Images of Nyaru Menteng

Annie Marie Musselman began her conservation project last year when she learned of deforestation by palm oil plantations in Borneo.

Click here to view Annie Marie's slideshow

Here is what she has written about her exhibition, "For The Innocents".

"The life we live as humans is, for the most part, something we have created. Our surroundings have affected and changed us. There is a life however, that many animals like orangutans, chimpanzees and elephants lead that is subject to cages, torture, neglect, and forced over-breeding. These are the horrors of captivity.

Animal's lives have little worth in our culture. Their habitats are ruined for commodities such as palm oil, or soy. They are put into cages, while their bodies are made sick and used for scientific research. These realities cause me to pause and ask, "What makes humans and animals so different that these practices go on unchecked?" I have experienced amazing bonds with animals in my quest for the universal answer to this question.

I sensed that the human world needed to come face to face with creatures in their sanctuaries. My work is encouraged by the belief that if humans witness the innocence and beauty of these animals in my pictures, they will realize what they have lost due to technology, overpopulation, and the rejection of nature, and maybe stop endangering them. It is my intent therefore, to document the world of sanctuaries and animal refugee camps. With the urgent issue of climate change and the state of environmental catastrophe it is important to document the lives of these animals, some on the verge of extinction, and how they are saved by sanctuaries in an artful way. Two of my current projects have come together to create a larger exhibition I am calling For The Innocents.

My animal conservation project began last year when I learned of deforestation by palm oil plantations in Borneo. I visited the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Sanctuary in Central Kalimantan, Borneo with Eco writer, Hillary Rosner. Eleven of the photographs were published in Rosner's article Searching for Sanctuary in Newsweek, August 2009.

Annie Marie Musselman On behalf of Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Sanctuary

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 »