Dr. Andhani Widya Hartanti receives the KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Award 2024

Tonight, Dr. Andhani Widya Hartanti will be awarded the KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Award 2024 by the KfW Foundation for her outstanding commitment to achieving species and climate protection goals.

For nine years, the veterinarian has been dedicated to the conservation of the last remaining lowland rainforests in Sumatra (Indonesia) and the survival of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.

As the director of the FZS Jungle School on the edge of Bukit Tiga Puluh National Park, she provides medical care for orphaned young animals and, together with colleagues, prepares them for a life in the Sumatran jungle. So far, more than 200 orangutans were successfully trained and reintroduced to the wild.

“We make sure that animals that have been kept illegally as pets get a second chance,” explains Andhani Widya Hartanti. “Normally, young orangutans stay with their mothers for six to seven years and learn everything they need to know from them. We take on this role for animals that are confiscated by the authorities. We show them how to climb, how to build sleeping nests, what is edible and how to survive in the forest as a wild orangutan.”

With its landscape conservation program in Sumatra, FZS is committed to preserving the Bukit Tiga Puluh ecosystem, where plants and animals are permanently protected. Dr. Christof Schenck, executive director of FZS and a jury member of the KfW Foundation, praised Dr. Andhani Widya Hartanti as a hero of nature conservation: “Protecting orangutans is not just about saving one of our closest relatives from extinction. Like almost no other species, the red “forest people” represent the Southeast Asian rainforests, treasure troves of biodiversity and important carbon reservoirs. Their protection also ensures our own survival.”

Andhani Widya Hartanti shares the KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Award, endowed with 50,000 euros, with Hercilía Chipanga. In Mozambique, in the buffer zone of Gorongosa National Park, Hercilía Chipanga supports the surrounding communities as a community manager. Education about nature conservation, community-based use and management of local natural resources and the coexistence of humans and animals are the focus of her work. The Frankfurt Zoological Society warmly congratulates both prizewinners on this award.

The KfW Foundation in Frankfurt awards the KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Award every two years to individuals or institutions that have made a special contribution to the conservation of biological diversity through their creativity and innovative strength.