Indonesia and Forest Maps: Volunteering with Orangutans
Right after spending three months volunteering with marine mammals in Portugal, I moved to Indonesia. When I arrived home, I told my mom straight away that ‘I know I've just got home from Portugal, but I'm moving to Indonesia in two weeks’ time to volunteer for another NGO’. She didn't know what to say :)
This was the farthest I'd pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. It was the first time I had lived in Asia, first time in a Muslim country, and in a place where most people didn't speak English. It was a challenging time, yet I definitely feel it was worth it. I lived and worked at International Animal Rescue's orangutan rehabilitation center that takes in injured or orphaned orangutans, cares for them, prepares them for release back into the wild. This process can take years if we're talking about a baby orangutan.
My work included many things, such as creating an automated model for processing monitoring data of released orangutans, creating maps about planned reforestation projects, and using drones to map rainforests, palm oil plantations and illegal logging sites. All this to try saving endangered orangutan populations and their dangerously shrinking rainforest habitats.
I also moved to Java for three weeks to create a model to find potential habitats for slow lorises, and to provide local staff with basic GIS training and to teach them using this model.
It shouldn't come as a big surprise then that my first new map style after this volunteering period was about the forests of the world. It's funny how every time I look at one of my forest maps, I still see orangutans in my head.
Would you like to see more forest maps? Head to the Forest Maps Collection!
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