Willie Smits (born February 22, 1957, in Weurt, Gelderland, the Netherlands) is a trained forester,

a microbiologist, conservationist, animal rights activist, wilderness engineer and social entrepreneur.
He has lived in Borneo since 1985 and is an Indonesian citizen.
While working as a forest researcher in East Kalimantan, Indonesia in 1989, Smits encountered a
baby orangutan in a cage in a market, and later returned to find it abandoned on a rubbish heap.
This was a turning-point in his career: taking the orangutan home, he nurtured it back to health. He
was soon given other orangutans to look after, and the work of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing
orangutans into the wild developed into what was to become the Borneo Orangutan Survival
Foundation. For over twenty years Smits has worked for the survival of this threatened species of
ape, during which time his work has also broadened out into the related areas of sustainable
farming, reforestation and remote monitoring of forests. He travels widely, raising awareness of the
issues surrounding deforestation in Borneo and the plight of the orangutan, also showing how it has
been possible on a relatively small scale to reverse the great damage that is being done to the
orangutan and its environment. He became a senior advisor to the Ministry of Forests in Indonesia
and has been knighted in the Netherlands.

Contents
[hide]

1Training
2Wanariset Research Station
3Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
4Samboja Lestari
5Masarang Foundation
6Orangutan confiscations
7Primate Centre at Jakarta Zoo
8Other work
9Recognition
10Writing
11Documentaries
12References
o 12.1Notes
o 12.2Bibliography
13External links

Training[edit]
In 1994, Willie Smits received his doctorate in tropical forestry and soil science at the Wageningen
University in The Netherlands, based upon his research in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
on the symbiosisbetween mycorrhizas and the roots of Dipterocarpaceae tropical rainforesttrees.[1]

Wanariset Research Station[edit]

From 1985 Smits worked on the Wanariset Tropical Forest Research Station near Balikpapan in the
Indonesian province of East Kalimantan. In the early 1990s he was team leader of the Tropenbos
Kalimantan Project Indonesia, an international partnership between the Indonesian Ministry of
Forestry and Tropenbos Foundation.[2][3]

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation[edit]

Main article: Borneo Orangutan Survival
In 1991 Smits founded what was soon to become the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS),
in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), the world's largest organization for the protection of
the endangered Bornean orangutans. Two years before, Smits had had his first encounter with
an orangutan in the market. It was a life-changing event and Smits often retells the story:
"Somebody stuck a crate in my face at the market in Balikpapan. Looking out between the slats were
the very, very sad eyes of a baby orangutan. I couldnt forget them. That evening I went back after
the market closed. Walking around in the dark, I heard a horrible gasping sound. The baby in its
crate was on the garbage dump, dying. I picked her up." [4][5]

He nursed her back to health and named her Uce for the laboured sound she made while gasping
for breath. A few weeks later he was given another sick orangutan to look after, which he named
Dodoy.

The Bornean orangutan

With the help of thousands of schoolchildren in Balikpapancontributing small amounts of money,

Smits was able to set up what became the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation to rehabilitate
orphaned and misused orangutans and return them to a safe place in the wild. Wanariset became
home to hundreds of confiscated orangutans, rescued from illegal animal smuggling, kept as pets or
exploited in other ways.
The Dutch orangutan-scientist Herman Rijksen recalls Smits creating the facility: "In no time he set
up the most fantastic oversized quarantine facility, better than any hospital in the whole area,
because that's typical of Willie. He wants to do it very, very good."[6]
Smits quickly saw that protecting orangutans in their habitat not only benefits orangutans but also
the environment, biological diversity, the poor in Borneo and all the worlds people. The activities of
the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation expanded from rescuing, rehabiliting and releasing
orangutans to monitoring, conserving and rebuilding rainforest, along with the social engagement
that made this sustainable. Smits also took on an increasing campaigning and advocacy role, to
make the plight of the orangutan and its habitat more widely known, along with the message that
something could - and was - being done.

