BOS offers volunteer opportunities both in Australia and overseas.

In Australia:

In Australia BOS is always looking for people with all sorts of skills to be involved in our committee work, fund raising activities, website maintenance, education, public relations and marketing. BOS is only as strong as the people who support it.

For current opportunities in Australia, click here.

In Borneo:

There are also volunteer opportunities at the Samboja Lestari project in East Kalimantan.

The Great Projects shares a dynamic partnership with NGO, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) in  Kalimantan Indonesian Borneo. Together they bring you the ultimate orangutan experience. Get back stage passes to the Samboja Lestari Centre in Borneo where 225 orangutans and 52 sunbears have found shelter from human destruction and neglect. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) supports two Orangutan Reintroduction Projects: BOS-Wanariset in East Borneo and BOS-Nyaru Menteng in Central Borneo (As seen on TV documentary series "Orangutan Diaries"), to enhance law enforcement against illegal keeping of orangutans and to provide sanctuary and rehabilitation to ex-captive orangutans, to enable their reintroduction to protected natural habitats. BOS also contributes to protecting wild orangutans through surveys, education, habitat protection programs, and establishing sanctuaries for orangutans that cannot be returned to forest life. Please note, there is no touching of orangutans by volunteers.

About the conservation volunteer programme

Without finding a home at Samboja Lestari (which means 'Samboja Forever' in Indonesian) these orangutans would surely have been killed or sold into the illegal pet trade. Looking after so many orangutans is a very costly operation and the project needs your help. Samboja Lestari strives to rehabilitate and prepare the orangutans for future release into the wild. By contributing your time and money you therefore not only enrich the lives of the animals at the centre, but also help re-populate and conserve these magnificent creatures. As a traveler looking for a meaning experience or volunteer you will also help reforest the logged lands that surround the centre, contributing directly to the conservation effort. 

For further information about this and other volunteering opportunities in Borneo please visit the Great Projects website

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 »