Posted by: Admin | May 6, 2019

Hackathon

Excuse me? Hackathon? What exactly did you say? … That was my first reaction to the email from Rutger van Zuidam that I found in my mailbox on 4 November last year. This was the start of the mail:

Dear Mr. Smits, Dear Willie,
I have received your email address from Prince Constantijn van Oranje. I discussed the project that I want to present to you below with him, on which he enthusiastically informed me that he had just explored similar ideas from the Bernhard Natuur Fonds.

Partly as a result, he has indicated that he is very interested in you and your plans. Finally, he said that you knew his grandfather well, as well as the current members of the John Loudon and Gerhard van den Top fund.

At the end of his Email, Rutger added the following chart that was supposed to “clarify” what exactly was meant … can you imagine what I thought…

But the reference to my good friend Prince Bernhard, who was a great supporter and the patron of my orangutan projects in Indonesia, was the deciding factor in answering this email. Shortly afterwards I spoke from a jungle camp in Borneo with a very formally dressed young man travelling in a fast car whilst talking to me via Skype. What a difference with the man in T-shirts and a “hoody” that I got to know better later! I am not sure if I understood everything correctly, but the twinkle in Rutger’s eyes and the genuine enthusiasm for whatever it was that he intended, meant that I agreed to his request and invitation. I then tried to investigate more about what a hackathon might be and how such an event could possibly support the work of our Masarang Foundation and the aims of all the Masarang supporters, volunteers and staff and of course the local people we work with.

Well, it was quite the journey! Rutger promised a donation of 5,000 Euro for Masarang and the travel costs for two trips to the Netherlands. The first trip was at the beginning of February to present the Masarang challenge for wildlife conservation at a so-called “deep dive” in Den Bosch. My lexicon has expanded considerably with exotic expressions because of these meetings and new experiences! There in Brabant I was allowed to present the work of the Foundation and our challenge to help to save Nature. First, I gave information in a lecture for hundreds of people in a church and then, in more detailed sessions, with groups that were possibly interested in taking on the challenge. And in effect, it turned out there were registrations from groups of interested people who were willing during the hackathon to use their specialist skills with blockchain and artificial intelligence as well as processing satellite images to help Masarang protect animals and their habitat. Volunteers, Adrienne Watson, founder and chairperson of Masarang Hong Kong and Hans van Willigen, chairman of Masarang International in the Netherlands as well as friend and Foundation supporter, Gaia, also came to Groningen for the Hackathon.

I worked in the Hackathon together with Anne Alexandre from the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund, who worked long hours every day with all the teams and ensured they all remained on track. Anne was also a member of the jury to judge the five teams that had taken on the challenge and the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund kindly agreed to support the winners of my challenge to come to Indonesia to see for themselves the situation and ensure their solution is the most appropriate possible. In addition to Anne, another core team member was Alwine van Heemstra, a dedicated practitioner from lighthorse.nl. Alwine and Anne ensured all members were prepared, informed and supported wonderfully! As you can see in the picture above, we made a good team :-).

According Rutger it was the first time that an NGO was participating in such a Hackathon and it was a great honor that the Masarang Foundation was chosen to open such potential avenues for other NGOs in the future!

So what exactly is a Hackathon? Well, with 1.500 people, we spent three days working in the dark, without daylight, in a former sugar actory where 100 teams of computer specialists were discussing and coding for almost 48 hours non-stop to create workable solutions to a variety of problems. Have a look at this clip and you will understand what I am talking about! I was told that this was the world’s largest Hackathon for Blockchain and AI. The people who participated all want to use their knowledge to create open source solutions for the various challenges. In addition to the participating 100 teams, there were also hundreds of experts who likewise voluntarily shared their knowledge with the groups. At the end, prizes were awarded for the best solutions and on the final day, several “super-accelerators” offered support to some of the winners to further develop their solution and take it to the World.

I was the challenge holder, and had several other roles with exotic titles, I believe, so it was easier to just have ‘Willie’ written on the back of my “hoody”. I supervised five groups that had chosen the wildlife challenge and were all extremely knowledgeable, intelligent and experts in their I.T. fields. They kept me talking for about ten hours a day in order to understand more about the environmental problems, how the field situation was, what facilities local people in Indonesia had, etc. and how they could help to find solutions to these problems.

Four of the five teams that selected to work on the Masarang challenge, worked on methods to make my “recipes” for reforestation more accessible. It was wonderful to see how the coding specialists worked together with the other experts in the teams. Good division of tasks, lots of discussions and adjustments where necessary. One of the teams called “ReWild4Good” was extremely fast to make an application that directly retrieved all kinds of data about plant growing conditions around the world from existing online databases so that the plant species adapted to those locations could be selected to be included in the recipes. I was extremely impressed with their work. The ReWild4Good team in the end came out in second place. But I was so impressed by their work that I also hope to continue to work with them to support our large-scale Indonesian Rebuild reforestation program.

A team from Wageningen, my alma mater, made an application to predict where in the future deforestation is likely to take place and to select priorities for agroforestry-based systems with predictions of income when these alternatives are realized with the local population. This was a great application that could possibly truly help prevent deforestation. A team, named FOREST ironically dressed up as lumber jacks in their red shirts. They were a winner in the two last Hackathons and came up with an integrated platform to arrive at final solutions for land management through selection of areas and recipes for reforestation, supported by an expert center.

