Save Critical Sumatran Orangutan Habitat

***UPDATE - THE ORIGINAL PIECE OF LAND WE WERE FUNDRAISING FOR HAS NOW BEEN PURCHASED. WE ARE CONTINUING TO FUNDRAISE FOR AN EVEN BIGGER AND MORE PRISTINE PIECE OF LAND THAT HAS JUST BEEN PUT UP FOR SALE***

BATU KAPAL LAND FUNDRAISER

Help us to raise money for the protection of the endangered Sumatran Orangutan in North Sumatra! Your donation will help us to purchase critical land along the border of the Gunung Leuser National Park where orangutans and other unique and rare wildlife live. Buying this land will allow us to restore it back to a natural forest by planting trees, and help to prevent it from ever becoming a palm oil plantation. This wildlife corridor is critical for providing safe passage for orangutans into and out of the national park, preventing them from being cut-off from the park or venturing into unsafe farm land.

Batu Kapal and Orangutan Conservation

Recently, myself and a group of conservation volunteers spent time in North Sumatra with Batu Kapal, an organisation that focuses on orangutan conservation and habitat preservation. Located along the border of the UNESCO-listed Gunung Leuser National Park (recently featured on ‘Our Great National Parks' on Netflix) we were fortunate enough to witness wild orangutans along with other amazing wildlife unique to the area.

One of the routes we would regularly monitor took us through a neighbouring farmer’s land on which we would frequently see families of orangutans along the border. This land is currently up for sale and if sold, would likely be turned into a palm oil plantation and destroyed.

Unfortunately, this is happening constantly throughout the area with more and more palm oil plantations popping up. Despite only being a small piece of land, it is situated along a critical pathway that allows orangutans to move in and out of the national park. If this land was converted to palm oil, the land could no longer be used by orangutans and in this instance, would ultimately cut the orangutans off from the national park and make them extremely vulnerable to human threats.

Protection for life!

This is where you come in! We need your help to raise the money for Batu Kapal to buy this important piece of land and protect this fragile ecosystem to ensure the long-term survival of the many rare and endangered UN Red Listed species that live in this Wildlife Biolink. What’s great about purchasing this land is that under Indonesian law, once purchased by an Indonesian Yayasan, which is a government-approved foundation with a tax number, this land will be protected for LIFE. The land would be held in perpetuity in the foundation and cannot be sold. If for any reason the Yayasan is wound up, the assets would be transferred to another foundation with similar objectives.

And what's great that is any future volunteer will have the opportunity to visit this land and witness first-hand the impact it has made. Check out this video on what it is like to volunteer at Batu Kapal for more info.

Funds needed to buy the land - UPDATE - We successfully raised enough money to purchase the original piece of land and now we have the opportunity to buy more land along the wildlife corridor!

Batu Kapal has already been in talks with the owner and has negotiated a price of 250 million rupiahs ($17 000 USD) for the land. Once purchased we would like to restore it to its original condition (it is currently a rubber tree farm). This would be an ongoing project over several years where trees suitable for orangutans and this ecosystem would need to be bought and/or grown from seedlings and eventually planted. Therefore, we are looking to raise 300 million rupiahs ($21 000 USD) to cover the cost of the land, a witness, community donation, land tax and the nursery.

Photo taken July 2022 on the land we are aiming to purchase

The finer details:

***We have now purchased this land***

The land: 1ha. Currently a rubber plantation

Land management: The land would be managed by Batu Kapal and their volunteers

Cost breakdown: 250 million IRD land, 10% government fees, 1 million IRD lawyer fees including drawing up the papers and providing transport to and from Batu Kapal, 750k IRD witnesses for measuring the land and attending village and neighbouring property meetings, 750k IRD for community donation and seed collecting, propagating trees and planting on land.

One-year plan: Grow trees in the nursery ready for planting after 1 year

Five-year plan: Continued restoration of the land through tree planting, creating a wildlife corridor for orangutans that connects the national park to the buffer zone occurring on private land holdings.

***New land for sale***

There are now three additional parcels for sale along the wildlife corridor, the largest of which is STILL PRISTINE, however, it shares a border with a property that is in the process of having its land cleared as there is increasing pressure in the area to clear land and have it converted to palm oil.

Land parcel one: 4ha. Currently pristine (I have shared a video of the land on my social media pages)

Cost to purchase: 500 million IRD.

Land parcel two: 1ha.

Cost to purchase: 150 million IRD.

Land parcel three: 2ha.

Cost to purchase: 300 million IRD.

Batu Kapal supports A Thin Green Line - https://thingreenline.org.au/

Further footage of their work - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/klwOGnYMMvE