By Cheryl Knott and Tim Laman
This past month we officially launched our new online membership community, Save Wild Orangutans. We have been busy creating a brand new website, revamping our social media accounts, and re-branding our platform in order to expand our project even further.
We’ve decided to call this new initiative Save Wild Orangutans because that’s really what our program aims to do! Studying and conserving wild orangutans is also what distinguishes us from almost all other orangutan-related NGOs that focus on orangutan rehabilitation and re-introduction to forests. Plus, it’s catchy and easy to remember!
Team Wild Orangutan consists of supporters that pledge to donate $5 or more each month. Members then get access to new photos, videos, and stories straight from the field. All proceeds go directly to our work with habitat protection, conservation awareness, working with local communities, and research activities. This helps us to purchase equipment used each day in the field, contributes to the salaries of over 25 local Indonesian staff members, and supplements funds for all the day-to-day expenses of running our Yayasan Palung office and Cabang Panti Research Station.
Our goal is to provide a way for people who are passionate about protecting Borneo’s wild orangutans to help. Many of us are aware of the problems that Borneo’s biodiversity face, but may feel helpless or unsure of how to make a change. Now, with your support, we can keep orangutans wild.
Here’s a sneak-peek of what some of our exclusive Save Wild Orangutan content has looked like so far:
First, we shared some background about the project and reflected on the accomplishments we’ve made over the past 28 years.
In the second installment, Tim shared his experience filming for the BBC series, Seven Worlds One Planet – Asia episode, which recently aired in the US. The article features behind-the-scenes photos from the filming process, and explains the careful (and often exhausting!) work it takes to get the necessary footage.
In the coming months we hope to share short videos, stories told by our assistants in the field, updates about our latest research findings, and more. And we want to hear from you! We’d love to know what our members are interested in most, so that we can seek to get more engaging content.
Please consider joining our team. Let’s make a difference for the wild orangutans of Borneo.
