The Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) lies close to the Dayak-village of Pasir Panjang in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. The Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean Orangutan. It is also an important refuge for many endemic forest species, as the Asian Elephant, the Sumatran Rhinoceros, the Bornean Clouded Leopard, and the Dayak Fruit Bat. The island historically had extensive rainforest cover, but the area shrank rapidly due to heavy logging. Half of the annual global tropical timber acquisition comes from Borneo. Furthermore, Palm oil plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest.

The Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) was founded in 1998. There are over 100 employees who come from Pasir Panjang itself and the surrounding villages. The sanctuary therefore is one of the main employers in the region. The vets and laboratory staff are also from Indonesia. The OCCQ currently takes care of over 300 orangutans. Most of them are orphans.  Others, mostly older animals, were caught in palm oil plantations or during their escape from burning forests. Others were confiscated from private households.

As orangutans normally stay with their mothers until about eight years of age, reintroduction into the wild is only possible from this age on. Until then they need to be cared for within the sanctuary while they acquire the knowledge necessary for survival in the wild. To assist their learning, adjacent to the sanctuary there are 80 hectares of forest in which these juveniles are able to practice climbing, building nests, and foraging. The CoCoA group conducts non-invasive behavioral research with orangutans at the OCCQ, while being involved in welfare and conservation efforts (www.orang-utans-in-not.org).