Lone Droscher Nielsen

A school project about the local zoo began a lifetime's devotion for Lone Droscher Nielsen. Lone met her first orangutan, from Kalimantan, at the zoo whilst researching her project. This experience lasted into adulthood and later, when working for the Scandinavian Air System as a stewardess, she learnt that Kalimantan orangutans were in serious danger. In 1993, Lone finally moved to Borneo permanently to dedicate her life to this critically endangered species.

6 years later she opened the Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Central Kalimantan at Nyaru Menteng and it welcomed its first dozen orangutans. From small beginnings this centre is now the largest primate rescue project in the world with several hundred orangutans in its care. Lone and her team's aim is not just to rescue the orangutans but also to rehabilitate and finally release them back to the wild where they belong.

This not only requires hard work and dedication at the centre in teaching the orangutans how to live out in the wild, but also to secure enough forest in which to release them.

This alone is incredibly time consuming and expensive as so much of the land is now being cleared to make profit on palm-oil. There are many challenges in securing land, funding and support as well as helping as many orangutans recover from being orphaned, torture and maltreatment. Some how, these dedicated people are able to do just this.

To learn more and find out how you can help visit www.savetheorangutan.co.uk