This week is Orangutan Awareness Week - don't forget to wear orange on Wednesday for Orange for Orangutan Day.  So it's a great opportunity to let you know that if you're looking for a gift membership for a wildlife lover, you could give them a membership to the Orangutan Foundation.

The UK registered charity is based in the UK and they work in collaboration with The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (BKSDA) to manage their programmes in Indonesian Borneo, in Central Kalimantan.

Their mission is:

"to save orangutans by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities and promoting research and education."

But as they point out, it's more than that - they also recognise the role orangutans have to play in the biodiversity of the region.  Conservation is more than protecting a species - it's about protecting nature for all of us and our wellbeing.

They are helping to conserve:

• 393,800 acres of habitat in the Tanjung Puting National Park, home to 4,400 critically endangered orangutans and they also managePondok Ambung Tropical Forest Research Station there, which studies the park's fauna and flora, which includes monkeys and crocodiles. 
• 600 critically endangered orangutans in 158,000 acres of habitat in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, one of the few protected areas where orangutans who've been rescued are released back into the wild

What are the threats to orangutans?

Their habitat is being destroyed by our demand for palm oil, not aided by the expanding bio-fuel market.  Orangutans and most of the biodiversity supported by tropical rainforests cannot co-exist with oil palm plantations.  Illegal logging, forest fires and illegal mining are also destroying the rainforest.   Fires kill and orphand displace many orangutans;  they are caused by the dry debris from logging, the use of fire by palm oil companies and the El Nino effect which has caused longer than usual dry seasons.  

Give a Membership to the Orangutan Foundation and help orangutans 

Memberships are really important to charities like the Orangutan Foundation.  They form a secure and ongoing support base for the work they do, and that means they can help and reintroduce orangutans back into the wild and also protect their rainforest habitat.  This year, the Orangutan Foundation is 30 years old and to celebrate, new members can receive a free copy of the charity's limited edition 30th Anniversary Booklet.  

How is the Orangutan Foundation making a difference to orangutans?

• Habitat Protection and Re-Forestation 
  If the forests are not safe, neither are the orangutans.  The Foundation supports the training, equipping and deployment of fire-fighting teams in areas of critical orangutan habitat. The use of guard posts and patrols to protect a wildlife reserve and national park have been very effective.  
  
  
• Translocating and releasing orangutans
  Orangutans found isolated in remnant patches of forests or in oil palm plantations need rescuing.  Many are released in the wild.  A veterinary clinic can provide care. 
  
  
• Education and awareness 
  To encourage children to have a greater interest in the natural world and help them to understand the importance of looking after it.
  
  
• Scientific research
  This enables key conservation decisions to be made on important habitats
  
  
• Capacity building and sustainable livelihoods
  It helps to develop the capacity of Indonesians to play a role in the conservation of the orangutan. The work of the charity also encourages sustainable practices and livelihoods that generate an income without destroying the forests. 

The Orangutan Foundation runs its own programmes in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

Memberships support this work, and you'll find there are a number of different memberships available, mostly for one year but also for lifetime. There are memberships for Junior, Family, Individual, Student and Senior Citizens, Patron, Life and Corporate.

Members receive a subscription to the bi-annual newsletter, Red Ape.  This keeps you up to date with the work the charity is doing.  Junior and family members also receive a copy of Pongo, the junior newsletter.

Join today and support the work the Orangutan Foundation is doing.

By the way, other gifts for an Orangutan lover may be

• to Adopt an orangutan for a year,
• to sponsor an acre thereby helping to find the Habitat Protection Programme and ensure that no more habitat is lost in the Tanjung Puting National Park and Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.  
• to become a Guardian of the Lamandau reserve, thus helping to protect the home of thousands of threatened species including sun bears and clouded leopards
• to buy something from the shop - I gave my aunt, an orangutan lover, the book called The Orangutan's World: A Photographic Celebration of Bornean Wildlife - it has stunning photography.  They also sell palm-oil free soap which could make a lovely gift. 
• to simply donate on their behalf