Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
In the past 100 years, orangutan populations have fallen by over 90% due to destruction of their habitat, poachers, and illegal pet trading. Because orangutans give birth to a single offspring only every 8 years or so, concentrated efforts are needed to conserve current populations and to promote and protect breeding programmes to encourage orangutan population growth. The ultimate aim is to reintroduce animals into the wild. For that, and safety reasons, there is no human contact with the animals as this would be detrimental to the programme.
So, how will you make a difference?
- You’ll have the opportunity to see a number of different orangutan conservation organisations, focusing on education and raising awareness.
- You’ll be giving practical help at one of the centres including feeding, facility maintenance and care and enrichment for the orangutans.
- At Batang Ai rainforest you’ll get involved with light reforestation, maintenance and conservation activities – e.g. replanting small areas of land damaged by the indigenous communities’ shifting agriculture or from fires as a result of lightning strikes. This helps to boost the capacity of the forest.
- You’ll also have the chance to learn traditional handicrafts, cooking, survival or fishing techniques from one or more of the various tribes and talk to them about their traditions and lives. As well as promoting cultural understanding this visit helps to boost the local economy.
We believe that travel should have a lasting positive impact that helps to change lives for the better. Our ethos is that under the right guidance from our local partners you can help to bring about positive change. It is a simple fact that most the countries we visit do not have adequate resources to financially support or staff up new initiatives and that’s where you can make a significant difference – in lending your time, energy and enthusiasm to ensure that the projects have a constant flow of volunteers ready to get stuck in and eager to help them achieve their goals.
Through our programme of supported volunteering we assist volunteers to participate on existing projects, which have often approached us for support. These projects existed before our partnership and would continue without, albeit a little slower in achieving their goals. We believe it is vitally important to support worthwhile projects in a sustainable way that doesn’t have a destabilising effect on their development and the wider community.
People who travel on our trips return home with a much deeper understanding of the country visited than a typical tourist would ever gain. Prior to departure all our volunteers receive information containing guidance on how to travel and experience a culture responsibly and, where volunteers will be working with children, we insist upon a criminal records check even if it is not required by the country they are volunteering in. On arrival in the destination country all our volunteers receive a welcome briefing and our local coordinators are on hand to give any additional guidance and advice during their stay.
Wherever and whenever possible, all the staff and leaders are sourced locally providing a great insight into the way of life; we use family home-stays or locally-run accommodation and we encourage use of local markets and public transport to help ensure as much money as possible goes into the local economy.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
