Dear Friends

Greetings from FNPF

We would like to thank those whom keep supporting us to work at Tanjung Puting National Park. We really appreciate all of your financial support, time, knowledge, moral and others. We hope we will improve our work by your support.

We are very pleased to inform you that we have started our reforestation project in a big scale at Pesalat area which is located in between Tanjung Harapan and Pondok Tanggui. It is about 70 Hectares of land need to be reforested, amongst this number there are about 20 - 30 hectares have quite bad condition. All of this project being supported by US Fish and Wildlife, Gibbon Foundation and Australia Humane Society International.

Our reforestation project right now involve more people from Tanjung Harapan. We hope they will more aware about conservation after they do this job. By doing this job they are automatically participate in conservation and in the same time to make a living.

We are projecting to keep extending the project as an ongoing project not just in the area along Sekonyer river where our orangutan rehabilitation project being done but also to other area.

Once again thank you for your support.

Sincerely yours,

Drh I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha
Director of FNPF

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Activity report by FNPF staff - April 2003

In April, our activities were focused at the Tanjung Harapan rehabilitation camp as we had to undertake a lot of clean up & renovation work around the post. Other activities we undertook were as follows:

Reforestation

We carried out this program at a site approximately 200 meters towards the north of the Tanjung Harapan camp. The site is a swampy area with undergrowth due to previous forest fires. We have planted around 300 seedlings of various species including Pulai (Astonia spatulata), Ketiau (ganua motleyana) and Terantang (Camnosperma coreaceum). The species we chose are those that live in swampy areas in the park which can also act as a food source for orangutans and other species. We were unable to carry out the reforestation activity maximally due to a lack of manpower; also because in this month rainfall was so high as to cause flood, rendering the site unsuitable for planting activity.

Mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia)

We were unable to do any planting for the program this month due to flood.

Orangutan Rehabilitation

In this month, we undertook several activities to facilitate the release of Adong, Lady and Butet back to the forest. On 1 April 2003, we moved the feeding platform from the previous feeding spot (10 m from the post) to a new feeding location (100 m from the post to the north). This action was aimed at fostering the orangutans' ability and desire to live in the forest and to more quickly increase their familiarity with the forest surrounds. We will move the feeding location every 6 months further from the post, to reduce contact with humans.

With regards to their health, Adong, Lady dan Butet are doing fine. The weather is also having an effect on them, as the frequent rainfall makes them subject to sniffling. To help build their resistance, we are giving them multi vitamin that we are mixing into their milk. To date, their condition is better than when they were in the cage previously.

Especially in the case of Butet, his progress has been outstanding. He is no longer stressed as he was while in the cage, and as for his sinusitis, that has not recurred. He has also not had any incidences of diarrhea since being released into the forest. Butet is spending more time in the forest than returning to the post following Adong and Lady. While the day is still light, he will make a nest for sleeping and has slept in the forest since we moved the feeding platform; although occasionally he will come back to the post especially in the mornings prior to feeding. If he returns to the post in the afternoon, he refuses to sleep in the cage and will sleep in the trees in his nest. Butet also often reuses his old nest to sleep in, although he will add in fresh leaves before sleeping in it again.

Butet's ability to identify and find food is excellent, the food he is consuming is not just food in the canopy but he also occasionally forages for food on the forest floor such as rasau and rattan palms. In addition he also eats termites from rotted tree trunks.

Looking at his ability, we can conclude that Butet most probably had experienced living in the forest with his mother before he was captured, leading him to adapt more easily to the forest than either Adong or Lady.

For Adong and Lady, it is highly likely that they have never experienced living in forest prior to capture, such that it will be very difficult for them to be released into the forest and their rehabilitation process will take a considerable time. Until this moment, Adong and Lady have not been confident enough to explore the forest, they will only follow existing trails. Sometimes they frequently follow Butet such that Butet's presence is most important in helping their rehabilitation process. Even so, Adong and Lady's abilities have improved lately; they are now able to stay up to 7 hours a day in the forest before returning to the ranger post in the afternoons. With regard to their ability to find food, they are still following Butet in his choice of food, although they do occasionally undertake trial and error samplings. If the fruit or food that they eat is not tasty, they will vomit it out whereas more acceptable food will be ingested and remembered for the next day. With regards to building nests, we have seen no trace of any ability; they still return to the cage and sleep there and the next day when the cage is opened they will come out and go into the forest until dusk approaches. Adong and Lady have tried to sleep twice in the forest fringing the river; while we observed them they did not make any nests but instead slept hugging the branches.

Our hope is that with Butet there, this can speed up the process for Adong and Lady to return to a more natural state that does not rely on human beings; the best teachers for an orangutan are other orangutans themselves.

Human development

We are currently investigating the situation in the local village to determine what programs might be best suited to help develop the human capital in Tanjung Harapan village. We will keep you informed of our progress.

Such is our report for the activities that we undertook in April 2003. We would like to offer our warmest thanks for the backing and support that we have received from various sources.

Green Greetings,

All staff