Another group, named Giveth, produced a complex system with tokens that could in some way generate income for projects, such as implemented by Masarang, through an online system. Even after 20 minutes of technical explanations by Griff Green here in the picture enthusiastically explaining, the token and money-generating system still remained very abstract to me personally, but I was convinced of their good intentions and wonderful skills and that it might have potential. Griff is an extremely knowledgeable IT specialist and he made a good job of explaining the whole hackathon concept to Adrienne and I on the first day.

The winning team in my challenge, however, was the BerChain team from Berlin. They then were one of 20 winning teams selected from the 99 participating teams. A wonderful feat! However, on the final day, this team were also selected as special winner by a super accelerator/investor named Ewald Hesse (who happens to come from Berlin as well!) who has offered further specialist and financial support to help realise the concept for practical implementation, which made them one of the six ultimate winners of the Hackathon. Here is a link to the explanation by the team themselves of how they believe their solution can help NGO’s like Masarang.

This team came up with an idea and application that appealed to me and also the other two jury members. This concept is a badge to validate NGOs. That badge could help an NGO to get more support because it is based on clear KPI or indicators and assessments. Companies would therefore be more inclined to support such NGOs with good transparency and professionalism. It also offers a level platform for all NGOs and not just the NGOs that have the funds available for expensive marketing! This can also save a lot of money and avoid the need for all kinds of certifications for the relevant NGOs. The BerChain team will use Masarang and our work as a test case for the further development of this system. This is a wonderful promising concept!

Why did I ultimately vote for this team? For years, I have been annoyed by projects and organizations that make nice brochures and pitches, but which provided results that were different from reality. This system from BerChain provides clear criteria and indicators of what a good project is and on which criteria it is assessed. This helps smaller local groups to better understand what is expected of them and how they can work more professionally. For example with regard to reports, financial administration, legal aspects, objective and independent control options, etc. The badge will also have a kind of wreath with extending arms that shows in which part an organization excels. A potential sponsor can then easily select the right partners in the field and also know what to expect. Anne Alexandre also mentioned this as an advantage for her as a sponsor of many projects. This feature could save her a lot of time for evaluation and checking. NGOs often also submit the same project to multiple sponsors, and a central database with verifications can also prevent possible abuses of the system.

Such systems are of course not an absolute guarantee for success, but they are self-learning and thus sincere and professional projects will get better and survive while less good


(rightly!) receive less support. The BerChain team will soon come to Indonesia with the support of the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund and will try out their methodology with Masarang as a test case. Here is what the Odyssey published about it:

Below is a chart that explains more of the principle approach of BerChain.

They were strenuous and long days in Groningen, but most of all very inspiring. With so much misery in the world around us, it was refreshing to see that there are still many people who are committed to a better future without the pursuit of profit being the main motive. Moreover, they combine that inspiration with an enormous amount of knowledge. His Royal Highness Prince Constantijn of Orange also spoke eloquently and with great insight and in impeccable English on the final day. For some reason I never expected royalty to be so
versed in these complex and new technological issues. I really learned a great deal too!

A special mention needs to be made for Rutger van Zuidam with his vision, Stefan Kunst with his incredible organizational talent and Nick Stevens, the MC, with his lightning-fast, accurate, appropriate and very humorous interactions. They are genuinely doing something fantastic. It was worth the many flights from the interior of Borneo to Amsterdam and I also got to learn a great deal about Blockchain and Hackathons and what they may mean for the future!

Below some more photos of the Hackathon.

Willie Smits, April, 2019
Somewhere at 30.000 feet between Amsterdam and Jakarta

Four of the teams I guided. Bottom right BerChain, the winning team that will soon come to Indonesia. On their left the ReWild4Good team with whom I will also work in the future.

An impression of the huge former sugar factory hall with 1.200 people working three days without daylight in a very noisy place. But still amazing results!

 

The teams had to produce a canvas, a working prototype and a roll out plan. Here the team, we called the lumberjacks because of their distinctive shirts and mission, during the jury session.

The last minutes of the Hackathon together with the winning team and Ewald Hesse the German ‘super-accelerator’ that will work with BerChain to help realise the concept for practical implementation.

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Supporting, Willie Stories

Posted by: Admin | April 23, 2019

Earth Day, Earth Month, Earth Year 2019


It was Earth Day on the 22nd of April. On this day in 1970, during a period of widespread pollution and devil-may-care attitudes towards nature, 20 million people in the United States, spurred on by books like Silent Spring and riding the energy behind the anti-Vietnam-War marches, took to the streets to demand better protections for the environment. The demonstration and others like it eventually led to, among other environmental victories, Republican President Richard Nixon’s creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (the White House’s current Republican inhabitant should take note) and the passing of the Endangered Species Act that very same year.

The latter legacy of the first Earth Day is particularly significant now, as the theme for Earth Day 2019 (the 29th since Earth Day was made international in 1990) is endangered species conservation. Masarang Foundation helps protect a wide variety of endangered species by supporting the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre and the Sintang Orangutan Centre. We will write more about the Sintang Orangutan Centre later soon, so will concentrate on Tasikoki today.

Tasikoki is located at a strategic rendezvous point in Northern Sulawesi for wildlife traffickers and bushmeat hunters to trade their ill-gotten goods, the Centre is ideally placed to tackle the wildlife trade head on, collaborating with law enforcement agencies both in directly helping to enact wildlife protection laws and in spreading awareness of the wildlife trade, its illegality and its effects on animal populations and whole ecosystems. Through this collaboration, the centre has helped to rescue countless animals over the years from all over the Indonesian archipelago, including several endangered ones such as orang-utans, sun bears, crested black macaques and many an illegally traded parrot species.

