Willie Smits

Willie Smits was a forest engineer when he rescued a baby orangutan in October 1989. He found the little girl, which he named Uce, on a garbish belt, already starving. This changed his life completely!

In 1991 he founded the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which is now the largest project on this planet to save orangutans from extinction.

In 2001 he started to create new rainforest on a 2000 ha area, Samboja Lestari, that was completely destroyed by fires in the eighties and nineties.

It's a miracle to see what he achieved in such a short time. He is also teaching the local people to grow sugarpalms (used as a barrier against fires, because they don't burn), to be able to earn a decent income and to help save the rainforest and the animals who live there.

Now he is planning a mega sugarpalm project in Indonesia, Colombia, Tanzania. This project will help the local people, nature and the animals and the climate (because he will make ethanol out of the palmsugar which will be a real green biofuel).

This man has dedicated his life to saving the world and for this he earns our deepest respect.

Primates Helping Primates is his partner in Holland to spread the word of the genocide that is going on on Borneo.

www.primateshelpingprimates.nl
www.masarang.org