All species of orangutans are critically endangered mainly due to deforestation, to give way for agriculture and oil palm tree plantations, but also because of poaching and exotic pet trade. The orangutans have lost well over 80 percent of their habitat in the last 20 years. While the palm oil industry keep on using forest fires to prepare land for commercial oil palm tree plantations. And the orangutans, who live the greater part of their lives in trees, are left homeless and easy preys for poachers.

There are currently about 50,000 to 65,000 orangutans left in the wild, and it’s estimated that about 2,000 to 3,000 orangutans are killed every year. This corresponds to 5 to 8 orangutans being killed every day, and at this rate orangutans are very likely to become completely extinct within 50 years.

Furthermore, the illegal exotic pet trade with baby orangutans continues. Hundreds of baby orangutans are each year taken from the wild to be raised as pets. When capturing the young orangutans, the mother is most often killed, and it’s estimated that four to five orangutans are killed for each baby orangutan reaching the black market.

One of the first projects that The Perfect World Foundation got involved in concerned the extinction of orangutans. The biggest threat to these amazing animals is habitat loss, as rainforests are being destroyed to give room for the palm oil industry’s plantations. Palm oil is used in a huge variety of products found in our grocery stores, such as ice cream, chocolate, cakes, juice, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, Nutella, to mention a few.

Deforestation due to human expansion, where rainforests are burnt down and destroyed to provide space for people, agriculture and oil palm tree plantations, this threat must be urgently stopped to save the orangutan and their habitat.

The Perfect World Foundation is working closely with a number of different organizations on site in Borneo and Sumatra. Here we have been involved in, amongst others, efforts to provide food for orangutan orphans, a simple and tangible project for our sponsoring partners to get involved in. The cost of providing a young orangutan with food for a whole month is no more than around 50 dollars.

Find out and learn as much as you can about the orangutans’ devastating situation, and then tell everyone you know, in conversations, on social media… create awareness. Knowledge is power and together we can influence change. Avoid buying product s and foods that contain palm oil.

With us you can also Volunteer Travel, and get the chance to work with orangutans, and experience wildlife conservation projects around the world. Donations and sponsoring partnerships are crucial for us to continue our work to save the orangutans.