Rehabilitation Centers and Sanctuaries

A baby orangutan playing with a bucket Credit: http://www.petsfoto.com/borneo-orangutan-rehabilitation-center/

A baby orangutan playing with a bucket
Credit: Pets Foto

A number of orangutan rehabilitation centers and sanctuaries have been set up around Borneo to help take care of orangutans who have been injured or orphaned by human activity. It is similar to ecotourism as it provides jobs to the locals in the form of caretakers, managers and surrogate mothers in the centers. People around the world are also able to come to volunteer to at the center after paying a fee, which can be used to fund the center. There are websites that specialize in introducing people around the world to various volunteering activities in orangutan rehabilitation centers such as the Orangutan Project.

There has been speculation about the effectiveness of rehabilitation centers as it places orangutans in close contact with humans, habituating them to the humans they must learn to avoid when they are finally released into the wild. The close human contact could also cause the orangutans to contract diseases, which can be spread among the wild orangutan population if they are released with the disease. If the orangutans are rehabilitated in an area where there are already existing wild orangutans, the rehabilitated orangutans could meet the wild orangutans, causing unnecessary stress among the wild community.

Nowadays to prevent the habituation of orangutans with humans, they are not allowed to stay at the centre for more than 6 months after the quarantine period. To prevent the rehabilitated orangutans from meeting wild orangutans, they are released into forests where there are no wild orangutans. Contact with visitors and attendants after they have been rehabilitated is also discouraged, though the attendants will monitor the released orangutans to ensure they do not wonder into human communities to create human-orangutan conflict.

The release of orangutans into a new patch of forest with no existing wild orangutans help with the preservation of rain forests as the area in which they are released into will be considered a protected area. The obvious cost that goes into rehabilitating the orangutan due to it’s megafauna characteristics which draw attention to the investments also help to keep the area protected as the community is more likely to retaliate if they see this investment being wasted. Rehabilitation of about 100 orangutans can effectively save 200km². Thus this method is effective in protecting large areas of rain forests.