Balikpapan June 22, 2016

Balikpapan, East Kalimatan: Wednesday June 22

The port is surronded by the oil refineries

We entered the harbour of this major oil shipping and producing port early then drove to 40 Km to Samboja where the headquarters of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is located.

 

We passed through the city with a police escort and it had many Western businesses, mining companies, and drilling and oil companies. We were told that the soil was not were fertile in the region and due to the petroleum based economy in this area the cost of living is much higher than other places in Borneo. 

 

The first area we visited was the Sunbear Sanctuary. The Sunbears are housed in a number of enclosures and large areas with tyres as toys, tied to trees and a number of shaded climbing areas. We viewed it from a rather narrow metal horizontal ladder, which would shake unnervingly when people walked along it.

 

The Orangutans live on six large, manmade islands. The island Orangutans are not capable of being released, since they were mistreated or in circuses or orphaned; but have a comfortable life in a semi wild environment.

 

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is an Indonesian not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of the Bornean Orangutan and its habitat. It operates with local communities, the Indonesian ministry of Forestry and International organisations.

Currently it is caring for almost 750 orangutans and has almost 400 support staff as well as experts in primatology, ecology, forest rehabilitation, community education and Orangutan healthcare.

 

The Samboja Lodge in the compound has visitor accommodation, guided tours and information and participation on the foundation projects.

We were given a great send off when we returned to the ship.