THE ORGANISATION
Orangutan Land Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales (number 1131878).
As a land trust we focus on supporting the preservation, restoration and protection of land masses in the areas where orangutans naturally exist or have existed in the past. The main aim of this trust is to ensure that there are safe forest areas set aside for orangutans and other species which accompany them within their habitat to form a healthy ecosystem.
When you support OLT, we are able to use the funds to investigate land to ensure that it is suitable to use for orangutans as well as secure and protect the land to ensure that it remains a safe and flourishing habitat in an effort to keep wild orangutans from extinction.
THE TEAM
Lone Droscher-Nielsen, President and Patron
Lone Droscher-Nielsen is known internationally as a champion for orangutans, and as one of the foremost experts in the rescue, care, rehabilitation and release of these orangutans. She is the founder and manager of the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) operated by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. This project, opened in 1999, is now the largest primate rescue project in the world, with over 600 orangutans in its care presently. The project not only rescues and rehabilitates hundreds of orphaned orangutan infants with the goal of a return to the wild, but also rescues hundreds of wild orangutans from oil-palm plantations which clear their habitat and decimate their populations. Lone’s project is the only orangutan project actively rescuing large numbers of wild orangutans. These orangutans are returned to safe forests which have been secured by Lone.
Lone began working with orangutans 16 years ago while she worked as an air hostess with SAS. In 1995, she moved permanently to Borneo to devote her life to saving orangutans. Originally from Denmark, Lone has now become internationally as the saviour of orangutans. Many films have featured the work of Lone and her team, most notably National Geographic’s Disenchanted Forest, Animal Planet’s Growing Up…Orangutan and Orangutan Island, BBC’s Apes In Danger: Orangutan, Saving Planet Earth and two series of Orangutan Diary.
Michelle Desilets, Executive Director
Michelle Desilets has been working alongside Lone Droscher Nielsen in orangutan conservation for over 15 years.
In 1994, Michelle took her first trip to Borneo, as a volunteer-tourist at the Tanjung Puting National Park. In the years that followed, she continued to visit Borneo as a volunteer for as long as 4 months at a time.
In 1997, Michelle and fellow volunteer Lone Droscher Nielsen left the organization with whom they were working, and sought the advice of Dr Willie Smits about the possibility of creating a new project in Central Kalimantan to deal with the swelling numbers of orphaned orangutans. Dr Smits agreed to help, and with the financial backing of the Gibbon Foundation and BOS Indonesia, the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project was born. It received its first dozen orangutans in 1999. Now the centre has over 600 orangutans in its care, and is regarded as perhaps the finest primate rehabilitation project in the world.
Michelle founded the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK to support the work of Lone as well as the other activities of BOS in Indonesia. As Executive Director of BOS UK, Michelle initiated a number of international campaigns to help orangutans, such as campaigns to end the illegal trade of orangutans and to repatriate known smuggled orangutans, as well as the campaign for sustainable palm oil. (She now sits on several working groups in the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.) In 2005, Michelle gave up her career in education to devote her efforts full time to these campaigns, as well as the never-ending search for the funds needed to continue the efforts in the field. She spends a good deal of time at the Nyaru Menteng project, and as such provides supporters with an inside look at what is happening with orangutan conservation on the front line.
A true advocate for orangutan conservation, Michelle Desilets is known in conservation circles as a woman who will not give up in her efforts to save the orangutans.
Dr David Chivers, Trustee
Dr David Chivers, MA, PhD, ScD, FLS, FZS, FRGS, was born in April 1944, and from Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, he came up to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1963, to read veterinary medicine. Reading Physical Anthropology in his third year, showed him that he could combine his boyhood interest in natural history with a growing interest in our relatives, so he registered for a Ph.D. and went off to the Malay Peninsula for two years to study the ecology and behaviour of the siamang.
Returning to Cambridge, David was appointed University Demonstrator in Veterinary Anatomy in 1970, upgraded to Lecturer in 1975; he completed his Ph.D. in 1972. David combined teaching anatomy to veterinary students with organising research on primates and other wildlife in Malaysia (West and East) and nearby countries, including India, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
David collaborated with Marcel Hladik for many years investigating the relationship between gut morphology and diet in mammals, especially primates. They had US funding for a programme of research on wild and captive primates in Malaysia from 1978-81, and in 1985 shifted their attention to the expanses of Indonesian Kalimantan, to the centre of Borneo. With the Ministry of Forestry, they have been investigating, to the present day, the role of fruit-eating animals in seed dispersal, in the natural regeneration of forest.