Samboja Lestari[edit]
Main article: Samboja Lestari
In 2001, BOS started purchasing land near Wanariset (1244S 1165915E). The 2,000 hectares
(4,900 acres) area it acquired had been deforested by mechanical logging, drought and severe fires
and was covered in alang-alang grass (Imperata cylindrica). The aim was to restore
the rainforest and provide a safe haven for rehabilitated orangutans while at the same time providing
a source of income for local people. The name Samboja Lestari roughly translates as the
"everlasting conservation of Samboja".[7] Wilderness engineering in the form of reforestation and
rehabilitation is the core of the project, with hundreds of indigenous species planted. By the middle
of 2006 more than 740 different tree species had been planted.[8][9]
The Orangutan Reintroduction Project at Wanariset was moved to Samboja Lestari. "Forest
Schools" were established, areas that provide natural, educational playgrounds for the orangutans in
which to learn forest skills. Here the orangutans roam freely but under supervision and are returned
to sleeping cages for the night. "Orangutan islands" were created where the orangutans and other
wildlife that cannot return to the wild are nevertheless able to live in almost completely natural
conditions.
At his 2009 TED talk Smits stated there had been a substantial increase in cloud cover and 30%
more rainfall due to the reforestation at Samboja Lestari, the rainfall increase data being consistent
with the absence of trade winds.[5] When challenged, Smits cited the production of cloud
condensation nuclei by rainforest[10] as a possible mechanism to account for the observed data.[11]
To finance the nature reserve, BOS created a system of "land-purchasing", a "Create Rainforest"
initiative where people symbolically adopt square metres of rainforest.[12] Donors are able to view and
follow the progress of the purchase with their donation in the project area with Google Earthsatellite
images from 2002 and 2007 with additional information overlaid.[13]

Masarang Foundation[edit]
Smits is one of the founders of, and the chairman of the Masarang Foundation,[14] which raises
money and awareness to restore habitat forests around the world and to empower local people. In
2007, Masarang opened a palm sugar factory that uses thermal energy to turn the juice tapped daily
from sugar palms (Arenga pinnata) into sugar or ethanol, returning cash and power to the
community in the attempt to move toward a better future for the people, forest, and native
orangutans, while saving 200,000 trees per year from being cut down as fuel wood.[15]

Tapping the sugar palm

In 1980, when Smits proposed to his wife, Syennie Watoelangkow (of royal blood)
in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, he was surprised by the dowry: six sugar palms. At that time, a mature
sugar palm that was ready to sap cost about as much as a chicken. Nevertheless, the people of
Tomohon wanted sugar palms ("pohon aren") instead of gold as the dowry. "I wondered why it was
that cheap," Smits says. Later he learnt the answer, calling the sugar palm a "magic tree".[16][17] He
says of the sugar palm. "From the roots to the leaves, every bit is beneficial for people. Those who
eat palm sugar will live longer than those who use cane sugar." During his years of research in North
Sulawesi and other places in Indonesia where sugar palms grow, he has learned that people are not
making the most of the tree and its properties.
In North Sulawesi's capital, Manado, people sap the trees only to make their traditional alcoholic
drink. People in other places sap the trees to make palm sugar or cut them down for sago. But the
tree offers more. For one, nira, the white sap obtained, can be processed into ethanol. "My research
shows no tree can produce alternative fuel as well as palm trees," Smits said. "Sugar palms can also
help the environment. They are effective in preventing landslides, even on really steep land." The
high-quality fibres from sugar palms are also widely used; Smits exports them to Europe, where they
are among the materials used in the bodies of luxury cars.
Smits has opened a palm sugar factory in Tomohon, managed by his brother Theo Smits, which
uses as fuel leftovers from the state energy company Pertaminas geothermal gas production.
Everyday, about 6,200 farmers produce nira for the factory, which is managed by the Masarang
Foundation. The sugar is sold locally and exported to Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and Europe,
where it is known as Masarang Arenga Palm Sugar. He states his "productive, environmentally
friendly factory" could become a model for other places in the country. "There are no less than eight
provinces that have abundant sugar palms but they have not done much with them," he says. He
believes that if Indonesia made the most of its sugar palms, then in two years there would be no
need to import sugar any more. For this purpose, he designed, prototyped and patented the so-
called Village Hub.[18]
According to Smits' talks for Qi Global[19] and TED,[5] both Samboja Lestari and the Masarang
foundation have evolved on the principles of People, Planet, Profit. Smits has demonstrated how
community capacity-building and community empowerment can promote economic development
while conserving the natural environment.

