The Sumatran Orangutan Society has launched its biggest fundraising appeal, hoping to buy a palm oil plantation in order to turn it back into a rainforest, with the help of a campaign featuring characters from Disney's Jungle Book.
It needs to raise a total of £870,000 to help its Indonesian partner charity buy an 890 acre plot that is for sale in Indonesia which it plans to convert from a palm oil plantation back to a rainforest, thus creating more natural habitat for orangutans and other wildlife.
To buy the land the charity needs to raise £317,000 by 9 September for the first instalment. Further payments are then due in November and February 2019. So far it has raised just over £52,000.
The charity was registered in September 2014 and this is its biggest campaign to date.
A spokesperson for the charity said that it is a “challenging target”.
Helen Buckland, director of the Sumatran Orangutan Society, described it as a “golden opportunity to secure a vital area of land” which is in a strategic location that can act as a buffer zone.
The charity said that if it does not raise the amount needed it will put the money towards conserving the rainforest and ensuring it is in a position to buy other plots of land when they become available.
As part of the campaign it has created a video featuring characters from Disney’s version of the Jungle Book in cities to highlight how human life has encroached on animals’ homes.
The film was created by Don’t Panic and produced by Eddy pro-bono.
It was posted on Facebook on Wednesday and has been viewed over 250,000 times and shared over 2,300 times.
Sumatran Orangutan Society is also approaching charitable foundations and corporate partners as well as selling merchandise to raise money for the appeal.
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