Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS)

Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS)

Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation is an Indonesian non-profit NGO founded by Dr. Willie Smits in 1991 and dedicated to the preservation of endangered species in Borneo orangutan and its habitat through the involvement of local people. It is audited by a multinational audit firm and operates under a formal agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry to preserve and rehabilitate orangutans. BOS manages the programs orangutan rescue, rehabilitation and reintroduction of the East and Central Kalimantan. With nearly 1000 orangutans in its care and employs 600 000 people in a hundred places  BOS is the largest NGO conservation of primates in the world.

Nyaru Menteng and Samboja Lestari is BOS sites that received the widest media coverage. Nyaru Menteng, which was founded and operated by Lone D. Nielsen, was the subject of several television series including Orangutan Diary and Orangutan Island. Samboja Lestari featured in a recent TED conference in 2009, "Willie Smits recreates a tropical forest"  where Smits describes how he recreated the forest is habitat for orangutans rescued.