
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wild female orangutan, Rosa, looks for fruits on a tree at Gunung
Palung National Park, a protected area in Kalimantan © Jurnasyanto
Sukarno / Greenpeace
We met – this orange-haired, long-armed character and me – in a sanctuary in Kalimantan. So our encounter wasn’t how it should have been at all. Sanctuaries are where the lucky ones end up, but it’s far from ideal. They’re limited to an area of forest too small for their usual range, reduced to relying on humans to survive. But it’s a thousand times better than the treeless wasteland they’re most often rescued from.
Orangutans on the brink of extinction
Natural rainforest, the primary habitat of orangutans, is being destroyed throughout Indonesia and replaced with oil palms by greedy plantation companies. Their fruits are harvested to make cheap vegetable oil that ends up in over half the products on our supermarket shelves.Rescued orangutans, robbed of their home, their independence, and frequently their family, are cared for by the most remarkably dedicated of people but resources are slim. Sanctuaries are overcrowded and rescues are stressful and upsetting for all concerned.

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keeper hugs an orangutan living at Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan © Bjorn Vaugn / BOSF / Greenpeace
Palm oil can be made without destroying rainforests
Greenpeace is working hard to make brands clean up their palm oil supply chains. By forcing big brands to buy palm oil only from companies that can prove they’ve no links to deforestation, we can finally create lasting change within the industry.Brands must take responsibility
Nearly a decade ago, some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Unilever, Nestle and Mondelez (now parent company of Cadbury’s), among others, promised to end their part in tropical deforestation by 2020. Now, they have less than 500 days left to make that promise a reality.
Despite now having ‘no deforestation’ policies, which is a huge step forward from a decade ago, no large company has managed to reject suppliers still guilty of producing ‘dirty’ palm oil (by which we mean oil grown on newly deforested land).

Deforestation for palm oil in Central Kalimantan © Kemal Jufri / Greenpeace
In June, Greenpeace linked the world’s largest palm oil trader, Wilmar, an RSPO board member and supplier to all the brands named above, to the destruction of rainforest totalling twice the size of Paris. This can’t go on.
Forests are the lungs of the planet
In the last 16 years, 100,000 orangutans have died mainly due to deforestation. Some are shot dead by frightened farmers after straying out of the drastically diminished forest on to agricultural land. Others starve due to loss of habitat, fall as the tree they’re clinging to is bulldozed to the ground, or suffocate and burn in forest fires deliberately started to clear land for planting.
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stranded orangutan clings to a solitary tree in a palm oil clearing in
West Kalimantan © Alejo Sabugo / International Animal Rescue Indonesia
For too long, big brands and the palm oil companies they buy from have been getting away with murder – I mean that quite literally. And for too long our response to orangutans has been, ‘ohhh, the poor things’ as we’re shown photographs of them orphaned, thin and at death’s door. But change is possible – we can make it so.
Watch Rang-tan<span style="width: 0px;overflow: hidden;line-height: 0" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
When Greenpeace asked me to narrate a new short film – an animation designed to underline the problem and highlight the power we all have to help our ginger-haired cousins – I didn’t hesitate. It’s just the start of a new global campaign to tackle this problem once and for all.500 days may not seem long but my hope is that by collectively making a noise, demanding answers and forcing change, we can stop feeling sorry for these beautiful creatures. Instead, we can feel that exhilarating mixture of fear and fascination as witnesses of these iconic beasts living truly wild once more.
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