans has been under construction since 2016. It is intended as a haven for those animals which can no longer be released into the wild, and which can spend their old age in dignity on several islands, close to nature. The Orangutan Haven is a unique environmental education centre that will be opened to the public as soon as possible. Visitors will also be able to experience many examples of sustainable construction techniques.

At our quarantine and rehabilitation centre in Sumatra, we are introducing a new methodology designed to determine the best possible point in time for the reintroduction of an orangutan based on a set of data. SOCP staff member Sheila explains how the new method works.

A major threat to the survival of orangutans is the degradation or fragmentation of their habitat. The Batang Toru ecosystem is particularly affected. In this high-risk area, we are currently planning wildlife corridors to link sensitive orangutan populations.

Environmental education is a key element of our work – in Switzerland and Indonesia. Since 2001, we have supported the Puntondo Environmental Education Center on the Indonesian island Sulawesi. Find out what was achieved with our support in the first half of 2022.

The month of June was a very happy one for our Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. Four young orangutans are ready for freedom and are undergoing final training at the Advanced Forest School in Jantho. Among them is an old acquaintance. And someone else showed up at the Reintroduction Station with a happy surprise after years of absence.

Our latest project in Sumatra is the Orangutan Haven. Part of the Haven is a breeding programme for endangered sumatran songbirds.

On May 18, 2022 in Medan, North Sumatra, a number potential partners attended a workshop to finalize the proposal concept for Batang Toru phase 2. The workshop aimed to monitor and evaluate the previous work as well as to build partnerships for the implementation of the next phase.

Making a difference for Critically Endangered Sumatran orangutans and community livelihoods through beekeeping. We introduce you to our project «Orangutan Honey».

Our new annual report is here! 2021 was marked by anniversaries: 25 years of PanEco and 10 years of the Thurauen Nature Centre. In addition, there were many other highlights and also challenges. We look back to 2021.

You may already know Dr. Citrakasih Nente, called Citra by everyone, as the head of care and reintroduction in our Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. Recently, an interview with her and our partner «Orangutan Coffee» was published and we would like to share it also with you.

Illegal wildlife trade is a threat to many endangered species worldwide. It is also part of interrelated factors seriously threatening orangutans in Sumatra.

The reintroduction station in Jantho is located in the middle of the rainforest and is difficult to reach and only via off-road vehicle or motorcycle. The next village is far away. Therefore, the employees, like Damson, always stay for several days at a time at the station to pursue their valuable work.

The PanEco team has grown. We are happy to welcome 6 new people who will strengthen our teams in Switzerland and Indonesia.

From the day they enter the quarantine and rehabilitation station to the day they are released: the orangutans at the quarantine and rehabilitation station receive veterinary care throughout their stay. This happens through a standardised procedure.

Since 2016 orangutan Deka was in our care in the rescue and rehabilitation station in Sumatra. A few weeks ago, he came a decisive step closer to a life in freedom. A touching film was made of the transport to the reintroduction station in Jambi.

Currently we care for around 70 orangutans in care at the quarantine and rehabilitation station in Sumatra. Most of them are preparing for a life in the rainforest. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we cannot help all of the orangutans. Ocan unfortunately did not survive.

Elections for the Board of Trustees of the PanEco Nature Conservation Foundation took place in November 2021. Peter Hollenstein and Thomas Hofstetter were newly elected to the Council, while six existing members were confirmed in office.

In 2013 our research station in Sikundur started its data collection effort. Find out why the station is producing special results.

What do we mean when we say that community development projects are extremely important for our work to conserve the rainforest and orangutans in Sumatra?

The Jantho Ranger Federation (JRF) is a partnership between the SOCP, BKSDA Aceh (local government conservation authorities) and local Community Rangers. Together, we work to monitor orangutans in remote forest areas and to protect the forest habitat and all the wildlife within.

What began many years ago as a visionary’s project has celebrated its anniversary in 2021. We are talking about our Thurauen Nature Centre. An employee since the very beginning, Cornelia Jenny, and the current deputy manager of the Thurauen Nature Centre, Sonja Falkner, look back on the last few years.

In 2017 the journal Current Biology published an event that last occurred in 1933. In the paper an international team of scientists, including several members of our own Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme team, described a new species of Great Ape, the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), living the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra. Sadly, with less than 800 individuals thought to remain in the wild the new species also became, overnight, probably the most endangered great ape species in the world. Nevertheless, we have been working to protect the orangutans in the Batang Toru forests since 2004, and continue to do all we can to secure the future of this Critically Endangered species and its habitat.

In the middle of the ongoing pandemic orangutan female «Edelweiss» presents her offspring to us in the rainforest of Jantho. The little guy is only a few months old, but already proffers new hope for the future of his species!