Ashley Leiman

Ashley first went to the Malaysian rainforest in 1976 and being in the forest was a profound experience for her. In the early 1980s, she was an active member of the Natural History and Conservation Society of Hong Kong.

In 1986, she went to Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, where she met with Dr Birute Galdikas. At that time, she was living in New York where there was plenty of focus on the rainforests of South America, a little on the Congo but the third-largest rainforest – Indonesia received hardly any attention and neither did orangutans.

She moved back to the UK in 1989 and a year later the Orangutan Foundation was born in her upstairs bedroom. It was the first UK registered charity working to save the orangutan and its habitat through conservation, research and education. To this day, Ashley is one of the leading figures in orangutan conservation.

Ashley has made numerous radio and television appearances and authored several scientific papers. Spending up to a third of the year in the field (most usually Indonesian Borneo) her in-depth knowledge and passion for this region will inspire you long after you return home from a trip in her company – the reason why many of our past clients are still active members of the Orangutan Foundation.