Environmental Education
Through our environmental education and
outreach work, we help communities to become more aware of the value of the
rainforest ecosystem, crucially encouraging them to be more motivated to
campaign for its protection. Our programmes present orangutans as a flagship
for the rainforests of Sumatra. The OIC team visits schools, talking to both teachers and
students, organise scholarship schemes, run conservation camps and promote
general public awareness. We focus on communicating
environmental information in an engaging manner, including practical activities in
sustainable resource use, such as paper recycling and composting, as well as
presentations, workshops and films on wildlife and habitat conservation.We run several environmental
education and capacity-building projects with schools and local communities
living near the last remaining orangutan habitat. 
The OIC has developed the environmental education
curriculum in schools in North Sumatra. We have visited over 350 schools and reached
approximately 15,000 students throughout the region. We support the development
of sustainable environmental practices by highlighting the importance of
orangutan habitat for ecological services and how the community can benefit through
participating in conservation efforts.
The OranguVans
The OranguVans are mobile environmental libraries and conservation cinemas. The vehicles travel around North Sumatra and Aceh, visiting local communities and schools. We provide free access to books, hold discussions and debates, show environmental films and give presentations on orangutans and the importance of conserving their habitat.
The OranguVan programme provides grassroots environmental education and outreach services to local communities living in orangutan habitat areas. We educate them about a range of environmental issues, including conservation of orangutans and their habitat.
The OranguVans are also used in dedicated issue-based roadshows. Our mobile conservation cinema screens films produced in local language to raise awareness about issues such as illegal logging, the pet trade, and the dangers of disturbing the rainforest ecosystem.
Environmental cinema
In partnership with the Orangutan Information Centre and the Great Ape Film Initiative, we show films with a conservation theme about the value of forests and biodiversity and the negative impacts of deforestation on both people and wildlife. We try and make sure the films have positive messages, leaving the communities with a 'we can do something to help' attitude. Not only do conservation film screenings increase environmental knowledge and awareness, but they also lead to increased support for the work of conservation organisations and greater levels of practical engagement in finding and supporting local solutions.
One local community was so strongly affected that they requested our assistance to create their own film as a response, entitled 'Dear Mr. President', to present their conservation concerns directly to the Indonesian president. Environmental film screenings have now become a regular element of our environmental education and outreach activities.
They are also the greenest movies you'll ever see, being pedal powered, which provides electricity for a projector, DVD player and speaker system!
Watch a short film about our pedal-powered conservation cinema!
Conservation Camps
Conservation Camps inspire school children to become actively involved in learning about and caring for their environment. During the camp students are given talks on conservation issues. They are also given training in practical aspects of conservation such as paper recycling, composting, and ecological surveying techniques. Students are not offered this kind of training at their schools or universities.
We also conduct conservation education training for
teachers in Sumatra to build their capacity to
communicate
environmental messages, using orangutans as flagship species for
rainforest conservation.
Teachers are in a powerful position to inspire the next generation to
value and
protect their environment.
Scholarship Programme
A scholarship scheme has been running since 2006, in conjunction with the American NGO Orangutan Republik Education Initiative (OUREI) to support much-needed study into orangutan ecology and conservation in Sumatra for Indonesian university students. These students can be expected to become key members of the conservation movement in Sumatra, and can help inspire others to care for nature and their environment.
Islamic Teaching on the Protection of Natural Resources
This new programme has developed information resources on Islamic teaching related to the protection of natural resources, with a focus on the Sumatran orangutan and the Gunung Leuser National Park. We share information on Islamic principles related to natural resource conservation and species protection with Islamic religious leaders, local Islamic schools as well as communities around the Gunung Leuser National Park. We will train Islamic community organisation leaders and teachers in Islamic schools to integrate natural resource conservation into their regular teaching and curriculum.
We have produced a guidebook of Islamic teaching on natural resource conservation, conduct focus group discussions, established an Islamic leader working group and host regular meetings. We will distribute the guidebooks to mosques, Islamic community organisations, and Islamic schools around GLNP in Langkat, hold a speech competition for Islamic school children, promote the urgency of rehabilitation efforts for degraded areas of GLNP through conducting a field visit for Islamic leaders and school teachers to visit degraded national park areas, and establish two tree nursery centers to cultivate 20,000 seedlings for replanting 20 hectares of degraded land in GLNP.
Environmental E-Learning
We have established two Conservation Digital Opportunity Centres (CDOCs) in Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan. Open six days a week, our team runs courses for local people in computer use, internet use, graphic design, and information and research on conservation and ecology. With full classes already signed up, the centres are popular destinations for the local communities, and also include libraries with books and resources on conservation.
As a part of this programme, we have also equipped our OranguVans with mobile internet enabled laptops, so that we are able to bring these resources to remote villages.