From the early 1980s, David had a succession of research students from Brazil, from Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest, and more recently two from Venezuela. He was active in the Primate Society of Great Britain, rising to President, and in the International Primatological Society as the Vice-President for Conservation. In 1989 he was elected a Fellow and Tutor of Selwyn College, having been appointed Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine from 1981. He served as Gardens Steward for 13 years, and is now Praelector.
During the 1990s, David was very active with Fauna and Flora International (founded in 1903), being Vice-Chairman of Council for 16 years, having been Chairman of the Conservation Committee. He became involved in the quest for ‘orang-pendek’, a bipedal ground-dwelling ape in the depths of the forest of west-central Sumatra; it was well known by the locals but there is still not proof of its identity – a large gibbon come to the ground, or a relative of the orang-utan.
David was appointed a Reader in Primate Biology and Conservation in 2000 and approved for the degree of Doctor of Science in 2001. He served as Senior Proctor for the University from 2000-2003. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Geographical Society. He serves on several editorial boards, has edited several books and published over 100 papers. He has made 55 visits overseas, to nine countries, for fieldwork, totalling nearly 7 years. He has attended nearly 80 conferences around the world. David is a Trustee of Twycross Zoo and St. Helen’s School Northwood (and, formerly, Fauna and Flora International) and Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK.
Clare McLardy, Trustee
Claire McLardy studied Zoology as an undergraduate and then went on to complete a Masters degree in Environmental Management at the University of Nottingham. She carried out research on orang-utan distribution and the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on the orangutan population of the Sebangau region of Central Kalimantan, Borneo. Claire was instrumental in setting up the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (OuTrop) and its volunteer programme in 2001, and worked on a range of biodiversity projects in the Sebangau region from 1999-2003. Claire then went on to work for the UK CITES Scientific Authority (Fauna) for five years, and is currently working for the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre on species-related multi-lateral environmental agreements.
Simon Husson, Scientific Advisor
Simon Husson is the leader and director of the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (OuTrop). Simon’s research is focused in the Sabangau region, 20km from Palangkaraya, where he heads orang-utan distribution and habitat monitoring projects.
He is also Project Director and leader of orangutan distribution and habitat monitoring projects. Simon started his orangutan research in the Sabangau in July 1995, as part of the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team. A zoology graduate, Simon studied large mammal populations in Nyika National Park, Malawi and Sweetwaters Reserve, Kenya before returning to Borneo in 1999 and establishing the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Research Project with Helen Morrogh-Bernard, Laura D’Arcy and Claire McLardy.
This research has focused extensively on the application of nest-survey methods for accurately estimating orangutan density and Simon is regarded as a leading expert in this field. Simon coordinated large-scale surveys of orangutan density throughout Central Kalimantan for the 2004 Orangutan Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA); chaired the Central Kalimantan Working Group and co-wrote the final report. As well as undertaking research, Simon is heavily involved with habitat management and restoration activities; collaborating with other scientists to better understand orangutan distribution and factors affecting their density and developing strategic conservation management plans to protect priority populations.
Simon has been working as a consultant to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, focussing on orangutan reintroduction efforts in particular.
Dr Helen Murrogh-Bernard, Scientific Advisor
Helen Morrogh Bernard is Project Director and Orangutan Behaviour Research Director at the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project. Helen began her research in the Sabangau Forest in July 1995 with the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team, returning in 1996 to complete her undergraduate zoology dissertation mapping orangutan density at the CIMTROP research site in the northern Sabangau Ecosystem. Helen then completed a Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, studying black rhinoceros behaviour in Sweetwaters Reserve in Kenya, before returning to Sabangau in 1999. A six month sojourn to Negros Island in the Philippines followed, working as a research manager for Coral Cay Conservation, before establishing the orangutan behaviour research project in the Sabangau in 2003. With a small and dedicated research team, Helen habituated 25 individuals and started collecting data on orangutan activity, ranging, social and feeding behaviour, identifying how orangutans were surviving in and utilising a logged forest. Helen now collaborates with a wide-range of scientists and research projects, comparing orangutan behaviour between geographical locations, habitats and islands, helping to build up a complete picture of the ecology of this cryptic ape. Helen is completing her PhD at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge and continues to oversee the behaviour research in the Sabangau with personal research interests focusing on male-male interactions and the unique cultural traits of the Sabangau orangutan population.
Dr Marc Ancrenaz, Scientific Advisor
Dr Marc Ancrenaz is the Founder, Director and lead researcher for Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project, and Co-Founder and Scientific Director of Project HUTAN.
