Africa’s highest mountain has become a beacon for climate change because the famous snows of Kilimanjaro are melting.  I’m climbing Kili@60 with a team from the PATT Foundation to raise awareness of climate change and raise funds for wildlife charities – and these two critical causes are connected.

The Orangutan Foundation (UK) www.orangutan.org.uk is dedicated to ensuring the survival of orangutans in their natural habitat – the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.    This is achieved by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities and promoting research and education. Our approach goes beyond that of purely protecting orangutans. It recognizes that orangutans are essential to their habitat, which is unique in its rich biodiversity and is crucial for local communities, who are as dependent on the forest as are the orangutans.  When Ashley Leiman founded the charity in 1990, she contacted me for advice and I have served as one of the Trustees ever since;  I hope that by following my Kilimanjaro climb, you will be moved to support our work.

What is the link to climate change?   By protecting orangutans and helping local communities develop sustainable livelihoods, OF helps to maintain healthy forest ecosystems in Borneo and Sumatra.   Orangutans are keystone species in the forests there and are sometimes called the ‘Gardeners of the Forest’.  This is because they feed on leaves, flowers and fruit, and in doing so they prune the plants, create light-gaps by breaking branches, act as seed dispersal agents and fertilise the forest with their droppings.   Most tropical tree species depend on animals to disperse their seeds, and each huge, towering, centuries-old rainforest tree we see today is the result of an ecological event hundreds of years ago when, say, an ape ate a fruit, swallowed the seed and the next day deposited it in nutrient-rich dung far from the parent plant.   If we want tropical forests to continue storing carbon, generating rainfall and stabilising our climate for centuries to come, we MUST protect the primates and other animals today.   By supporting the Orangutan Foundation you are helping to change the way people perceive these great apes – respecting them for their intelligence and understanding their role in the ecosystems which sustain us all.