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Borneo Orangutan Survival UK is aiming to tap into the upcoming National Wildlife Week (April 5-9) to educate the British public about the urgent action required to provide a better future for the orangutan species.
BOS UK, the UK arm of the Indonesian non-profit and non-governmental organisation BOS Foundation, is working to change the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality of the orangutan issue, showing that the future of this species is our collective responsibility.
In the last 75 years, humans have wiped out over 80% of the orangutans on the planet – equivalent to 3,000 every single year making 225,000 in total. Through hunting, illegal trade, and the deforestation of the rainforests, all three species of orangutan are now critically endangered, and we risk losing the wild Bornean orangutans within the next few decades.
Briefed to drive awareness of the near extinction and raise funds for the foundation, agency Truant has developed a campaign that likens the orangutan to another historic species we have lost, the mammoth.
Running across OOH, print media and digital platforms, the campaign is designed to dramatise the critical endangerment of orangutans as a mammoth problem.
It will go live this week across over 100 billboards, with support from JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor and Build Hollywood.
BOS UK chief executive Ben Callison said: “Our incredible teams across the world wake up every day to continue the lifesaving work of saving orangutans, in the hope that one day we aren’t needed anymore since orangutan populations are restored to a thriving status.
“In that world, we have not only saved orangutans, but thousands of other species that call the same rainforests home. We also will have saved ecosystems that are critical for our survival as humans. I long for that day and have hope it will arrive.”
“We hope that this campaign awakens our society to ensure we don’t lose another incredible species to the history books. If we act now, work together, and scale our proven solutions we can ensure orangutans continue to share this planet with us for millennia to come.”
Truant founder Simon Labbett added: “It’s easy to think of extinction as something from the past, and just as easy to overlook the incredible animals still fighting for survival in far-off places. Orangutans, one of our nearest evolutionary cousins, are nothing short of extraordinary, and they desperately need our help.
“This campaign is a small but vital step toward ensuring the foundation can continue its incredible work. The idea speaks for itself, simple, powerful, impossible to ignore.”
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