BOS-Deutschland e. V. (Borneo Orangutan Survival)

About the organization

For more than 20 years for the orangutans and the rainforest.
BOS Deutschland e.V. is a non-profit nature and species conservation organization dedicated to protecting the last orangutans and their habitat. This is achieved primarily through fundraising, public relations, project work and international cooperation.

BOS rescues orangutans worldwide from illegal captivity and emergency situations. In two rescue centers on Borneo, the organization rehabilitates freed and orphaned orangutans and releases them into the wild in safe sanctuaries. Orangutans that can no longer be released into the wild are given a species-appropriate and dignified life. BOS Germany works closely with the Indonesian BOS Foundation and an international network of partner organizations.

Borneo Orangutan Survival maintains and increases the habitat for orangutans on Borneo in multi-stakeholder partnerships. Together with the local population, BOS implements projects for sustainable community development and reforests destroyed forests.

Together with international scientists, BOS generates valuable knowledge on the behavior of orangutans, species conservation and the climate relevance of peat swamp forests in particular.

BOS's public relations and educational work raises awareness and creates a sense of responsibility for the plight of orangutans and the destruction of the rainforest. BOS points out concrete options for action and generates a growing base of supporters.

At the same time, it sees itself as a lobby organization for the orangutans. In dialog with decision-makers, it provides advice and creates pressure for action for climate, forest and species protection.

BOS uses resources effectively and in a focused manner to achieve its goals. Transparency, cooperation at eye level and integrity are the values to which BOS is committed.

Stiftung Zukunft jetzt! supports the project in the interests of environmental and nature conservation, the promotion of science and research and animal welfare. The focus of this financial support is on ensuring the continued scientific operation of the research station and research in the globally relevant Mawas peat bog area in Central Borneo. Background: The Mawas conservation area is one of the largest peat bogs in Indonesia. There is a layer of peat up to 15 meters deep that stores carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from 8000 years. In the mid-1990s, one million hectares of swamp rainforest were cut down. Habitats for thousands of animal and plant species were destroyed. The plan was to resettle 25,000 Indonesians from overpopulated Java in order to grow rice. But the soil is unsuitable for rice cultivation. Jan Peters, Managing Director of the Succow Foundation, a partner in the Greifswald Mire Center, has also highlighted the relevance of the Mawas peatland: "This peatland is one of the most important in Borneo. The 'Mega Rice Project', which failed spectacularly there, is probably one of the craziest peatland destruction projects ever, which ultimately made no sense at all. I have heard a lot about BOS and their work and I think they are very worthy of support. The proposed renovation of the infrastructure seems to me to make perfect sense in order to be able to carry out appropriate conservation and research work in the area. The applicants seem to have dealt quite intensively with the local conditions and the involvement of the local population. ......In terms of content, the project certainly seems worthy of funding."

With the funding from the Stiftung Zukunft jetzt!, the go-ahead can be given for the restoration and renovation of the Tuanan research station in the globally relevant Mawas peat bog area on Borneo.
The Mawas peat bog area is three times the size of Berlin. Covering an area of around 300,000 hectares, it is one of the largest contiguous peat swamp forests in Indonesia. This tropical rainforest is home to around 2,500 wild orangutans.
Since 2019, the remaining and decaying building structures could no longer be used due to the funding restrictions caused by the pandemic. Overdue renovation work had to be canceled.

The Stiftung Zukunft jetzt! would like to ensure the scientific continuation of operations, rebuild the missing infrastructure and contribute to the renovation work. In this way, the research station can once again become the starting point for BOS's programs on forest restoration, fire monitoring and the hydrology of peatlands in the Mawas region.

The station is of great importance for the continuation of long-term data collection and research on the local orangutan population and for the protection of their habitat.

As gigantic_{CO2 reservoirs}, the tropical peat swamp forests on Borneo are highly relevant to the climate. They cover around ten percent of the country over an area of approximately 22 million hectares (roughly the size of Great Britain). Depending on their depth, they store between 3,000 and 6,000 tons of carbon per hectare, almost 50 times as much as an area of rainforest of the same size without peat bog soil (120 to 400 tons of carbon per hectare).