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- EIN 65-0834635
- PO Box 235 West Burlington IA 52655 USA
- www.orangutans-sos.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Animal Protection & Welfare, Animal-Related, Animals, Protection of Endangered Species, Wildlife Preservation & Protection
Mission: About the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS)
The Sumatran Orangutan Society is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their forest home. Our international branches raise awareness of the threats facing wild orangutans, and raise funds to support grassroots conservation projects in Sumatra. Together with a team of committed Indonesian conservationists, we work with local communities living alongside orangutan habitat. We visit schools, plant trees and provide training to help the local people work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.
We aim to:
1. Conserve the endemic Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and its rainforest habitat.
2. Promote public awareness of threats to, and conservation strategies for, the Sumatran orangutan, through community education and global communication.
3. Support the operation of our grassroots field conservation projects and sustainable community development initiatives through the Orangutan Information Center (OIC) in Sumatra.
4. Collaborate with other international and local NGOs and businesses working towards parallel goals.
5. Fundraise to support SOS''s aims and projects.
Long-term goals:
- To seek sustainable solutions for the preservation of forest habitat;
- To assist local government in the protection and maintenance of protected areas;
- To promote orangutans as ambassadors for the rainforest ecosystem;
- To support the establishment of community education and empowerment programmes in Sumatra.
Programs: Our projects in Sumatra, Indonesia operate through the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC). The OIC was founded in 2001 in collaboration with a group of dedicated Indonesian conservationists to raise awareness of environmental and orangutan conservation issues amongst local communities living in North Sumatra and Aceh. Orangutans are excellent ambassadors for their rainforest home. They are highly charismatic, and draw a great deal of attention to the forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, which are vitally important in the global fight against climate change. Environmental education is at the heart of all our work in Sumatra. Our projects leave a lasting legacy by empowering the next generation of Indonesian conservationists. Our grassroots projects focus not only on wildlife conservation, but also assist rural communities to protect and improve their environment and surrounding forests, increasing their practical engagement with local conservation issues.
Our projects range from restoring degraded land in the Gunung Leuser National Park and areas devastated by the 2004 tsunami, to running hugely popular Orangutan Festivals for local school children and our touring educational roadshows. We have pioneered a conservation curriculum for schools in North Sumatra, and have established a scholarship programme for local university students to promote orangutan research. Our community forestry schemes reinforce national park buffer zones and provide sustainable alternative incomes for people living adjacent to natural orangutan habitat. We have helped local people to plant over a quarter of a million indigenous tree seedlings to date. We have two OranguVans on the road, equipped with environmental libraries and film screening equipment for our mobile conservation cinema.
Our goal is to expand these existing programmes to reach even more communities. The success of orangutan conservation in Indonesia lies in the hands of the local people.
Donor & Volunteer Advisory
This organization's nonprofit status may have been revoked or it may have merged with another organization or ceased operations.