The Jerora Orangutan Jungle School just received its first six orangutans! On the left the jungle, then the electric fence, the tunnel to the night quarters for those orangutans that want to sleep there initially, and behind it the clinic with the just finished water supply of the compound.
A school for orangutans?? Yes, you are reading it correctly. Orangutans are very smart, actually the smartest amongst all the non-human primates, but just like people they need to learn the survival skills. All our young orangutans came to the Sintang Orangutan Centre as orphans, meaning they lost their teachers, but also their mother that protected and loved them. When we bring orangutan orphans together they can to a degree learn some skills from each other and from the fruits and leaves that our keepers provide them. But there is more than that. In nature orangutans even know about medicinal plants and they know when to eat certain clays or charcoal when their tummies are upset.
But all those skills are not yet the most important! It is climbing through the forest canopy! Climbing? That cannot possibly be right? But think about it, put yourself in their position and imagine you have just been released from a cage and there are jungle trees all around you. Where do you go? These orangutans do not yet have the mental map of tree positions that is plotted in their GPS minds after moving around for up to nine years with their mothers. And orangutans are the heaviest tree living animals in the world. They are also highly efficient in their use of energy to move that big body through the forest canopy. But that can only be the case if they know where to go and how to get from where they are in the most efficient way to the tree that can provide them with the calories they need.
But there is still more to climbing… When they hang from ropes or bars in cages or play structures at the rehabilitation centres they find that nothing ever seems to break. Well not so in the real jungle! Some lianas are not so well attached. And solid looking branches can be rotten inside and break off. And misidentifying the strength of a branch can also lead to a serious fall, possibly even leading to death. So how to learn those skills when not in a controlled environment where we can still help them if something happens but where they are actually learning in a real forest with tree species that they will also encounter in the forest where they will eventually be released to be wild orangutans again? That is why we have the new orangutan jungle school! Let me tell you about this very special school and how we created it for our precious orangutans.
Jerora is the name of an area of land a mere 5 kilometres south east of Sintang the capital of the autonomous Sintang district in the province of West Kalimantan in Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. Here is a picture on the right that tells a lot. Many illegal open gold mines and many plantations of oil palms as well as severely polluted rivers carrying mud, mercury, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, artificial fertilizers, etc. This region needs some education too!
The white areas around the green star that indicates the location of the last piece of truly virgin forest near the city of Sintang are areas of white sand that do not naturally regrow after the gold mining destroyed the vegetation and the top soil. So why would we want to make an orangutan jungle school here? Let’s explore:
The orangutan clinic is located at the SOC green star in the picture above. The first orangutan jungle school we built is in Tembak. But if the weather is bad it can take more than 8 hours to go there and there is no telephone signal there. If something happens we do have some medical facilities there but not like in the Sintang clinic. Jerora is much more strategically located, also because the orangutans are released in the national park to the north not in the direction of Tembak to the south. The cost of operating the orangutan jungle school close to Sintang is much lower and with more orangutans arriving and some of them not releasable we have to work efficiently. In the Jerora area there is also land available to grow organic food for the orangutans that helps their health and reduces costs while creating more local jobs for the local Dayaks.
How did we get this 5-hectare area of rain forest? One day some 27 years ago, Father Jacques, the missionary that has worked here in Kalimantan for more than 50 years to support the local Dayaks, had a fierce discussion with some young Dayaks that wanted to cut down the Jerora forest to plant rubber trees there. The forest was only used in the past to bury the elders that is why the forest was still there. When Father Jacques left angrily, the next morning the leaders of the tribes came with a piece of paper signed by all of them, stating that they also wanted the forest to stay intact and therefore they gave the forest to Father Jacques so the young enthusiastic Dayaks would not cut and burn the forest for more rubber trees. Then one day Father Jacques and our CEO Dudung walked there and Dudung said “I have an idea!”. And that was the start of the Jerora Orangutan Jungle School!
But none of this would have been possible without the wonderful support from our supporters from around the world. Orangutan Rescue from The Netherlands has been our number one supporter for several years now enabling us to pay the salaries of the key staff and contribute to the food and medical care of the orangutans. Orangutan Rescue also gave a special donation to deal with the extra costs of the Jerora Orangutan Jungle school that we had not foreseen to buy the access road and make the land forever secure through having national land certificates issued for the forest. Other partners like Orangutan Help Luxembourg and Mark White from Australia have also regularly contributed to finances for our Sintang orangutan project activities. Masarang Hong Kong not only organized student visits and teacher group visits like from the VSA but also contributed directly to the project.