Of course, that’s only part of what happens here. Once the animals have been rescued, then begins the hard work of nursing them back to health (which has often been affected by poor treatment and malnourishment during trafficking), returning them to the wild if possible, and all the upkeep and husbandry work in between. And with the wildlife trade as persistent a problem as it is, a constant stream of new arrivals coming in puts the centre under the constant financial strain of having to expand and upgrade its facilities.

Happily, Tasikoki is up to the challenge, thanks to the dedication of its full time staff and a regular influx of volunteers. Masarang offers an attractive working experience for volunteers from all over the world from Finland to Indonesia to the Netherlands and of course, Hong Kong. Whether they are school students on a field trip or completing course related experience abroad or university students broadening their experience, as long as they have a passion for the environment and endangered wildlife, they are welcome to apply to volunteer here.

SFCA Yung Yau College Tasikoki Team presenting their donated items at the start of their week’s visit to Tasikoki last week. With most grateful thanks to the kind and generous sponsorship of Mr Billy Yung

As well as feeding and cleaning out enclosures, one of the most important tasks done by Tasikoki staff and volunteers is providing enrichment for the animals. That is, activities or objects intended to entertain them or allow them to carry out their natural behaviours as best as possible in a captive environment. Enrichment can constitute anything from putting food in holes for sun bears to lick out as they would termites from their mound, to something as simple as a pile of freshly collected branches in an enclosure. Providing enrichment is particularly important for the primates and parrots at Tasikoki, whose large brains and considerable cognitive abilities demand that they be kept stimulated for their mental wellbeing.

The Masarang Foundation has even managed to find an innovative solution to help Tasikoki’s financial restrictions that also directly benefits the endangered animals still out there in the wild. In an ongoing agro-forestry project pioneered by its founder, Dr. Willie Smits, Masarang sells sugar produced from the sap of the arenga palm tree. As this tree can only grow in healthy plant communities, the production of large enough amounts of palm sugar to turn a profit necessitates the re-growing of vast swathes of rainforest. Furthermore, because the sap ferments within just a few hours of collection, all processing of it has to be done on site by local villagers. This ensures that all profits from the sugar go directly to them, thereby incentivising them to protect the existing rainforest, grow more rainforest and not sell their land to the palm oil companies. Through this project, once desolate plains and slopes have been restored to thriving rainforest ecosystems within as little as five years.

If you would like to help support the Masarang Foundation’s invaluable work, please consider booking a long or short-term visit to Tasikoki or apply to be a volunteer via volunteer@tasikoki.org. Alternatively, if you can’t afford the time for that, why not make a donation via Masarang HK or buy a bag or two of their sugar? And finally, though we are celebrating Earth Day, please think of all the other ways you can assist the recovery of our planet throughout the year through the small, but significant changes you and everyone else can make to their lifestyle.

Thank you.
The Masarang HK Team

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Supporting

Posted by: Willie Smits | April 20, 2019

Gieke

Meet Gieke, our youngest orangutan baby in the Sintang Orangutan Centre (SOC). Gieke is the baby of Penai and Matuari, whose (not-human-planned) intimate meetings through the bars of neighbouring cages led to the birth of this beautiful orangutan baby girl. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our two veterinarians, Vicktor and Jati, Penai was not able to produce milk and in order to save the little baby’s life we had to separate her from her mother Penai. But Gieke often visits her mother who comes and looks and soon, when Gieke can eat solid food, she will rejoin her mother.

So why is she named Gieke? A few weeks ago, we suddenly received two donations of 1.000 Euro each from the same person, Miss Gieke Beekmans. At first, we thought it was a mistake

and we contacted her to clarify, but then she wrote back to say that she had not long to live and that the transfers were fully intentional because she always had had great admiration for the Masarang Foundation’s work. It touched our hearts and Willie wrote her back with the suggestion to name Penai’s daughter after Gieke. It was not long after that we heard that Gieke had already passed away, but her brother Dirk told us that she received our letter and really was touched by our offer and had said that that was the most beautiful gift she had ever received! We are so glad she still did receive our letter and our gift.

It is only now that we learned that Gieke was an animal lover and that when her beloved dog Ramses died in February, it was not long after that she learned she herself had only a short time left to live. She refused chemotherapy, sold all her things (she was a manicurist and pedicurist in the Dutch province of Brabant) and donated all the funds to good causes, one of which was our Masarang Foundation.

Her brother told us that she was a happy, modest woman who was always very kind to animals and people. Gieke said goodbye to her closest friends and family and passed away on April 4th.

On behalf of the Masarang Foundation, we wish her family much strength and we hope they will monitor through our newsletters how orangutan baby Gieke will grow and develop until the day of her release in the jungle of West Kalimantan. We are sure Gieke will be smiling from above to see how her gift has helped this beautiful little baby in which her name will live on much longer.

Here is Gieke and her loyal companion the dog Ramses. May they both rest in peace.