Orangutan confiscations[edit]
With a team of BOS staff and forestry officers, Smits confiscates orangutans kept illegally as
pets.[20] When an orangutan is confiscated from a home the family is given medicines to fight the
parasites they may have contracted from the orangutan. (Smits himself recalls three days in hospital
on chemotherapy to fight the lungworms and other parasites that threatened his life.[citation needed]
Confiscations are inevitably confrontational at times, and there have been numerous death threats
made against Smits.[21]

Primate Centre at Jakarta Zoo[edit]

The Schmutzer Primate Centre, Jakarta

Smits designed the Schmutzer Primate Centre at the Ragunan Zoo which opened in 2002 [22]so that
the orangutans have freedom and privacy in a habitat with a variety of forest trees and plants, a
waterfall and water with turtles and fish, and small animals like porcupines and deer mice.[23] Thick
dark glass allows visitors to see the orangutans while being invisible to them.
Smits initially had no interest in zoos, but now sees it as a sanctuary for sick, injured and blind
confiscated orangutans (the healthy ones are taken to Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
rehabilitation centres for eventual release into the wild).

Other work[edit]
Smits has continued to be involved in the study of the mycorrhizal fungithat improve the uptake of
water and nutrients from the soil by the merantitree. By using this fungus he has achieved faster
growth of young seedlings. He is beside his current work for the orangutans at Wanariset, the
chairman of the Gibbon Foundation[citation needed] and consultant for the Indonesian Orangutan Survival
Program.
In 2006 Smits launched TV 5 Dimensi, commonly referred to as TV5D, a North Sulawesi local
television channel, based in Tomohon. His wife's family in North Sulawesi manages a beach about
ten kilometers long, where sea turtles grow and visitors may see coral. Smits also rescues
tropical birds from the illegal pet trade.
An increasing amount of Smits' activity has been in disseminating information, outreach, education,
and public awareness-raising, his talks for Qi Global[19] and TED,[5] being examples of this.

Recognition[edit]
Smits received the first non-Indonesian Satya Lencana Pembangunan Award (1998). He has the
equivalent of a knighthood from the Netherlands for his conservation work.[24]

Willie Smits is the world's leading protector of orangutans and their habitat. Willie

and his Indonesian team of hundreds have re-created a lush rainforest of several
thousand hectares (some 8,000 acres) from parched and devastated grasslands.
Soon this healthy forest, created one square meter at a time, will be ready for the
rehabilitated orangutans, the original keystone species.
Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute[25]

Smits was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2009. Ashoka Fellows are leading social
entrepreneurs who we recognize to have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to
change patterns across society.[26]

Dr. Willie Smits is a rainforest inventor who has revolutionized reforestation
techniques and policies worldwide and is also the worlds most prominent protector
of orangutans and their natural habitat.

Ashoka Fellowship

Writing[edit]
Thinkers of the Jungle - The Orangutan Report: Pictures, Facts, Background[27] gives an account of
the life, behaviour and fate of orangutans. Alongside a wealth of information about this endangered
species based on the latest research, authors Willie Smits and Gerd Schuster outline the threat to
the orangutan's survival: economical and political interests, exploitation of nature and human
ignorance and greed.
The book is illustrated by more than 350 photographs taken by war photographer Jay Ullal.[28]
In August 2007 the publisher Herbert Ullmann set off via Singapore and Jakarta for Balikpapan in
Borneo. There he visited two orangutan rehabilitation centres run by Dr. Willie Smits. He was
impressed both by the orangutans themselves and by Smits' work in rescuing and rehabilitating
them: "There are books that can be published, and books that have to be published."