Today, October 22nd, 2018 the Bupati, the head of an autonomous district, agreed to have a meeting on the cooperation with and support for the Sintang Orangutan Centre and after that to attend the official opening ceremony of the new Jerora Orangutan Jungle School. Here is a picture of the meeting we had in the office of the Bupati. The Bupati will support SOC with the building of a new illipe nut factory not far from Jerora and support us with decision letters that will forever not only protect the Jerora forest but also prevent the land directly surrounding the forest from being burned or built up so that we will have a buffer zone around the forest.
The meeting with the Bupati, Dr. Djarot, sitting at the right with Father Jacques. All relevant government officials were present to follow up with Dudung (in black in the middle) on our official cooperation.
After the meeting we all went the short drive to Jerora. The Bupati signed the certificates for the opening of the jungle school, and then cut the ribbon. Then we had several speeches, first a report by Dudung on the development of the project, then by Father Jacques who explained how he had gotten the forest and told all attending that he wanted to be buried here in the forest. And a mango tree was to be planted on his grave so he could ensure there would be fruits for children and orangutans from this tree and if anyone dared to disturb the forest he would come out and get rid of the intruders! Lots of laughs of course. But actually yes he has already chosen the place but we hope he will be many years with us to continue his good work for the local people and the orangutans!
After Father Jacques, the Ministry of Forestry spoke about the professionalism of the Sintang Orangutan Foundation and how grateful they were for the support SOC was giving them. The Bupati spoke some very nice words too, thanking the sponsors Weesaapjes and the Victoria Shanghai Academy, after which I spoke briefly about the importance of not just dealing with symptoms, like saving individual baby orangutans, but that we need to look at integrated sustainable solutions that benefit both people and nature. Non-timber forest products are one way to go about that, such as helping local people get better income from illipe nuts from jungle trees.
After the simple lunch we moved the ceremony out of the new clinic centre and Marco van der Aa, who had come all the way from The Netherlands, cemented the plaque for the Liez Centre in front of the clinic that was financed with funds from the Weesaapjes Foundation from The Netherlands. Then he spoke about his dear friend Liesbeth van der Burgt, who passed away two years ago and who had volunteered at the orangutan center and had fallen in love with the orangutans. She helped us a lot over the years but died too soon. The Weesaapjes foundation donated the funds to build the Liez Centre to her memory. After Marco’s emotional speech he handed over an additional cheque of 5.000 Euro to me which I passed on to Dudung to support us in taking care of Liesje, a newly born orangutan baby in Tembak that is named after Liesbeth.
A small excursion followed to see the huge electrical fence and the cages and tunnels that were financed by the Victoria Shanghai Academy (VSA) and Masarang HK, both based in Hong Kong. The first six orangutans were already in it learning to avoid the electrical fence. At the left one can see the female orangutan, named Victoria after the VSA, trying behind the back of the Bupati to bring down the banner that told all visitors that this part of the facility had been financed by support from Hong Kong! 😉
Here at the left is Father Jacques with the Dayak that came to him with tears in his eyes to thank him for the support he received 36 years ago from Father Jacques for his schooling!
Still the day was not finished. The local people came a bit late because they had to bury a person that had died that morning and now their high priest led the traditional Dayak ceremony to please their forefathers and the ghosts in the forest. The pictures below tell the story. A mr Agustinus that joined that ceremony at the edge of the forest came to Father Jacques with tears in his eyes. He said: “you probably do not know it anymore but you supported me so I could go to school and study, thank you so much Father”. It was very touching to see the love of the Dayaks for this special missionary in the heart of Borneo.
Picture showing our staff and the forestry officials together with Marco from Weesaapjes who placed the plaque for his dear friend Liesbeth whose donation financed the clinic behind the group
The last part of the ceremony where a local Dayak high priest led a ceremony to please the forefathers and the local gods (yes, they are Catholic but just to make sure they do not forget everything that their tribe taught them 😉
There is much more to tell but that will be another time when we will also provide some updates how the new inhabitants of Jerora are enjoying their jungle school.
Willie Smits
Sintang, November 22nd, 2018
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