Lone Drøscher Nielsen
| Lone Drøscher Nielsen | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 4, 1964 Aabybro, Denmark |
| Residence | Palangka Raya, Borneo |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Fields | Primatologist, Conservationist |
| Institutions | Borneo Orangutan Survival |
| Known for | Study and protection of orangutan, conservation, re-introduction to wild |
Lone Drøscher Nielsen (born November 4, 1964) is a Danish wildlife conservationist who established the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia in 1998.
She was born and grew up in Aabybro, Denmark. She encountered her first orangutan while volunteering as a fourteen-year-old at Aalborg zoo. Later, when she was working as a flight attendant with a Scandinavian airline, Scandinavian Airlines, she volunteered for a month-long project on the Indonesian island of Borneo, and here she came into contact with orangutans again. She found she was able to cope with life without electricity or hot water deep in the jungle: "It was the forest I fell in love with at first. But my love for the orangutans soon followed."
Drøscher Nielsen saw the plight of the Bornean orangutan, a highly intelligent primate, which shares almost 97% of its DNA with humans, and which is rapidly losing its natural habitat due to logging and oil palm plantations. In 1996, Lone moved permanently to Borneo to help save the orangutan from extinction.
Drøscher Nielsen sought the advice of Dr Willie Smits of the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation about the possibility of creating a new project in Central Kalimantan to deal with the swelling numbers of orphaned orangutans. Dr Smits agreed to help, and with the financial backing of the Gibbon Foundation and BOS Indonesia, Lone founded the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in 1998. She was able to build the facility under an agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, and Nyaru Menteng officially opened its doors to the first dozen orangutans in 1999.
The sanctuary was designed to hold up to 100 orphaned orangutans while they go through rehabilitation. In addition to quarantine cages, medical clinic, and nursery, the sanctuary had a large area of forest in which orangutans could learn the skills needed to live in the wild. Nyaru Menteng quickly became the largest primate rescue project in the world, with over 600 orphaned and displaced orangutans in its care in 2009 and a staff of 200.
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