Dr Willie Smits, orangutan expert, to tour UK

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

Dr Willie Smits, orangutan and rainforest advocate, will be touring the UK next

week to give lectures, attend fundraising events and liaise with conservation

departments of a number of zoos.

BOS UK director Michelle Desilets will present Dr Smits with a cheque for

£10,000, raised by supporters of BOS UK. The money covers the expenses of

acquiring a river island sanctuary for 25 juvenile orangutans, and the

development of a special enclosure for larger wild orangutans awaiting

translocation to less threatened areas.

Chester Zoo will also present Dr Smits with donated supplies, including a

digital camera attachable to a diagnostic microscope.

Dr Smits and Miss Desilets will be travelling to Howlett's and Port Lympne Zoo

(30/05), Monkey World in Dorset (31/05, London (29/05,31/05, 02/06 and 03/06),

Cambridge University (02/06), Oxford University (02/06?), Birmingham

University(01/06?), Chester Zoo (01/06), Nottingham University with FUn Day

Fundraising event (03/06)and possibly a number of other zoos. The entire tour

lasts from 29 May to 3 June.

 

Members of the press are invited to attend any of the events or arrange for an

interview with Dr Smits. Please contact Michelle Desilets at bos_uk

or at 07719425110 to arrange. Members of the public are also invited to any

event. Please RSVP to the same contact stated above. Most events will be

preceded or followed by a wine and snacks reception. There is no cost to any

event, but donations are very gratefully received.

 

Below is a brief biography of Dr Smits:

 

Dr. Willie Smits has been instrumental in the conservation of primates and their

natural habitat for nearly two decades. A Tropical Forest Ecologist, Dr. Smits

has conducted leading research on forest ecosystems, and has trained over 1,000

researchers and local inhabitants on forest management and related nature

conservation critical to the long-term survival of Indonesian forests.

 

Dr. Smits founded the Wanariset forestry research station on the island of

Borneo in 1985 to develop leading-edge reforestation techniques, many of which

were passed into Indonesian law. In 1991, Dr. Smits founded the Wanariset

Orangutan Reintroduction Center, which along with the Wanariset’s Nyaru Menteng

Center in Central Kalimantan, currently hold several hundred orangutans

confiscated from the illegal pet trade. Dr. Smits also founded the Balikpapan

Orangutan Society (BOS) in Borneo, in 1991 (now called the Borneo Orangutan

Survival Foundation) to raise funds and to help educate local people on issues

vital to the survival of orangutans and forest ecosystems. BOS UK, one of over a

dozen sister organizations, is based in the England to support funding and

educational programs. The efforts of Dr. Smits and his team have resulted in the

successful reintroduction and translocation of more than 400 orangutans to their

natural habitat during the past 10 years.

 

Dr. Smits has served as Senior Advisor to the Indonesian government's Ministry

of Forestry on forest rehabilitation and orangutan affairs, and he is the

director of the Gibbon Foundation, an organization dedicated to animal

conservation in Indonesia. He is an active consultant for the Indonesian

Orangutan Survival Program, and is a member of various scientific committees for

forest management. As team leader of the International Ministry of Forestry,

Tropenbos, Kalimantan Project, Dr. Smits also supervises the work of several

Ph.D. students in an ongoing tropical forest research project.

 

Dr. Smits has received several awards for his dedicated conservation work. In

1998, he was the first non-Indonesian to receive the prestigious Satya Lencana

Pembangunan award from the president of Indonesia. Dr. Smits was knighted in the

Netherlands and has received various other international awards for his

conservation work. Dr. Smits and his important work have been featured in many

documentary films, including CNN Earth Matters “Flames of Extinction”, BBC’s

“Orangutan Rescue”, Storyteller Production’s “Just Hanging On”, and the new

Alchemy Films production “The Disenchanted Forest” for National Geographic

Television.

 

Dr. Smits has a M.Sc. in tropical forestry, genetics and tropical soil science,

and a Ph.D. in tropical forestry with a focus on symbiotic associations with

fungi. Dr. Smits’ wife, Syennie, is from North Sulawesi, and they have three

sons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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