The Orangutan Project (TOP), registered in Australia,  is a non-partisan organisation that collaborates with over a dozen orangutan conservation projects, as well as provides habitat protection through its own programs to deter wildlife poaching, illegal logging and land clearing in Indonesia. TOP approached OURF to create a special partnership in 2015. The OURF board approved this relationship in August 2015.

The Orang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF) is now the USA Chapter for TOP (aka TOP-USA)  and TOP is the Australian Chapter for OURF. This joining of forces will:

• increase funding for orangutan conservation,
• allow us to further reduce the combined administration for two of the already leanest charities on the planet today.

Together we will now be saving more orangutans and their habitat so that they can all one day live free in the wild.  

The following projects and organizations are currently supported by TOP-USA:

• Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP)  Batu Mbelin Rescue Center, North Sumatra  
  
• International Animal Rescue (IAR) Rescue Center in Ketapang, West Kalimantan
• Leuser Ecosystem Protection & Advocacy- Wildlife Asia & HaKA,  Aceh, Sumatra
• Borneo Futures Foundation (BFF)- Sabangau Research Unit, Central Kalimantan

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The Orangutan Project (TOP)

The Orangutan Project (TOP) is the world's foremost not-for-profit organisation supporting orangutan conservation, rainforest protection, local community partnerships and the rehabilitation and reintroduction of displaced orangutans back to the wild, in order to save the two orangutan species from extinction.

TOP is a non-partisan organisation that collaborates with several orangutan conservation projects, as well as providing habitat protection through its own programs to deter wildlife poaching, illegal logging and land clearing in Indonesia.

The organisation provides technical and financial assistance directly to conservation projects and orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centres. This includes much needed resources for the day-to-day care needs, the reintroduction of orphaned orangutans and the locating and securing of release sites.

TOP’s main project is Bukit Tigapuluh, Sumatra  where the Indonesian government has granted us the management license for two ecosystem restoration concessions adjacent to Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in the Thirty Hills landscape as an opportunity to save one of Sumatra’s last rainforests that is home to critically endangered tigers, elephants and orangutans, as well as two forest-dwelling tribes.  The overall program is a consortium of organizations including Frankfurt Zoological Society, WWF Indonesia, and others groups.

Since 2002, more than 175 Sumatran orangutans have been transferred to and released into the BTP ecosystem. Orangutans entering the release programme have usually been orphaned and kept as pets, often in horrendous conditions.

The Wildlife Protection Units (WPUs), entirely funded by TOP, are responsible for patrolling the Bukit Tigapuluh. The main aims of the WPUs are -

• Establish, train and maintain ranger units to secure wildlife populations and their habitat at Bukit Tigapuluh.
• To stop and prevent illegal logging as the major threat to wildlife habitat.
• To actively assist the reintroduction/translocation of orangutans at Bukit Tigapuluh.
• To collect wildlife data in order to produce baseline data for a buffer zone management plan and a wildlife data base as an evaluation tool for ecosystem conditions at Bukit Tigapuluh.

The WPU have been highly successful in deterring illegal activities including logging. They are responsible for educating local people about laws against poaching orangutans, gathering information about illegal activities and reporting these to the Forestry police and collecting wildlife data as an evaluation tool for ecosystem conditions.