BOS: Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
Destruction:
Willie Smits has set up this foundation that protects Orangutans and fights deforestation.
This happens primarily for tropical wood for palm-seed oil. The latter is used as a biofuel and as food. Any product with unspecified 'vegetable-oil' in it will with 90% probability have palm-seed oil in it and therefore contributes to the complete anihilation of Orangutans.
- Smits now has a (dutch) site: http://www.williesmits.nl/
Rescue:
A typical BOS rescue attempt: BOS rescue team BOS team members are subject to violence and threats to such an extent that Smits has prepared his grave in his back-yard and has prepared his young children for the worst.
New model for the forest:
Form his background in Forestry Smits has developed a economically, socially and biologically profitable alternative to current practice. This alternative is based on the re-introduction of the Sugar-palm as a food-crop. The Masarang foundation set up by Smits aims to lift the traditional food-crop used in local tradition as a source of sugar, to out-compete cane-sugar by an impressive margin. From January 2007 a Sugar palm factory is working that uses geothermal energy for heating and rain water for cooling. The company is now called Tapergy, see: tapergy