May 24 2024 24 mins
Debbie Clemens is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. They are a US based charity that focuses on raising awareness and raising funds for their partners in Indonesia. They are personally not doing the orangutan rescue and rehabilitation work themselves, but are supporting those who are.
Mankind may be one of the orangutans' closest relatives but humans are also the greatest threat to the orangutans' survival. Clear cutting, forest fires and hunting are reducing orangutan numbers to alarmingly low levels. Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely.
Orangutans used to live in many different parts of Southeast Asia, but the places where they can thrive and find food are quickly vanishing. In Borneo and Sumatra, their last remaining homes, large parts of the old growth rainforest are gone, ripped up for farmland, palm oil plantations and urban development. And the precious little forest that is left is disappearing rapidly as palm oil companies continue to illegally clearcut enormous areas of forest.
With Debbie we talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Although we ultimately talk about how saving orangutans is actually saving ourselves. This is a three part series so - look out for the next episodes in the coming weeks.
Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected]