Tourists taking photos of orangutans while on tour.
Credits: Michael Turtle

Ecotourism is one of the ways in which both locals and wildlife are able to benefits. Tourists who come to see the local wildlife such as orangutans not only fund the organization that provides care for the orangutans, they also help to bring income to the tourism industry. This provides jobs for locals as souvenir shops and eateries increase to cater to the tourists. Locals would see the importance of preserving the local wildlife then, as tourists are willing to pay to see the local wildlife.

However some may argue that ecotourism does more harm than good as this could put certain protect forest areas at risk of being used for hotel development in an attempt to bring tourists closer to wildlife. Orangutans are also susceptible to diseases that humans carry and close contact with tourists could cause the spread of disease among orangutans possibly killing them.

One such place which offers orangutan tours that allow tourists to look at orangutans and interact with them is Tanjung Puting National Park. They also employ the use of volunteers who pay up to US$2,000 person for a 10 day period. It is estimated that in 1991, they could earn up to US$240,000 a year. Typically 80% of the money would go into funding the park. Seeing as the total cost of rehabilitating an orangutan (including confiscation, transportation, etc) is anywhere between US$1,500 to $5,000, and that they took in 54 orangutans in 1991, it is easy to see why such methods are beneficial for the organization.