 

Willie, Esther and the team of Masarang International

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Masarang Club, Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC), Supporting

Posted by: Admin | April 2, 2019

Cacao: How It All Began

CACAO: How It All Began

by Thomas Gomersall

By now, the partnership between Masarang and Cacao artisanal chocolates should be well known to followers of both groups. Masarang Foundation’s palm sugar is an essential ingredient in Cacao’s chocolates, but what is less known to a lot of people is how the company started and the ethos behind its chocolate making. That is until the publication of an article in the Hong Kong branch of the Epoch Times, which can be found in the link below.

In the article, Cacao co-founder, Charles Gomersall, talks about how his desire to start up his business came from both his love and guilt surrounding chocolate. Despite his love for chocolate, he was unnerved by stories of human rights abuses on cocoa plantations in West Africa, particularly of children. Often, children who work on these plantations are victims of child trafficking and work as slaves dragging bags of cocoa pods many times their own weight and splitting the pods open with machetes, often leading to serious injury. His concerns deepened when he discovered that 90% of West African rainforests have been lost to cocoa plantations and that such plantations are where the majority of commercial chocolate companies buy cocoa from.

The article goes on to explain that Charles, who was already a highly experienced and well-known cook among his friends and family, was encouraged to try to make his own chocolates. Together with his wife Carolyn, he studied chocolate making in Singapore and the couple set up their company, Cacao, in August last year with the emphasis on producing and selling ethically sourced, environmentally friendly chocolates.-hence the logo that describes their chocolates as being “guilt free”.

The authors go on to describe the role of the Masarang Foundation in the production of the chocolates. Upon learning that his parents were now seriously going ahead with their chocolate business after months of discussions, Charles and Carolyn’s son, Thomas, persuaded them to try Masarang’s palm sugar. As a recent Ecology and Conservation Biology graduate and part time Masarang volunteer, Thomas was aware of not only Masarang’s work in Indonesia, but also of the financial limitations that constrain a lot of conservation projects. He therefore felt that using Masarang’s sugar would provide the organisation with a welcome source of regular funding for their wildlife rehabilitation and rainforest restoration work. Happily, Charles and Carolyn found that the sugar produced by the award-winning, zero waste sugar palm factory, complimented the chocolate beautifully and Cacao now use it both in their chocolate production and in their chocolate related products such as cookies.

In the pursuit of ethicality and environmental friendliness in its production line however, Cacao has not skimped on the taste of its products. It’s cocoa nibs (sourced from Colombia where there is no child slave labour and where the government recently committed to zero deforestation cocoa farming) are freshly ground to achieve an intense chocolatey flavour. Sometimes using environmental friendly ingredients has even helped to improve the taste, as a taste test comparing chocolates made with Masarang sugar with those made with normal sugar revealed. The Gomersalls’ have also been steadfast in not using additives or preservatives so as to keep ingredients as pure as possible. They very much hope to be able to include more products supplied from Masarang in the future, in particular, illipe nut butter, could be a valuable component in their vegan range.

If you like the sound of the article, follow the link below for more details. But for those of you who can’t read Chinese and/or would prefer to hear about Cacao’s chocolates straight from the horse’s mouth, visit their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cacaohk/ ) for details on products and prices.

Epoch Times: https://hk.epochtimes.com/news/2019-02-11/84471016

Orders can be made via a Facebook message, by emailing carolyn@cacao.hk. or by calling Carolyn on 97807360

Cacao will also be at the Green is the New Black Conscious festival at the Kerry Hotel, Hung Hom Bay on 13/14th April 11am-7pm and at the Discovery Bay Sunday Market on 14th of April.

 

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Supporting

Posted by: Willie Smits | March 17, 2019

Tasikoki coastal protection

Tasikoki coastal protection

Sea level rise is a major problem in Indonesia with disastrous consequences at the local level. Tasikoki beach, located next to the Wildlife and Rescue Center, has partly lost 18 meters of coastline over the past 15 years. Since this trend will most likely be continued, we are forced to do something about this as soon as possible.

Photo 1. The Tasikoki Coastal Protection research team from the TU Delft

We, the TU Delft Tasikoki Coastal Protection research team, have started this assignment since February. Our team, consisting of Hydraulic Engineering, Construction Management and Offshore Master’s students, will work on this for 10 weeks.

Mapping the area

The first five weeks have now flown by. The first half of the survey consisted of mapping the area. Then investigating the causes of erosion, taking measurements and processing data. In collaboration with the local university, Institut Teknologi Minaesa from Tomohon, we performed the measurements. We also shared our knowledge and methods. Combinations of home-made and advanced measuring equipment have been used to collect the entire range of data on and around the beach.

Photo 2: The mapping of the soil profile was partly carried out with home-made equipment

Solutions

To work towards relevant solutions for Tasikoki beach, we use a model that reflects the dynamics of the coast. With this we test the effects of the possible solutions on the development of the coast in the short and long term. In addition to the consequences for the development of the coast, the solutions are tested on the basis of, among other things, costs, feasibility and effects on nature and environment.

Photo 3: After the installation of the measuring equipment, the rest of the seabed is mapped with a local fishing boat

Within the solution framework, we work according to the “Building with Nature” principle. Solutions must be implemented in harmony with existing nature. This in order to preserve and possibly even enrich the current biodiversity on land and in the sea.

Current tasks

The possible solutions are currently being modeled and tested. For the possible solutions, an implementation plan will also be written, so that simple steps towards the realization of the advice can be made. In this way we hope with our expertise to contribute to the protection of the hinterland. This could possibly be applied on a larger scale. The valuable Indonesian coast can with this hopefully be protected for the future in a sustainable and responsible manner.

