School for The Wild
School
for The Wild
(Arboretum | Source: Annya M. J.)
Borneo was widely known as the lungs of the world.
The island was rich with forest and various species of fauna. According to profauna.net,
the forest area reaches around 40.8 million hectares from 74.333 million
hectares of Borneo Island, that was why Borneo was crowned as the lungs of the
world. However, Borneo started to experience deforestation and pose a safety
threat to wildlife creatures. In 2010, reported that there were only 25.5
million hectare of forest area left in Borneo
Deforestation
was mostly caused by large subsistence agro-industrial agriculture, include
rubber and other industrial tree plantation
The threat
was not only experienced by humans. When the forest fire season came, the most
suffered one was the animals that live in the wild forest. The forest weasels
lose their tree holes, the Enggang birds lose their tree
branches to perch, and the most tortured ones, Orangutans that lose all of
their home and family. The animals lost their home and family because of this
matter. When the fire came, the baby Orangutans were separated from their
parents, mostly because they couldn’t escape the fire.
In order to save and preserve the sustainability of
wildlife creatures, especially to help the infant Orangutans who left by their
parents, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation Nyaru Menteng was
established in 1999 by Lone Droscher Nielsen. BOS Nyaru Menteng build a home
for around 450 orphaned and displaced orangutans. It was built located in
Tangkiling, around an hour's drive from the capital city, Palangka Raya
The place was built as a new home and also a school
for the lost infant orangutans. After the infant orangutans were separated from
their mother, they will not have the time to do early learning on how to
survive the wild. Their natural development was also hampered. Therefore, this
BOS Nyaru Menteng was built as a place for the orangutans to learn how to
survive and develop themselves until they had reached the age to manage their
own lives in the wild. The learning and nursing process was done by mostly the
local people who dedicated themselves to help the orangutans. "Since its humble
beginnings, the center has grown into the largest orangutan conservation
facility in the world- with numerous cages, clinics, islands, vehicles and
training forests- and hundreds of dedicated professional staff" Quoted from
Orangutan Outreach Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
This place
was once one of the attraction places for tourists all around the world, and it
was once the place that I frequently went to. As it was home to hundreds of
Orangutans, it attracted people from the city to go over to Nyaru Menteng to
see the Orangutans. People used to call it the Arboretum. Alongside the
Orangutans, since it was located in the middle of the forest, the surrounding
environment and scenery became one of the attractions points of this place.
(Scenery | Source: Annya M. J.)
I remember when
I used to go to the Arboretum every Sunday with my family, sometimes with my
church friends. A lot of people went there on the weekend, especially around
the time after morning church. My Sunday school supervisor usually brought the children
to have some recreation and learning together about nature and orangutans in
this place. Nevertheless, the parents always accompanied their child, so in the
end, it became a whole church recreation time. That was one of the reasons why
the arboretum was always packed and busy on Sunday.
Outside the Orangutan’s Center, there were a lot of
gazebos made of wood, as the place for people to have their lunch and relax. If
the visitors were latecomers, then they will not have the gazebo. If we walked
farther, around 5–10-minute walk, there was an outbound
area for
children and adults. I remember the outbound activity was the reason I always
asked my parents to bring me there every week.
However, just like the title of this article, the
main event of this place is the Orangutan’s Center. In that place, we could
only see the Orangutan from afar, because people were restricted from having
close contact with the Orangutans. The place was more like a school for the
orangutans to take good care of themselves until they were ready to be released
to the wildlife without their caretakers.
It was vividly recalled in my mind, the atmosphere
and the amusement that I always had on my face when I entered the Orangutan’s
Center. I remember there was a huge brown Orangutan statue at the front gate of
the Center. When we stepped closer to the front gate which was made of a big
and thick dark curtain, it was dimly lit and humid. As long as I remember I was
always scared when I stepped to the curtain gate. Passing through the curtain
gate, we would immediately face a glass window the same size as the building’s
wall. The lightning in the room came from the sunlight outside the glass
window. Behind the glass window, we could see a lot of orangutans there. What
came into my mind every time I saw that was, it’s like a huge cage with the
concept of an amusement park for the orangutans. The visitors could see the
orangutans playing with each other in the cage, from a specified
distance.
The Arboretum became one of the greatest memories
and impressive places for me since then. However, sadly, I heard that the
Orangutan’s Center was now restricted to public visitors. We could still visit
the arboretum area, but not the Orangutan’s Center. So, we could only see it
from afar for now.
“Such a pity we cannot enter the Orangutan’s center any longer! This was
a place that save a lot of my childhood memories, a place that once was a
routine to went to when I was a kid,” Indah show her disappointment regarding
the visitors’ limitation of the Arboretum Nyaru Menteng when she went back to
visit that place and found the place was no longer visitable
“Knowing this place was not operating for public visitors anymore
disappoint me. But, at some point, I think it was the best choice for the
orangutans. The staff said that they made this decision in order not to stress
the orangutans before they were released to the wild forest.
References
Future, Borneo. Deforestation.
n.d. 2021 September 21. <https://www.borneofutures.org/deforestation>.
Indah. Visiting Arboretum Annya
Monica Johan. 11 September 2021.
Orangutan Outreach. n.d. 12 09 2021. <https://redapes.org/projects-partners/nyaru-menteng/>.
ProFauna Indonesia. n.d. 12 09 2021.
<https://www.profauna.net/id/kampanye-hutan/hutan-kalimantan/tentang-hutan-kalimantan#.YT3J8J0zbIU>.
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