35 Years of Conservation – Protecting the Orangutan and its Tropical Forest Home by Ashley Leiman OBE, founder, director and trustee of the Orangutan Foundation. Tuesday 10 March 2026. 6.30pm
at the Indonesian Embassy, 30 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2BU and by Zoom

The talk will give a perspective on the future of orangutans, forests and people.
Ashley will recount her stories from the field, with stunning photos of orangutans and Bornean wildlife. 
Ashley is also an AIS member and former Council member.

Ashley founded the Orangutan Foundation UK in 1990 after living in Southeast Asia for several years and experiencing the beauty and wonder of the primates’ habitat, the rainforest. Her active involvement in conservation was sparked over 30 years ago whilst living in Hong Kong, where she became involved with the Natural History Society and Conservation Society. In 1985 she co-founded the New York Rainforest Alliance, bringing awareness of rainforest conservation to a wider audience. 

Ashley spends up to a third of the year in the field, in Indonesian Borneo where the foundation runs a number of projects. These include the research and protection of Tanjung Puting National Park, the Belantikan Hulu region and the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, where the foundation has six field programmes. Some 34 years of dedicated conservation work in Indonesian Borneo has seen the establishment of a viable orangutan population in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, Central Kalimantan.
Ashley is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and member of the Primate Society.