Photo 4: Soil samples in and around Tasikoki beach are sieved and weighed after an intensive drying process, in order to gain insight into the composition of the soil

You can follow us!

Are you interested in a weekly update of our project? Then follow our LinkedIn Pagina.

Photo 5: Biorocks is one of the possible solutions. Here off the coast of the Gangga Island Resort, the Biorocks have provided an impressive coastal recovery in recent years

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Posted in International, Supporting, Tasikoki Project

Posted by: Willie Smits | March 5, 2019

Benni’s Forest

Benni’s Forest is named after Benni Over, an inspiring young German man who loves orangutans. Benni suffers from an incurable genetic disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Despite needing to use a wheelchair, he and his family flew 15.000 kilometers to visit us in Indonesia.
Even though not being able to move more than his face muscles and some of his fingers he also travelled all the way over poor roads and rivers into the heart of Borneo. Here he met orangutans in the Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC).

Above: Benni visiting a school deep in the jungle of Borneo. On the right Benni in his wheelchair on the back of a four-wheel drive vehicle heading with Willie Smits to the Tembak Orangutan Forest School in the rain and over very bad roads.

Now Benni is motivating school children and the general public in Germany to care for our environment and protect forests, the homes of the orangutans and many other species, that are threatened especially by their conversion to palm oil plantations. He did drawings for his book “Henry saves the rainforest” and even an animation film that already touched the hearts of many children in Germany and Indonesia.

One of the alternative solutions that Benni is supporting is the planting of Benni’s forest to demonstrate that we can make valuable new forests on degraded lands. This helps people as well as nature and reduces the pressure upon the remaining intact forests. Benni has set a goal to raise 100.000 Euro for this project and, together with his family, he is incredibly active in reaching out to people through the Internet and by visiting schools and doing interviews for television and magazines.

Benni’s forest will be planted in one of the most degraded habitats in Indonesia, vast Pogon grasslands, that are very fire-prone and cannot protect soil from erosion and loss of nutrients, unlike forests. The several-hundred-acre area is in the Temboan region of North Sulawesi. This land has been recently purchased by the Masarang Foundation, which also supports the work of the Sintang Orangutan Centre. The aim of the purchase is to continue the mission of the Foundation, which is an environmental restoration model providing solutions for people and nature. The Sintang Orangutan Center and the Masarang Foundation will convert these grasslands into a species-rich biodiverse forest that will store carbon as well as improve the water quality in the area, which will benefit a priceless sea turtle nesting site beach just downstream from this reforestation area. We hope for your support!

This is the Temboan grassland area where a new forest will arise to restore nature both on land and in the sea

The first phase of the project will be planting more than 100.000 trees in the open grasslands (see picture above) to become Benni’s forest. For this special project we will run a tree adoption program. Over time the program and its monitoring will become more sophisticated, but initially we will establish one dedicated tree planting fund (Benni’s Forest) to which all the tree adoption funds will be transferred. All reforestation costs will then be paid from this fund and the areas of actual reforestation will be reported upon. In addition to articles on all our associated websites, the reforestation will be presented in three monthly drone images that will be uploaded to Google Earth for general viewing.

During the execution of the project we will do research in cooperation with local universities and Non-governmental organisations that will look at the recovery of the water quality outflow from the reforestation area, the increase in biomass and total CO2 sequestration effects of the reforestation as well as the recovery of biodiversity (focusing on birds and mammal species initially).

The project will be coordinated and supervised by Masarang’s Harry Kaunang, a multi-decorated forester and conservationist with a long track record of successful reforestation projects. Harry is an ex-student of Dr. Willie Smits, the founder of the foundation and SOC, who will also personally supervise the project.

Please help to support this project, for Benni, for biodiversity, for the climate and for Good!
https://henry-rettet-den-regenwald.bildungsblogs.net/2019/02/10/spende-auch-du-einen-baum-fuer-bennis-wald/

Many thanks for your support on behalf of the Masarang Foundation and the Sintang Orangutan Centre as well as Willie and Benni.


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Posted in International, Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC)

Posted by: Admin | February 25, 2019

Brief Update about Some Red-Haired Friends from Sintang Orang-utan Centre

OSCAR

Potential candidate!
Since joining a full day’s forest school, Oscar has demonstrated good ‘forest skills’ improvement. He also shows great improvement in nest-buiding skills. He can make a good nest high above the trees. His good social behaviour with orangutans has also been witnessed when he shares his night nest with Terra. Additionally, Oscar knows some dangerous animals/insects in the forest such as snakes, caterpillars and bees. He also knows other forest inhabitants, such as which animals are poisonous and which ones he can play with.

TERRA

Potential candidate!
Not only Oscar, but also Terra has also greatly improved her forest skills since joining forest school at Tembak. She can make nests, although sometimes she sleeps in one nest with Oscar (yes, there is good social behaviour between her and Oscar). She is also good at finding forest food and she knows at least 20 natural foods at forest school.

Based on the orangutans observation data compiled by our behaviour staff, Oscar and Terra have become potential candidates to be released in 2019.

