Dr Ian Singleton is the Director of Conservation, PanEco Foundation; Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program and Principal Conservation Advisor to Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari in Indonesia. Together with Ms Jessica McKelson, Director, Raw Wildlife Encounters and Supervisor of Primates at Melbourne Zoo, the pair founded the Earth 4 Orangutans (E4O) project.

The E4O project aims to raise funds to purchase 30 hectares of land within the Sumatran rainforest and develop habitat for orangutans unable to be re-released into the wild, along with a sanctuary for other endangered species; build an education centre for conservation awareness for the general public and provide employment for local communities.

Dr Singleton is also a driving force behind the current Save Tripa campaign. Inside the protected Leuser Ecosystem of the Tripa peat swamps of Indonesia, palm oil companies, in direct defiance of Indonesian National Law, have and continue to set the forests ablaze, threatening the last 200 orangutans in a population that once numbered 2000.

Deakin University’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Technology is proud to present this event, part of Dr Singleton’s Australian speaking tour. His visit to Deakin’s Melbourne Burwood Campus highlights the professional and industry connections and partnerships that underpin Deakin’s wildlife and conservation biology and environmental management and sustainability courses and collaborative research programs.

Gold coin donations can be made at the event with all proceeds going directly to the Earth 4 Orangutans Project.