Lone Dröscher Nielsen
Encyclopedia
Lone Drøscher Nielsen is a wildlife conservationist. She was born and grew up in Aalborg
, Denmark
. She encountered her first orangutan
while volunteering as a fourteen-year-old at Aalborg zoo. Later, when she was working as a flight attendant with a Swedish airline she volunteered for a month-long project on the Indonesia
n island of Borneo
, and here she came into contact with orangutans again. She found she was able to cope with life without electricity or hot water deep in the jungle: "It was the forest I fell in love with at first. But my love for the orangutans soon followed."
Drøscher Nielsen saw the plight of the Bornean orangutan
, a highly intelligent primate, which shares almost 97% of its DNA with humans, and which is rapidly losing its natural habitat due to logging and oil palm
plantations. In 1996, Lone moved permanently to Borneo to help save the orangutan from extinction
.
of the Borneo Orangutan Survival
(BOS) Foundation about the possibility of creating a new project in Central Kalimantan to deal with the swelling numbers of orphaned orangutans. Dr Smits agreed to help, and with the financial backing of the Gibbon Foundation and BOS Indonesia, Lone founded the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in 1998. She was able to build the facility under an agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, and Nyaru Menteng officially opened its doors to the first dozen orangutans in 1999.
The sanctuary was designed to hold up to 100 orphaned orangutans while they go through rehabilitation. In addition to quarantine cages, medical clinic, and nursery, the sanctuary had a large area of forest in which orangutans could learn the skills needed to live in the wild. Nyaru Menteng quickly became the largest primate rescue project in the world, with over 600 orphaned and displaced orangutans in its care in 2009 and a staff of 200.
Many of these orangutans are only weeks old when they arrive, and all of them are psychologically traumatized. The sanctuary not only saves the mostly orphaned baby orangutans from the local farmers and illegal pet-traders, but has developed a process for their gradual re-introduction to the remaining Borneo rainforest
.
Babies and young orangutans brought to the centre are cared for 24 hours a day by a team of "babysitters". As they grow and learn they are then taken to "forest school" where they learn, still with staff present, to climb trees and survive in the forest. At the age of about eight years, they are relocated in groups of around 25 to a neighbouring island for the first stage in their release.
At the present, Drøscher Nielsen lives near the Nyaru Menteng Rescue Center, Kalimantan
, Borneo, managing a specialized clinic of veterinarians and paramedics as well as a workforce of local Indonesians who work as babysitters caring for the orphaned orangutans in the center.
's award-winning series Orangutan Island
, the BBC
's Orangutan diary
, Saving Planet Earth
and Growing Up... Orangutan
(BBC/Discovery Channel
). Drøscher Nielsen starred in the 2008 Australian documentary-drama, The Burning Season
.
Aalborg
-Transport:On the north side of the Limfjord is Nørresundby, which is connected to Aalborg by a road bridge Limfjordsbroen, an iron railway bridge Jernbanebroen over Limfjorden, as well as a motorway tunnel running under the Limfjord Limfjordstunnelen....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. She encountered her first orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
while volunteering as a fourteen-year-old at Aalborg zoo. Later, when she was working as a flight attendant with a Swedish airline she volunteered for a month-long project on the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, and here she came into contact with orangutans again. She found she was able to cope with life without electricity or hot water deep in the jungle: "It was the forest I fell in love with at first. But my love for the orangutans soon followed."
Drøscher Nielsen saw the plight of the Bornean orangutan
Bornean Orangutan
The Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus, is a species of orangutan native to the island of Borneo. Together with the slightly smaller Sumatran orangutan, it belongs to the only genus of great apes native to Asia....
, a highly intelligent primate, which shares almost 97% of its DNA with humans, and which is rapidly losing its natural habitat due to logging and oil palm
Oil palm
The oil palms comprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis is native to West Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis oleifera is native to...
plantations. In 1996, Lone moved permanently to Borneo to help save the orangutan from extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
.
Nyaru Menteng
Drøscher Nielsen sought the advice of Dr Willie SmitsWillie Smits
Willie Smits is a trained forester, a microbiologist, conservationist, animal rights activist and social entrepreneur...
of the Borneo Orangutan Survival
Borneo Orangutan Survival
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is an Indonesian non-profit NGO founded by Dr Willie Smits in 1991 and dedicated to the conservation of the endangered Bornean Orangutan and its habitat through the involvement of local people...