MAMAT

Giving chances to others.
As one of the ‘unreleasable’ orangutans at SOC, Mamat has joined forest school at Tembak for almost 4 years. His forest skills develop very slowly. He very rarely climbs the trees and spends most of his forest school time on the forest floor, but he can find and eat some forest foods, such as rattan shoots and he occasionally explores the forest. Mamat also has a good social behavior with all orangutans at the school. He likes to invite play with other orangutans. On the other hand, he does influence the other orangutans’ behaviours and not always for the better! With the presence of Mamat, the other orangutans tend to spend their school time playing with Mamat. Due to this influence and the analyzed data from our behaviour and caretaker staff at Tembak, we believe it is better Mamat does experience fewer full forest school days, as this will then give a chance for the others to develop their skills in the forest.

We really hope that the sanctuary collaboration program with the government (especially Danau Sentarum National Park) for the ‘unreleasable orangutans’ can be realized soon so that Mamat and the other unreleasable orangutans can live permanently in the sanctuary. Some of the biggest cheekpadders may go to the big project of Pak Willie in East Kalimantan where they can get some big islands to liveon, with only other rescued male orangutans, so they have no reason to fight over females.

MONA

I’m ready!
In 2018, Mona showed great improvement at the Sintang Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. She is very close to Aming, but right now she doesn’t cry when they are apart. At the beginning, when both of them stayed in the same night enclosure with the babies, Aming always took very good care of Mona. When the others did naughty things to Mona, Aming did his best to protect her. But right now the situation is totally different; Mona is no longer a baby girl. She grows and becomes a tough girl! She no longer cries when she is apart from Aming. Yet, their social behaviour is still stong, as if they are brother and sister.

Her skills develop very well. She could solve any enrichments in a short time, even when the food is hidden very carefully and with difficult wrapping. She likes all fruits and veggies and could make simple nests by collecting leaves. These are the signs that she is ready to go to the next step to join the forest school as soon as possible.

VICTORIA

Victoria’s Milestone!
This year is a great year for Victoria. She learned many things during her rehabilitation at SOC. Even though she is a naughty little girl, or maybe because of that, Victoria is very active and smarter than other orangutans her age. She can already make simple nests and has good problem solving capabilities when playing with the enrichments. Even other orangutans watch and imitate her skills to get food hidden in various enrichments.

The Jerora forest school has officially started to operate a few months ago and SOC relocated the first group of orangutans there. One of these lucky ones is Victoria. This is the first time she goes to forest school since SOC rescued her.

This is a great opportunity for her to develop her survival skills in the forest. When the door to the tunnel leading towards the primary forest of the forest school opened, she immediately and enthusiastically explored the forest canopy, looking for forest food and trying many different kinds of food.

Even though she already had developed good enough nest-building skills by using the daily leaves at the overnight enclosure, she still needs to learn a lot about nesting skills in the canopy. What trees do not have ants? Which branches and leaves are the best to use? During her first month in the virgin forest she slept high up the trees but did not make any nests, she just held on to the branches close to the trunk of a tree. We hope that soon she will try to make the proper nests high up in the tree canopy.

We are monitoring Victoria, and all her friends, every day to see the progress she is making. It is not easy to make movies of Victoria up there in the trees, but we will try to send our supporters at Victoria Shanghai Academy some clips after we get a better video camera with a tele-lens.

HOPE

We are still hoping for Hope to leave the quarantine area soon. Every few days we call the Prodia laboratory in Jakarta to find out when we will get her final TB culture test. Without that we cannot move her because those are the rules of the Ministry of Forestry for orangutan rehabilitants. But since Amory is also waiting for his test results we have put them together and they like sharing the hammock and play with each other.
Hope is quite active, swinging a lot in her enclosure and keeping a keen eye out for when feeding time approaches. Different orangutans are afraid of differing things, perhaps a lot like people. Maybe this has something to do with some past traumatic experiences. They can be afraid of either inanimate objects or living things. One day, just a little spider walked through Hope’s enclosure. First, Hope looked shocked and made a loud noise as if she was very afraid of the spider. Then, she took a piece wood from branches full of leaves the caretakers give to them every day and hit the spider over and over till the spider was gone. We wonder if she once was bitten by a poisonous spider when she was still living with her mother up there in the trees? Anyway, we thought it was great of Hope to overcome her fear and actually use a tool to deal with the problem!
Sometimes the caretakers need to teach orangutans to have fear of dangers, for example, using rubber imitation snakes and wiggling them and looking afraid of the snake. Then the orangutans understand that snakes are to be feared and hopefully they will avoid the snakes in the forest after that.

AMORY

Seeking attention!
Yes, Amory is one of the orangutans at SOC who likes seeking the caretakers’ attention, especially the woman caretakers! When cleaning the enclosures every morning, Amory likes to poke the caretakers and he also likes to be carried piggyback by them.

During his quarantine phase, Amory has already shown great improvement. He can make simple sleeping nests by collecting the leaves in the hammock every afternoon. His diet has totally changed from a human diet to an orangutan diet. His social behaviour with the other orangutans, especially with Hope, is also very good as both of them are the same age and are staying in one quarantine enclosure.

LITTLE LIESJE

Grows up!
Baby Liesje grows very well and very healthily, due to the care and love of her mother, Tanjung. As she already has 4 teeth, nowadays she could to eat some fruit given by the caretakers, such as banana and papaya but the milk from her mother is still the most important for her. She also begins to play by herself but still not too far from her mother.

As Liesje grows so well, we hope she will soon get the chance to join her mother and go to forest school for the first time. With this opportunity, her mother, Tanjung, can introduce and teach her how to live in the forest. As Tanjung is one of the potential orangutans to be released, it is a great chance for both of them to be released in 2019 or 2020. We hope so!

