2025 Fall Winter Appeal
Dear Friends of OFI,
When one thinks of “The Gold Rush,” the image that often comes to mind is that of 19th-century prospectors—forty-niners knee-deep in a California stream, pans in hand, chasing a dream.
Fast forward to today. A new kind of gold rush is sweeping Borneo. Illegal industrial scale panning operations are spreading along riverbanks, destroying wildlife habitat and carving scars into fragile rainforest ecosystems. Even in our own backyard, OFI Forest Protection and Patrol teams have recently documented illegal mining sites emerging along the banks of the Sekonyer River and encroaching into Tanjung Puting National Park—home to the largest population of wild orangutans in the world.
Consider the case of Cantik, a wild-born orangutan who spent years in the care of OFI’s dedicated caregivers before returning to the forest she now calls home. She has made her home range in the forests surrounding Tanjung Puting. But Cantik senses that something is wrong. Our Forest Patrol and Protection Team has watched her quietly observing the destruction from afar, looking on with what appears to be confusion—perhaps even concern.
Today, we urgently need your help to expand the Forest Protection and Patrol Teams program. These teams do far more than walk the forest with Park rangers. They alert authorities to illegal activities, help dismantle wildlife-poaching networks, and have saved countless orangutans from being killed or captured. They play a crucial role in preventing the clear-cutting of old-growth rainforest—habitat essential to orangutan survival. Their constant presence in the forest is one of OFI’s most effective tools for safeguarding wildlife and protecting the ecosystems that sustain them.
We cannot fail the orangutans. We cannot fail the rainforest. We cannot face a future where the forest is silenced, fragmented, and lost—and where one of humanity’s closest evolutionary relatives disappears.
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But we cannot do this alone.
The need is dire.
We desperately need your help.
Your steadfast support is the reason we have been able to continue protecting wild orangutans and their habitat. Because of donors like you, OFI rescues and rehabilitates ex-captive orangutans, restores damaged forest areas, fights devastating wildfires, and maintains a dedicated team of veterinarians and caregivers helping young, confiscated orangutans grow, heal, and ultimately return to the wild.
We cannot fail the orangutans. We cannot fail the rainforest. We cannot face a future where the forest is silenced, fragmented, and lost and where one of humanity’s closest evolutionary relatives disappears forever.
With deepest gratitude,
Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas
President & Founder
Orangutan Foundation International