(BOS) Foundation about the possibility of creating a new project in Central Kalimantan to deal with the swelling numbers of orphaned orangutans. Dr Smits agreed to help, and with the financial backing of the Gibbon Foundation and BOS Indonesia, Lone founded the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in 1998. She was able to build the facility under an agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, and Nyaru Menteng officially opened its doors to the first dozen orangutans in 1999.
The sanctuary was designed to hold up to 100 orphaned orangutans while they go through rehabilitation. In addition to quarantine cages, medical clinic, and nursery, the sanctuary had a large area of forest in which orangutans could learn the skills needed to live in the wild. Nyaru Menteng quickly became the largest primate rescue project in the world, with over 600 orphaned and displaced orangutans in its care in 2009 and a staff of 200.
Many of these orangutans are only weeks old when they arrive, and all of them are psychologically traumatized. The sanctuary not only saves the mostly orphaned baby orangutans from the local farmers and illegal pet-traders, but has developed a process for their gradual re-introduction to the remaining Borneo rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
.
Babies and young orangutans brought to the centre are cared for 24 hours a day by a team of "babysitters". As they grow and learn they are then taken to "forest school" where they learn, still with staff present, to climb trees and survive in the forest. At the age of about eight years, they are relocated in groups of around 25 to a neighbouring island for the first stage in their release.
At the present, Drøscher Nielsen lives near the Nyaru Menteng Rescue Center, Kalimantan
Kalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
, Borneo, managing a specialized clinic of veterinarians and paramedics as well as a workforce of local Indonesians who work as babysitters caring for the orphaned orangutans in the center.
Television and Film
Nyaru Menteng is featured on Animal PlanetAnimal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
's award-winning series Orangutan Island
Orangutan Island
Orangutan Island is a documentary television series, in the style of the hugely successful series Meerkat Manor, that blends more traditional documentary filming with dramatic narration. The series was produced by NHNZ with creator Judith Curran also acting as the series producer...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Orangutan diary
Orangutan diary
Orangutan Diary is a nature documentary series on the BBC, which follows the lives of Bornean Orangutans in the care of Lone Drøscher Nielsen, a member of the Borneo Orangutan Survival foundation. The program tries to detail the threat that the orangutans face in day to day life...
, Saving Planet Earth
Saving Planet Earth
Saving Planet Earth is a season of nature documentaries with a conservation theme, screened on BBC Television in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of its specialist factual department, the BBC Natural History Unit....
and Growing Up... Orangutan
Growing Up...
Growing Up... is a series that airs on Animal Planet, a cable and satellite television network co-owned by Discovery Communications, Inc. and BBC Worldwide. Each episode is an hour long and follows the life of a wild animal growing up in captivity.-Description:The show has always featured mammals...
(BBC/Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
). Drøscher Nielsen starred in the 2008 Australian documentary-drama, The Burning Season
The Burning Season (2008 film)
The Burning Season is a documentary about the burning of rainforests in Indonesia which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. The main characters featured in the film are: Dorjee Sun from Australia; Achmadi, a small-scale palm oil farmer from Jambi province in Indonesia; and Lone Drøscher...
.
Writing
In 2006 Drøscher Nielsen published From Forest Kindergarten to Freedom with Pia Lykke Bertelsen in English, German and Danish. The book is a photographic story that follows two baby orangutans, Emma and Emil, growing up in the rehabilitation centre and eventually being released into the wild, with photos by Humphrey Watchman, Steve Leonard, Sam Gracey, Lone Drøscher Nielsen and Danielle Brandt.External links
- Meet Lone at Orangutan Outreach
- video of Lone Drøscher Nielsen's presentation at Qi GLOBAL 2009
- forests4orangutans.org, the website of the Orangutan Land TrustOrangutan Land TrustThe Orangutan Land Trust is a UK charity with the objective of providing permanent solutions for the long-term survival of the orangutan in the wild by ensuring safe areas of land for their continued existence...
- savetheorangutan.org, the website of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
- facebook page for "fans of Lone Droscher Nielsen - Orangutan Hero"