Volunteer with Orang-Utans in Malaysia

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from £1280 GBP
to £1856 GBP

Volunteer with Orang-Utans in Malaysia

Duration: from 2 Weeks to 4 Weeks

Countries: Malaysia

Winner of Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 - Best Volunteer Organisation Join our award winning volunteer experience in animal conservation in Borneo with The Great Projects.

In a dynamic partnership with The Great Orangutan Project, The Great Projects brings you the Sarawak Orangutan Volunteer Programme. This 14 or 28 day conservation volunteer experience starts in the Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. On the edge of Kubah National Park is the Wildlife Centre, where since 2007 we have been working with the local authority and the local communities, to re-establish a successful rehabilitation and release program at the Wildlife Centre for orangutans and other animals such as sunbears. This is being achieved by focusing on aiding the Centre in terms of husbandry, enrichment, infrastructure, so that they can concentrate on rehabilitation and release.

What Volunteers will do at the Wildlife Centre?
The duties of the volunteer range from enrichment, husbandry, and construction work around orangutans, sunbears and other animals at the Wildlife Centre. The work on this project mainly involves enrichment. "enrichment", the process of improving their surroundings to stimulate their physical and mental health. You will provide enrichment for animals in their enclosures. Some of these animals may never be released or may be released over a long period of time, so it is important to give them the best quality of life possible. Additionally, the enrichment is also cleverly designed to encourage natural behaviours, for instance climbing to reach their food, or discovering new plants that they would find in the wild such as palm hearts. The type of enrichment you will produce will depend on the work at the centre that month. Sometimes it will be food enrichment, sometimes it will be building platforms, sometimes swings, maybe hammocks to replicate nests, or installing ropes. This will ultimately prepare the orangutans and other animals for release back into the wild and increase their chances of survival.

Inclusions:
• Airport transfers.
• Overland transportation
• Single accommodation
• Food (3 meals a day)
• Activities on project site
• Conservation donation.

Details
Where does my donation go?

Donations are spent on:

1. Enrichment - food (food parcels and a wide variety of different interesting foods) and physical enrichment (like hammocks and rope swings)

2. Construction - on materials and tools for getting orangutans out of cages and maintaining existing outdoor enclosures (everything from spades, to cement, to wheelbarrows, to nuts and bolts)

3. Reforestation - helping to create more species diverse forest by planting primary rainforest species under the pioneer tree canopy ( such as dipterocarpaceae, fabaceae and malvaceae) in certain areas.  Also, we plant up species where we create destruction during the building process, such as recently when a digger dug out the island moats.

What are the conditions and the accommodation like?

The setting is idyllic. You will be living in a remote rainforest area in the heart of Sarawak Borneo with a small river running through it, complete with jungle animals and sounds. There will also be short bursts of rain most days so be prepared for that too - it is a rainforest after all! And the ground can be slippery under foot so bring good walking shoes that do not absorb too much water and weigh you down. Telephone communications are poor though we ensure that you can phone out for emergencies.

The accommodation is based in a jungle chalet amongst the staff quarters which ensures maximum safety. The house has everything you need, a bedroom with fan, a sitting room, dining area, simple kitchen and bathroom but this is jungle living at its best and you should not expect luxury. The shower runs cold water only but in the tropics this is a blessing - sort of! There is always the alternative of bathing in the jungle stream. You will have to bring your own mosquito net (with tape to secure it to the ceiling as there are no nails) but the geckos tend to help keep the insect population down for you.
Inclusions
accommodation, food, airport pickup