Birds-of-Paradise and Orangutan Fundraiser is Live

As we near the holiday season I’m reminded once again of how fortunate my family and I have been to weather this pandemic relatively unscathed.  I hope you have been as fortunate, though I’m sure some of you suffered losses of loved ones, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to you.  It’s been a tough couple years.  

As we get through this, I am feeling like I want to devote some energy and resources to helping out the people and conservation activities that I care deeply about in Indonesia, where things have been especially tough.  The best way I can come up with to do that, is to raise funds by selling my art, so I want to let you know that for all bird-of-paradise and orangutan print purchases during my Holliday Sale, which is now live, I will donate 50% of profits to the two charities that I have been supporting the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, and Papua Konservasi dan Komunitas.

Please visit my online gallery through the link below, and consider a purchase for yourself or as a gift.  You can read more about the two organizations in the links below as well.

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise

The Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise.  The discovery that this bird had a distinct display behavior and that I made with Ed Scholes helped to confirm that it deserved to be a distinct species.  We published this in a paper in 2018, and that has been one of the highlights of our 15 year quest to document birds-of-paradise in the wild.  The reason I share this again now, is that the realization that this was a distinct species that could only be seen in the Arfak Mountains of West Papua, helped to drive an increasing number of birdwatchers to the area.  The local people who we worked with to make the discovery, and who own the land, expanded the guesthouses in their villages, and were starting to see that they could create an economy around grass-roots ecotourism.  Protecting their forests and their birds could create more long term benefits for them then exploiting the forest in the short term.  These were great developments.  And the potential is still there for this movement to grow and expand to more villages and communities across Papua and help maintain a green future.  However the pandemic has thrown a wrench into this promising development as visitors have been unable to go to Indonesia and all birding tours have been cancelled for nearly two years now.  The small NGO I work with, Papua Konservasi, has been sending donations directly to villages to help them get by during this time.  Any purchase you make of a bird-of-paradise print during my sale will help this cause, so thanks for your consideration.  Helping support these local landowners, the guardians of the forests where birds-of-paradise live, is the most direct way I can think of to help the birds.  And of course protecting these forest in Papua is also a key to mitigating climate change.  So its a win-win all around.

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise Performing is now available for purchase in my fine art store HERE.

Collecting Square Bird-of-Paradise Prints

Many of my Bird-of-Paradise images crop very nicely to a square format, and we have been offering a growing selection of square prints starting at 12x12 inches.  These very affordable prints ($150 discounted to $105 each during the Holiday Sale), are striking when displayed in a grouping of 2, 3, or 4.  They make a great conversation piece, brighten up any space, and proceeds help to support bird-of-paradise conservation.  And if you already have one or two, you can add more and display them in various groupings which I have enjoyed doing around my house.

See the “Birds-of-Paradise Square Prints Collection”  HERE, and help support Bird-of-Paradise conservation. 

Thanks for tuning in and considering joining my fundraiser.  If you’d like to learn more about the conservation groups I’m supporting and what they are doing, here are their individual websites.

Papua Konservasi

Save Wild Orangutans

I will follow up soon with another newsletter sharing more about the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project and their work that I am supporting.

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS.  We have added Greeting Cards to our store this holiday season especially featuring my birds in the snow images.  You can customize the inside, and get discounts for boxes of 10 or 25.  Check them out HERE.