About Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Australia

Orangutans need our help!

They are an endangered species, with an estimated 50,000 left in the wild. The greatest threat to their survival is the extensive destruction of the rainforest. Some experts say about 6,000 orangutans are disappearing every year and without our collective help orangutans could be extinct in the wild within our lifetime.

We work to save the orangutan by rescuing and rehabilitating them, with an ultimate goal of releasing them back to the forest where they will be safe from human development, poaching and farming.

Borneo Orangutan Survival Australia (BOSA) is a volunteer organisation raising funds for rescued orangutans since 2001.

We are totally dependent on support from adoptions, sales of our merchandise and donations to help save the orangutan and the rainforest. 

As a volunteer organisation, we ensure a very high percentage of donor dollars getting to where they are most needed – to the orangutans in Indonesia.

By supporting us, you help us to:

·         rescue and rehabilitate orangutans

·         provide public awareness and educational programs

·         protect existing rainforest habitat, and

·         support and educate the people who depend on forests to earn their living.

We support many of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation’s (BOSF) projects, including:

·         Nyaru Menteng Reintroduction Project

·         Samboja Lestari Project

·         Wanariset Orangutan Reintroduction Project

·         Mawas.

Tax deductible status for donations

We have a deductible gift recipient (DGR) status for donations over $2, which are tax deductible for Australian taxpayers.

To Volunteer to help overseas please see the volunteers page.

BOS Foundation (Indonesia)

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) is a non-profit foundation supported by sister organisations around the world, of which BOS Australia is one. 

BOSF works under an official agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry for the conservation of orangutans and their ecosystem that works by involving and educating the local people.

Presently, BOSF is running the world's largest primate conservation project, employing more than 200 permanent staff, with interests covering:

·         biodiversity (flora and fauna)

·         forest rehabilitation

·         forest inventory and monitoring -through PT SarVision Indonesia

·         agroforestry to improve local peoples' welfare and education

·         working with orangutans and other protected wildlife.

BOSF was formed in 1991 when Dr Willie Smits, a tropical forest ecologist and senior advisor to the Minister of Forestry of Indonesia, found a sick orangutan in the local market. He managed to keep her alive and was then given a second problematic baby and had to care for the two of them. 

The Foundation has a Board of Trustees overseeing operations, assisted by a scientific advisory board made up of orangutan experts and other specialists from Indonesia and around the world.

Since its incorporation, BOSF has achieved many enviable successes:

·         purchasing thousands of acres of land to become eternal nature reserves owned by BOS

·         assisting with the confiscation of more than 1000 orangutans with subsequent reintroduction into the wild

·         educating and providing livelihoods for 1000s of local people.

27 January 2012
As bounty hunters with bush knives entrapped them in a circle and moved in for the kill, the only thing this mother orang-utan could think to do was to wrap a giant protective arm around her daughter. Read Article »

18 January 2012
When fruit is scarce, try chomping on a slow loris. That seems to be the strategy adopted by the normally vegetarian orang-utans, which have been spotted knocking the small primates out of trees and killing them with a bite to the head. Read Article »

18 January 2012
Indonesia's certified palm oil production is expected to reach about 5.6 million tons by 2015, or one-fifth of its total palm oil output throughout the year, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) auditing body estimates. Read Article »

17 January 2012
An Indonesian rock band, Navicula, is highlighting the plight of orangutans in their native country through a new song entitled, aptly, "Orangutan."

4 January 2012
Maria Agatha van Noordwijk raised her eyebrow as she crossed out several Indonesian names on the list of orangutans she and her fellow experts and students studied in conservation projects in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Read Article »

27 December 2011
Eight-month-old baby orangutan Elaine would have never survived without her carer Rosa.

25 December 2011
Solaris Paper Pty Ltd, which supplies the Australian market with private label tissue products, is an Australian operated and managed affiliate of Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), a brand umbrella for paper products manufactured by a number of mills in Indonesia. Things got nasty recently when its tussle with Greenpeace over sourcing of rainforest timber became public. Read Article »

30 November 2011
The ambition of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was always to bring sustainable practices to the mainstream. Read Article »