Dr Ian Singleton, Scientific Advisor
Dr Ian Singleton is Director of Conservation at PanEco Foundation and Scientific Director for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. He was formerly Senior orangutan keeper at Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust and Animal keeper at Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Zoological Society of London. He studied at the University of Kent (PhD, Ecology; orangutan ranging behaviour, 1996 – 2000) and the University of Sunderland (BSc(hons), Environmental Science, 1984 – 1987).
Dr Eric Meijaard, Scientific Advisor
Dr Eric Meijaard works as Senior Scientist and Program Manager for the Nature Conservancy’s forest program in Indonesia. His job is to develop conservation strategies that work. His expertise is in mammal taxonomy, conservation and biogeography, forestry, community conservation, palaeoenvironments, phylogeography.
Alexandra Saunders is a serial social entrepreneur and a management consultant in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. She has deep management experience in multiple international business sectors including finance, alternative resources, agribusiness, elder issues, high tech, energy, biodiversity, and environmental stewardship. She is an innovator with a passion for creating solutions that address the stewardship of the planet through private-public collaborations, transformational change strategies, conservation strategies, and corporate responsibility strategies.
In addition to her consulting work, Ms. Saunders is the Chair and CEO of Send Me An Angel, a social enterprise which helps seniors with Alzheimer’s and debilitating end-of-life conditions. She also serves as Board Chair of BGS Financial, an investments advisory firm, is a member of the Advisory Board of Treevestors, Inc. and serves on the Advisory Board of the University of California BERC (Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative).
Ms. Saunders holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating from UC Berkeley she was recruited by one of the most prestigious grain companies in the world to analyze world markets. As chief economist, she analyzed the flows of capital between world-wide commodities and securities markets.
While in this capacity she had oversight for some of the largest agribusiness transactions ever to be recorded in California trade history. Ms. Saunders also held the position of Director of Global Marketing for the International Division of Tandem Computers, where she was responsible for educating the high tech industry about the trading environment. She has worked extensively with the U.S. Import Export Bank and the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation tracking and analyzing emerging and financial markets. Her work has taken her globally where she has spent significant time evaluating the economics of transactions and the subsequent growth patterns for investment.
Ms. Saunders was a top investment advisor in commercial real estate with Grubb & Ellis Commercial. In the 1990’s she applied this knowledge and her expertise in macro and micro economic analysis for RREEF , as well as other well know and highly regarded institutional investment advisors. This led her into banking and finance where she has worked for the last 16 years. While in this capacity, she created Canopy, a pioneer in the corporate responsibility and sustainability arena, providing mechanisms which corporations can employ to preserve global bio-diversity, address climate change, embody “best CSR practices” and enhance their legacy.
Her love for helping people and protecting our planet is what drives her and why she is passionately concerned about the protection of the world remaining rainforests and the preservation of wildlife species such as the orangutan.
Alasdair Davies, Website Developer
Before starting University, Alasdair importantly took a 1 month break to travel Europe. During his travels he realised that his desire to support conservation activities was ever important and his experience travelling pushed him towards mixing his graphic design work with conservation, using University as a means to exploring how digital media could be used to affect change. His final year dissertation was the creation of a website called lonelyturtle.com – Its objective to highlight that we could soon see the extinction of marine turtles in the next 10 – 20 years if we didn’t work to combat their threats. Alasdair also used his summer breaks from University to participate on volunteering programmes around the world, and importantly in South Africa, as it was here that he became involved in the world of primate conservation, working as a volunteer at the Vervet Monkey Foundation.
Leaving University, Alasdair decided to volunteer at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in Wales and offered to produce a website for them in return for helping with whale and dolphin sightings onboard the research boat they operated. A year later, the website went live and Alasdair was forwarded an advert from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) who were looking for volunteers with website design experience. He sent in his CV and before he knew it, he was offered an internship to produce the Evolutionarily Distinct, Globally Endangered (EDGE) website. His internship transformed into a job as a Technical Advisor at ZSL, fuelling his contact list, and he soon became involved in a number of conservation projects both great and small.
In 2007 Alasdair also founded the Great Primate Handshake and established Handshake Productions with a friend. Handshake Productions is a Community Interest Company designed to offer website and media production to charities and NGO’s (including BOS UK) looking to affect change through the production of awareness raising digital media. The Great Primate Handshake is a programme of Handshake Productions, that invites volunteers to participate in expeditions in Africa, specifically designed to raise awareness of primate conservation through the production of awareness raising digital media.