TOM

Where is my cloth?
Do you remember Tom being inseparable from his cloth?
Since being kept as ‘pet’ by a family and for the first 2 months at Sintang Orangutan Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, our caretakers couldn’t separate the cloth from Tom.

Everyday our caretakers always did their best to rehabilitate him, starting from changing his diet, treating his parasites and also, bit by bit, changing his ‘inseparable cloth’ with leaves.
For the first 2 months, it was quite difficult to separate Tom from the cloth and he always cried out loudly when the babysitters, Eni and Grace, took the cloth away from him. But now, he does not need the cloth to be with him night and day. He also enjoys playing with leaves every afternoon that are given by our caretakers. We are very glad about this breakthrough!

Our babysitters also frequently take Tom out from the enclosure and introduce him to the trees. Tom is still affraid to climb high alone. He prefer to climb in the lower canopy of trees. Besides, he likes to be carried piggyback by the babysitters, especially the female babysitters Eni and Yessi.

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Masarang Club, Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC), Supporting

Posted by: Admin | February 8, 2019

Happy Chinese New Year 2019 from SOC

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: Admin | February 3, 2019

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2019

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Posted in Hong Kong, International, Masarang Club, Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC), Tasikoki Project

Posted by: Admin | February 2, 2019

Discovery College Continues to Support and Volunteer at Tasikoki

Sulawesi, Indonesia.
A beautiful tropical paradise for tourists, but what happens when a full group of teenagers go to an animal nature reserve for a week? Great things, surprisingly.

Getting chosen to create an article for my classmates and I about our time at Tasikoki was an honor, and I am going to be discussing the important lessons and stories we learned from the people of Tasikoki and the amazing memories we will never forget.

We started off our trip to Tasikoki with a VERY nice and COMFORTABLE flight and bus ride to arrive at the main headquarters. I remember laughing with friends late that night while we were close to arriving and making random jokes and having to be shushed multiple times as we were rowdy in the back. I don’t blame the shushers, hearing a group of girls laugh at 11 pm manically about trees being people is not the most peaceful and tranquil bus setting they were hoping for. Although we were sleep-deprived, we were all so excited to finally see the reserve that we had been talking about for months.

When we arrived, it was a beautiful view of the horizon and star-filled skies- that we all took a moment to appreciate as a group. I was actually able to experience one of the best moments of the trip for myself. During the moments of looking up at the stars, I was able to witness a shooting star. It was a sign that this was going to be a great trip, and was the cherry-on-top of the first amazing day. While walking into the dorm halls, we moved to our respective dorm groups. We had 6 people in our dorm room, while the boys shared one dorm room and the remainder of girls stayed in another dorm. We had a fun-filled night of going up to the tower and getting excited for the following days of work and play.

Flying for 10 hours doesn’t necessarily put you in the mood for a full days worth of work. But that’s exactly what we did, and we didn’t regret it at all. The first night was chaotic: leaky air conditioning and recurring wasps that, instead of going away after a while, seem to duplicate after hopes were risen for a second. Despite it all, the first full day of working for the benefit of the Tasikoki wildlife center was exhilarating, exhausting , but overall, rewarding. Most of us were working on 6-7 hours of sleep, though we persevered with good meals prepared for us by the center.



Splitting into two groups, we all took part in tree-planting around the education center, enriching the bird enclosure, fearing red ants and wasps unfamiliar to Hong Kong’s set of insect species, and ended with a pleasant splash around the nearby black-sand beach after a brief beach-clean up.

All would agree that wading in the astonishingly transparent and shallow water with friends was a perfectly energizing (and for some, tranquil) end to the work. Ultimately, after watching more informational videos regarding the background of the center than we bargained for, we all thought the first day of the trip was successful, and enjoyed ourselves very much. ☺

(*) Written by:Ngai Ning, Lucy, Jacqueline, Euna

Monday 5th November

We started off the day with three main activities, one group was working on expanding the babirusa and deer habitat, another group was working on chiseling wood to create mini bird houses and the last group was working on painting the bird cages. The babirusa and deer habitat/waterhole that we were expanding was very muddy and messy, although it was very messy it was very fun to expand! The chiseling was difficult as the chisels kept getting stuck in the wood which made the process take longer, In the end we made a couple complete bird houses (editor put the actual name I forgot what the proper name for bird houses are)! The painting was quite chill but also messy as many people ended up with paint all over them. Later in the day we went on a walk through the jungle which was very fun and interesting. It was quite humid but surprisingly was not too bad, we ended up seeing a couple of Tarsir, a lot of Macaques, a few Kus Kus, a trio of owls, bats and a flying lizard at the start! It was very cool to see all the animals out of their cages and free in wild, we got many good photos and videos of the animals we saw!

When we finished our walk we went back on the buses which were very loud, everyone was singing and playing music whilst some of us were trying to sleep. Overall today was a very fun day and will definitely be remembered!

(*) Riley and Richie

Tuesday 6th November

Today started off early at 6:30am. We split into 3 groups, the first group went to go bug hunting, the second group had to collect jungle salad from the roads and the last group searched for general leaves from the beach.

