April 7, 2012 - Medan, Sumatra.   FOLLOWING a period of assessment and planning, OURF gave the green light to begin the second year of the Mobile Education and Conservation Unit (MECU2) program, a field education and community enhancement initiative that endeavors to reduce conflict between villagers and orangutans.  The first year program (MECU1) allowed the Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative Indonesia (OUREII) in Jakarta to purchase a 4-wheel drive truck (with US Fish &Wildlife assistance) and to oversee the activities of the Orangutan Caring Club of N. Sumatra (CPOI-Sumut) in assessing 16 villages in and around Gunung Leuser National Park in N. Sumatra. The Park is home to hundreds of wild and ex-captive orangutans. MECU1 also enabled the field team to conduct education programs about orangutans, other wildlife, environment, and ways to improve the livelihood of the villagers.

After evaluating the level of human/orangutan conflict and the needs and capabilities of the various villages, CPOI-Sumut selected 4 villages to participate in MECU2. These villages will receive increased levels of interaction with the MECU2 team with the intention of improving upon techniques and methods that will reduce conflict between the villagers and the primate populations that occasionally enter the latter's fields and orchards. Additionally, the MECU2 team plans to build botanical nurseries, expand tree-planting, and conduct other activities that will support sustainable agricultural capabilities of the villagers.

OURF, OUREII, and its partners, such as The Orangutan Project (formerly AOP) and Excelso, are providing the funding and oversight needed to keep the MECU program in the field while building the capacity of CPOI-Sumut to operate the innovative outreach program.  In addition, such NGO-village partnership programs are becoming the most practical way of finding solutions to long-term conservation challenges. Other local NGOs have been making community-development and wildlife/human conflict mitigation major aspects of their own programs. By educating and empowering villagers who live near orangutan habitat, the people will be less likely to kill or harm orangutans that occasionally seek sustenance in their fields and gardens which may have been formerly part of the ape's home range.  Curricula already developed to reduce conflict will be used as will the knowledge and expertise of successful agronomists to improve yields without harming the environment.

For orangutans and other wildlife to co-exist with humans near habitat areas, the local people need to prosper on their land (reducing the chance of selling it to large corporations and multinationals) and manage their lands in ways that are sustainable for both themselves and the wildlife that also utilize it.

The MECU2 program begins this month.  For more information, contact OURF.