Trade in the highly endangered orang utan still goes on despite total protection in its entire range – Indonesia and East Malaysia. The authors spent three years studying orang utans in North Sumatra, trying to get the protection law enforced, and running a rehabilitation station for confiscated animals. The aim was to return the animals to the wild, but the station's real importance was that it made the confiscation of illegally held animals possible, and was thus some deterrent to hunters and traders. Much more damaging than the orang utan trade, however, is the forest destruction that is going on, and it is vital to ensure that large areas of lowland primary forest are preserved from the huge timberlogging operations that are fast destroying the orang utan's habitat.