Location: Central Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia
The Orangutan Foundation’s mission is to save orangutans by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities and promoting research and education. The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry created the Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve (LRWR) in 1998 from two expired logging concessions. The reserve is a high priority site under the most recent Orangutan Population Habitat and Viability Assessment. Camp Rasak is one of the orangutan release and monitoring sites run by the Orangutan Foundation in the Lamandau Reserve. Numerous orangutans have been released at Camp Rasak and many females have gone on to reproduce and rear offspring successfully. Orangutans are monitored after being released. Camp Rasak is also the location of a reforestation nursery.
Camp Rasak is an integral area for the translocation of orangutans rescued from plantations and community land. The loss of forest habitat and food sources is forcing wild orangutans to come ever closer to humans, which frequently results in human-orangutan conflicts with the orangutan being injured or killed. In the last few years the Orangutan Foundation has had to rescue more orangutans, stranded in community forests, where orangutans are perceived as an agricultural pest, causing damage to fruit trees or oil palm crops. The Orangutan Project provides funding to assist the Orangutan Foundation with orangutan rescues as well as socialisation and awareness meetings with local communities with the aim to reduce the number of human-orangutan conflicts in community areas, thus reducing the number of orangutans injured or killed.
In addition to the orangutan reintroduction program, the Orangutan Foundation also undertakes the protection of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve through a network of guard posts. One of these, named Post Rasau is adjacent to Camp Rasak and is maintained through funding by The Orangutan Project.
The release of orangutans into this area is crucial to establish a viable, wild population and the long-term conservation of orangutans and their habitat. The running costs of this program are extensive. The Orangutan Project has supported the vital work undertaken by The Orangutan Foundation in the Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve since 2007.
