Resolving Conflict: How Awareness Protects Wild Orangutans

This blog post is in response to this article in The Guardian: ‘Like kidnapping your grandpa’: why relocating orangutans threatens their survival. You can also watch our video response here.

Globally, forest-edge communities face economic hardship, which forces them to prioritise their own survival over conservation. When orangutans raid agricultural land, the farmers are placed in an impossible situation. A single raid can devastate their livelihoods, and that of their families. 

So, many farmers may resort to harmful methods to deter orangutans, such as a shooting or capture. But it doesn’t need to be like this.

In a 2024 study, researchers suggest that conflict can be reduced through non-violent methods and collaborative efforts with local communities, ensuring both human livelihoods and orangutan survival.

Human-orangutan conflict can be reduced through non-violent methods and collaboration with local communities. Our partners are on-the-ground training farmers in wildlife-friendly crop protection techniques. For example, using bamboo cannons to scare orangutans away, or diversifying crops to include those that orangutans do not eat. We are exploring insurance and compensation schemes, and training farmers in agroforestry and permaculture.

This approach is not only backed by research, but from first-hand accounts from the communities we work with.

The decision to translocate an orangutan should only be a last resort if there is immediate risk to life. We must find solutions that benefit both people and wildlife. Please share, follow and donate to support our work.