HUTAN is a French Non-Governmental Organisation established on the 15th of January 1996 in France by Dr. Isabelle Lackman, a primatologist with Dr. Marc Ancrenaz, a wildlife veterinarian.  Our French NGO registration number is: N 1/09696.  The primary aim of HUTAN is to study orang-utans in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

In 1998, HUTAN together with the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) established Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project – KOCP to carry out the aim of HUTAN’s orang-utan research and a small conservation centre was built in the village of Sukau in the heart of the Kinabatangan wetlands in eastern Sabah.

Since then HUTAN and KOCP are synonymous in synergy and has grown holistically to include working on other wildlife issues including the endemic Borneo Pygmy Elephants.  HUTAN-KOCP also works with local communities to address human-wildlife conflict as well as alternative livelihood.