CHESTER Zoo's Bornean orang-utans go about their daily lives with the luxury of food and shelter and a safe place to call home.

The orang-utans live naturally in a new environment, Realm of the Red Ape, and are ambassadors for their species.

Visitors flock to the zoo every year to visit the orang-utans in a new exhibit that enables the visitors to see and learn more about orang-utans.

However, a world away, their counterparts face a struggle just to survive in shrinking habitats devastated by deforestation.

The future for Bornean orang-utans - endangered in the wild - is bleak and their numbers continue to fall as they increasingly come into contact with many threats, including man.

Pollution, forest fires and the devastation of forest areas for palm oil all pose a serious threat as does human/wildlife conflict.

The orang-utans' difficulties are particularly prevalent in the Sabah area of Borneo, most notably in the Kinabatangan region.

The state of Sabah is home to some 11,000 Bornean orang-utans - about a fifth of the entire Bornean Orang-utan population.

Sadly, the number of orang-utans in the region has declined by almost 50% in the last 20 years.

However, a unique project - the Realm of the Red Ape Field Programme - is to be funded by Chester Zoo with the long-term aim of protecting the orang-utans' habitat areas.

Up to £30,000 will be dedicated to the project annually with the support coming from the zoo's Keeper for a Day fund. Keeper for a Day enables visitors to pay to work alongside the animal teams and in turn raises funds for the zoo's conservation projects.

Roger Wilkinson, the zoo's Head of Field Programmes and Research and Mark Pilgrim, Director of Conservation and Education, visited Sabah last year.

Roger said: "There is a wealth of potential in Sabah for supporting and working with orang-utans to secure their future.

"Currently though the area faces a real crisis; a total of 26,000ha of forest were destroyed in one month alone and many species, not least the orang-utans, are being pushed further and further away.

"Our Realm of the Red Ape enclosure is a showcase for both Sumatra and Bornean orang-utans and now we are using our expertise and increasing funding to support the orang-utans in the wild where the difficulties facing them are immense."

The Realm of the Red Ape Field Programme will be an international effort with several agencies involved and Chester as the core funder.

The financial support will be put towards research investigating the distribution, conservation status, health and genetics of the orang-utan population, will pay for wildlife wardens in the area and also help develop eco-friendly tourism projects.

There will also be an educational element to the programme with local schools becoming involved in the project.

"This is a very much a holistic programme, aimed at providing long-term solutions not just for the orang-utans but also for the communities who live alongside them.

"Although the Bornean orang-utans are the focal species for this project, there are other species - including other species of primates - living in that area which would benefit from the area's conservation.

Chester Zoo is a conservation charity and we aim to help turn this area around and provide a better future for the orang-utans in the region," added Roger.