One of OFI’s top goals is to preserve land near the Orangutan Care Center. Land values near the Care Center are rising due to the proximity of the city of Pangkalan Bun (pop 40,000) located a few miles away. When Dr. Galdikas arrived in Borneo in 1971, Pangkalan Bun was just a village. The city’s main industries are palm oil, logging, and mining. As of 2006, over 1.1 million hectares of palm oil concessions had been granted in the region of Pangkalan Bun.
Because the land is owned by the native peoples, the Dayaks, Indonesian law specifies that palm oil company must purchase land before establishing a palm oil plantation. This means that palm oil company representatives are on the prowl for villagers who want to earn between $160 and $550 per hectare for their land. They frequently try to curry favor with the villagers by giving them packs of cigarettes and other gifts.
Dr. Galdikas is fighting a one-woman battle to preserve land as it comes up for sale. Last February, the Hutan Project donated $25,000 to purchase 160 hectares of swamp-peat forest. Now Dr. Galdikas has her sights set on a particularly large parcel of at 1,000 hectares. It’s about 16 kilometers Southwest of the Care Center. The cost is quite low, at $160 per hectare. But that is a tall order for a small organization like OFI.
