What is this?

On the first working Monday of every month (Monday is one of my busiest days) I will donate the daily income of Chocolate Tortoise to a selected charity, and post to this blog detailing the charity chosen. This blog is not intended to tell the world how generous I am. I am less generous than many people. The blog is intended to firstly log who I have donated to, and secondly to hopefully inspire others to do the same, or similar. For more information, see my first post.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

July 2015 - Orangutan Land Trust

The chosen charity for July 2015 is the Orangutan Land Trust


A friend of mine is mad about apes and monkeys. We are rather partial to them too, especially after having volunteered at a gibbon sanctuary in Thailand for a month in 2010. We have also spent an afternoon amongst orangutans in the wild in Indonesia and had them wander around us in a very playful and non-threatening way.


They are fascinating creatures and spending even a short time among them really drives home how close they are to humans. Their faces show emotions, they are very curious and show a level of intelligence that you generally don't see in the animals you see day to day.

And yet we are wiping them out.

Orangutans need forests to live in. They live in treetops, and range a long way each day. Deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations not only destroys the places they live and sleep, but also cuts off their ability to roam, which reduces their ability to find mates and to forage for food. So they die out. Their entire species is endangered (Bornean orangutan) or critically endangered (Sumatran orangutan).

The Orangutan Land Trust (http://www.forests4orangutans.org/) works to purchase and protect land to retain the habitat of the orangutan, which in turn also helps to protect other species.