The Annual Report 2022 is here!

4. May 2023

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!

The Annual Report 2022 is here!

4. May 2023

PanEco

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, SOCP

In total, we cared for sixty orangutans at the sanctuary in Sibolangit, North Sumatra last year. A system to collect behavioural data from the orangutans was introduced and the animal caretakers were trained in its use. In Batang Toru, together with eight local implementing partners, we started a new, holistic alliance project to protect the Tapanuli orangutans. Only by joining forces can we meet the challenges of protecting this most endangered great ape species in the world.

Animal keeper Selfi carrying the orangutans Otan and Ramadhani to the rainforest school in a nearby part of the forest. Both have already spent several years at the rescue and rehabilitation station and are now showing strong climbing skills. They will be ready for their move to one of the reintroduction sites in about a year’s time.

Fields, forest gardens and villages are pictured in the background, and the start of the Leuser Ecosystem, which spans 2.6 million hectares, is pictured in the foreground. The Bohorok River marks the border between protected rainforest and agricultural land. The Leuser Ecosystem is located in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. It is the largest intact, contiguous rainforest areas in Southeast Asia and the only place in the world where Critically Endangered orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers co-exist in the wild.

Programme leader Mukhlisin harvesting a hive. Honey from a native species of stingless bee (Meliponini) is extracted from the little pots that the wild bee creates in the hive. The honey is believed to have therapeutic properties and is a sustainable source of income for local people.

A prime example of a successful reintroduction: a female orangutan released into the wild in Jantho Nature Reserve a few years ago now has offspring. This is a good indication that the released population is growing in the protected rainforest.

Riska Situmorang from the Orangutan Haven’s environmental education team out and about on the first completed Ecotrail together with pupils from a local school. Work to develop the environmental education programmes was carried out at full speed until the summer of 2022. Then, in autumn, the time had finally come to welcome the first schools at Orangutan Haven, where they went on a journey of discovery.

A group picture to wrap up an intensive day at the Environmental Education Centre (‘PPLH’ in Indonesian). The young people planted mangroves together, cleared washed-up rubbish from a stretch of coast, cooked lunch on a solar cooker and studied the biodiversity of one square metre of beach. These field trips bring students closer to Sulawesi’s marine ecosystem and teach them what they can do to help protect it.

Thurauen Nature Centre, Switzerland

In the second half of 2022, we started to expand the services we offer to school classes and teachers. Over the winter, the team developed new workshops, guided tours, and further education courses, which are now available to interested schools. At the Thurspitz, measures for a respectful coexistence of different users and visiters were implemented with a more pedestrian-friendly design. In total, more than 12,000 people visited the Thurauen Nature Centre in 2022.

Was that a kingfisher just now? This family is standing on the observation deck right on the Rhine. The locations of the five other observation points along the river Thur are noted on boards in the Nature Centre and in the area. Birds and, with a bit of luck, beavers can be seen from here all year round.

The little ringed plover is highly endangered in Switzerland. In the last 150 years, 90% of Switzerland’s wetlands have been drained – and with them, large parts of the little ringed plover’s breeding habitat. In the Thurauen conservation area, however, the bird still finds gravel banks where it can lay its eggs. The rangers therefore have a responsibility to do whatever they can to protect this rare floodplain.

Bird of prey station Berg am Irchel, Switzerland

The team has successfully helped several power line victims to get new wings by “shifting”. This method involves replacing the burnt feathers with new ones by gluing them into the shafts of the old feathers. We also succeeded in raising three young animals for the Northern Goshawk reintroduction project. These were transferred to the Vienna forest. We held more than 140 guided tours and release events. The newly introduced thematic tours were especially well received.

The year 2022 will go down in history as a sad year for owl populations, with only a few broods of owl species found in the wild. The team at the Bird of Prey Sanctuary nevertheless succeeded in raising three young Ural owls. The birds were released into the wild in July in the Vienna Woods, where a new population of this owl species, now rare in Europe, is being established.

Read what we have achieved in the past year in the field of nature and species conservation as well as environmental education and don’t miss the small but nice highlights shown in the short film below. Enjoy!

Annual report 2022

Meine Spende für Umweltbildung, Artenschutz und bedrohte Lebensräume

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