Johan is an inspirational orang-kampung (village person) who has dedicated his life to the conservation of the Sumatran rainforest and its inhabitants, especially the critically endangered orang-utans. Johan lives in a small village in Northern Sumatra called Ketambe, located on the edge of the rapidly shrinking Gunung Leuser National Park, which is one of only two remaining habitats for Sumatran orang-utans. It is also home to the Sumatran elephant, tiger and rhinoceros.

Unfortunately Johan sees the devastating effects of deforestation due to rubber and palm plantations as well as illegal logging on a daily basis. Ketambe was used as a research station by the WWF due to its immense biodiversity and record wildlife numbers. Johan has a dream to buy the land that links the main river in Ketambe directly to the National Park giving him rights to stop the shrinking of the local forest.

Johan has already made tremendous efforts in putting his profits from his local guesthouse and jungle trekking business towards buying a portion of the land and is actively planting native trees and fruits that the wildlife and local community can enjoy together. However this is not enough, although Johan’s neighbours are willing to sell their land to him, he does not have the funds right now thus he painfully watches this precious rainforest be cut down for more farmlands.

Please help Johan achieve his dream of reconnecting the Ketambe rainforest to the National Park, enabling the orang-utans and other wildlife to wonder freely once more .

*If you wish to visit Sumatra and see these beautiful apes in the wild as well as the amazing work that Johan is doing for yourself, please don't hesitate to contact me and I will put you directly in touch with Johan.