Afterwards we gathered together before breakfast to fold panfornds from the jungle salad. For our last activity we collected dead leaves from the side of the road and filled up the bags. We then made our way to the breakfast table to shower and have breakfast. At 9:30 we went back to the caretaker area to split back into 3 different groups. The first group folded up gifts for the bears and orangutans, the second group chopped bamboo and filled it with marmite, dead fish and peanuts and the last group took apart boxes and filled them peanuts for the cockatoos.

We then placed all of the animals items into their enclosures. At 12 we had lunch and some people went down to the beach to swim.

At 1:30 we went to the education center and were assigned 3 hours to paint the murals inside the education center. Afterwards we were given free time from 4-6, to swim in the ocean and to set up the volley ball court on the beach with collected bamboo. Afterwards we had dinner, and the group who had collected the bugs were allowed to feed the slow Loris. Once they returned everyone was given coconuts to bring down with us to the beach, for the beach bonfire. We spent the rest of the evening down at the beach. We then all split into our own groups either playing card games with chocolate milk or showering down the sand from the beach. Overall today was enjoyed and filled with hard work, hoping the next few days will be as enjoyable.

(*) Ben & Maximus

Wednesday -7th

Today we woke up early, we had a light breakfast and had a bit of free time with the Wi-Fi and then we divided ourselves into two buses that took us to a local public school. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by all of the students there and even the principal.

Our time together started with a performance by the students there which they put together in their own time. We then got in one of the classrooms there and presentenced ourselves. We continued by learning about the Northern Indonesian culture, and we played multiple traditional games and even some of our games.

We took a tour of the school and proceeded to play a fun game of badminton. The school visit ended by sharing social media information and taking pictures all together. We then hopped onto those same buses on our way back home and had lunch.

The next activity that the Tasikoki wildlife center had planned for us was to clean and add enrichments to the sun bear cages. To do so, we started off with getting rid of all the old fruit skins, removing their feces and cleaning out their little pool. once that was done we commenced with the enrichments. Those included, putting in new and fresh fruits, throwing bits of rice here and there, squirting drops of honey around the cage, adding new dry leaves and adding new logs to their cage. The day concluded with a delicious dinner by the beach, and then a night swim. Not everyone wanted to swim so we got in groups and got in slowly and not to far. We relaxed for a while and looked at the sky above full of stars. When we were swimming we noticed little neon lights in the water slowly lighting up as we moved. Which we later found out that was the sea weed. We piled in a truck and got back to the place where we were staying for a quick shower. We played games and talked before calling it a night and going to bed for an early start again.

Thursday 8th

Today we woke up a bit earlier than usual, and got onto a bus to go a resort to spend the day diving. The bus ride was long and serene; we mainly listened to music and slept. I enjoyed watching the rolling hills and seeing the locals going by in motorbikes. It was raining in the beginning of the day, but when we finally got to the pier, the rain had stopped. We caught a short boat ride out to the resort; on the way, we were in awe at the beautiful clear water, beaches and small outlying islands. When we got to the resort, we were briefed by the friendly staff on our itinerary for the day; which consisted of visiting three coral bays. We split into groups and got into our boats; off we went! At our first reef, the water was a bit deep, and the visibility wasn’t that great due to the rainfall. The water was a bit cold as well, but we still had fun trying out our masks and diving down to get a closer look. At the first island we didn’t see many animals, but at the second island; we had a fun surprise.
Between visiting reefs, we helped ourselves to fruits, cocoa and coffee (I had 4 cups of coffee oops…) It was so much fun getting to fawn over all the cute fish and beautiful coral at each of the reefs. At the second island, I had my hand at freediving. We held our breaths and dove as deep as we could. I borrowed a pair of flippers; which really helped me to move around faster. (I may or may not have pretended to be a mermaid..) Some of the animals we saw included puffer fish, angel fish, starfish, sea urchins, jellyfish and eels. Speaking of jellyfish, almost every one of us was attacked by the mob of savage jelly babies which inhabited the ocean. On our third and final dive, the water was very deep. At this point, I was diving down to get a close look at the coral, and observed some of the fish. After our savage jelly attacks, the tides started to become strong. VERY strong. We all had to paddle back to our boat, and head off for lunch.

The divers at the resort brought so much yummy food, so we stopped at a beautiful beach with a giant rock formation. After finishing up lunch, we skipped stones, played games and took photos. We took a final boat ride back to the resort, where had some sodas and snacks; and swam in the pool. We relaxed for a while longer before we headed back to Tasikoki to finish our day.

To end this amazing journey, on the final day one of the best moments of the trip occurred. One of our teachers, Mr Bolton, created and presented a poem on the last day of the trip. I feel it was a great way to summarise our experience in Sulawesi.

This is the place

This is the place where we watched
Tiny bears snuffle treats
From boxes in the heat
Gazed at tiny faces from giant trees

The place where monkeys cat call,
Babirusas snuffle and gibbons brawl

Where schoolkids put down their science charts
And instead sang with their hearts
And for a glorious minute we were all part
Of the same goo that binds us.

This is the place that for a week was
Our place,
Our home,
Our land.

And who needs Thailand and who needs Vietnam?
Tell me why no Instagram,
And tell me why no snapchat,
And tell me why.. (you sing this bit in Louis’ voice!)

We didn’t visit this place,
We lived it.
We loved it.
We planted it and
We fed it.

And this was the place;
It was amazing, incomparable;
Sometimes crazy.

Our beautiful home for one week only….
Thank you, Sulawesi.

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Posted in Hong Kong, Supporting, Tasikoki Project

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