How long do orangutans live? Do they live monogamously? And what do their long calls mean? In this profile, we reveal some facts and peculiarities of this great ape, which is found exclusively on Sumatra and Borneo.

The PanEco annual report on our activities in 2024 at the Berg am Irchel Bird of Prey Station, the Thurauen Nature Centre and our programmes in Indonesia comprises 35 pages of stories, facts and lots of pictures. Find out what we have achieved with your support over the past year. We have picked out a few highlights to give you a flavour.

We’re delighted to welcome Bioparc Genève as our new partner, and we’d like to thank it sincerely for its valuable support so far. We are already looking forward to implementing future projects together.

On 1 April, Martin Schmid and Loredana Sorg will take over the management of our foundation. They succeed the long-standing management team of Marcel Etterlin and Irena Wettstein.

We have been running the reintroduction station for orangutans in the Jantho Sanctuary in the north of Aceh province since 2005. The orangutans spend their last few weeks at this station before we release them back into their natural habitat. What do the days look like for the team?

The female orangutan ‘Hope’, who had been living at our Quarantine and Rehabilitation Centre since 2019, has passed away after suffering a stroke. We are deeply touched by the death of this unique orangutan, who was blind and severely traumatised and lived for five years at our sanctuary – an obituary.

The female orangutan ‘Wenda’ was spotted with her offspring by a team of our orangutan conservation programme in the rainforest of the Jantho region on Sumatra in July 2024. At the time, her baby was only one to two weeks old. The baby is a beacon of hope for its species.

On November 27, 2024 at 1:00 AM several major landslides struck our Orangutan Quarantine and Rehabilitation Center in North Sumatra. These landslides, triggered by exceptionally heavy rainfall, caused extensive damage to key infrastructure, including the main veterinary clinic and multiple orangutan enclosures. Two orangutans have died because of the landslides. All other 39 animals were unharmed and are safe.

This is the story of a self-confident loner with a passion for climbing. Ramadhani had been living at our Quarantine and Rehabilitation Centre since 2016. She was recently transferred to the Reintroduction Station, from where she will soon be released into the wild. Find out what still needs to be done before this final step!

Alan Pülz completed his four-month community service assignment for PanEco in Indonesia. The young architect drew up construction plans and designs for various smaller and larger construction projects at the ‘Orangutan Haven’. Here’s an extract from his diary describing a typical day on the job:

In the orangutan Quarantine and Rehabilitation Centre on Sumatra we care for injured animals and orphaned young orangutans. Here we also prepare them for release in the wild, sometimes for many years. The in-house clinic is well equipped to treat all kinds of injuries and diseases in orangutans. Recently, a patient came to us with an unusual and tragic story.

Rosa is a veterinarian with heart and soul. She loves her work at the reintroduction centre in Jantho and feels perfectly at home under the sometimes basic conditions there. Her responsibility as a vet is to ensure that the orangutans are optimally prepared for release into the wild.

Environmental education is a central component of nature conservation in Switzerland as well as in Indonesia. This is why we have invested more heavily in exchanges between the environmental education teams in our programmes this year. To kick things off, six delegates from our four environmental education centres in Indonesia recently visited us in Berg am Irchel.

For the second consecutive time we have appointed high school students as ambassadors for nature conservation in the province of North Sumatra in Indonesia. After a strict selection process and intensive training, they are ready to inspire their classmates for environmental protection issues for the coming two years. Get to know this successful project!

For almost thirty years, our 27 employees in Switzerland and a further 218 employees of our long-standing partners in Indonesia have dedicated themselves to preserving and protecting biodiversity and promoting the responsible use of nature with a great deal of knowledge and passion. Find out how we achieved this goal last year in our programmes in Indonesia, at the Berg am Irchel Bird of Prey Sanctuary and at the Thurauen Nature Centre!

The 2.6-million-hectare Leuser ecosystem is located in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. It is one of the largest, still intact, contiguous rainforests in Southeast Asia and the only place in the world where endangered species such as orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers share the same habitat. PanEco has been working here for several years as part of a Landscape Conservation Project with long-standing, trustworthy partners – and with generous support from the Arcus Foundation.

In February, behavioural biologist Anna Marzec joined the PanEco team. After an introduction at the office in Berg am Irchel, she dived straight into our programmes in Indonesia – a travelogue:

The habitat of the orangutans is increasingly being deforested and fragmented. Often the remaining areas of rainforest are no longer large enough for the animals to survive. Hungry orangutans that find themselves near plantations and gardens are tempted to look for food in them. This of course, can lead to conflicts with humans.

PanEco offers up to four places for community service volunteers in its programmes in Indonesia. To qualify for an assignment, the volunteers must have a suitable professional profile and some experience, and they must be available for several months. At the same time, our team in Indonesia must also be able to offer a meaningful job. Sometimes everything comes together just right, as in the case of Kevin Knecht, who tells us about his four-month assignment in Medan, North Sumatra.

We are about to officially launch a new project that is unique in the world: Our Orangutan Haven will be the new home for orangutans that can no longer be released into the wild due to various impairments. The Haven is also an environmental education centre on the topics of rainforest, orangutans and illegal wildlife trade. The first orangutans are now being relocated from the quarantine and rehabilitation centre on Sumatra to a number of islands in Orangutan Haven.

There are currently 58 Orangutans living in our rescue and care station on Sumatra. They receive their food delivered to their enclosures throughout the day. On average, the animal keepers give 3 kg of fruit, vegetables and green fodder per animal. The menu is richer than in the wild and orangutans also have favorite foods. When it comes to food, it is also important to optimally prepare the animals for life in the wild.

Young orangutans who grow up in our quarantine and rehabilitation centre have to learn many things in order to survive in the rainforest once they are released. One of the most important and difficult skills is to be able to build a nest for the night. In the wild, the young learn this from their mothers.

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!