Lyndl Kean, An Illawarra woman is parlaying her modelling career into a bid to save one of humanity’s closest relatives – the orangutan. She describes as “a beauty pageant that’s environment-based” – and as a lover of monkeys since she was a child, is using her profile for a good cause.

In particular, she wants all the Australians to know about the damage done to orangutan habitat by an industry with its tentacles in many of the foods we eat, and the soaps and cosmetics we use: palm oil.

Ms Kean, who went to school at Figtree High, is working with a charity called The Orangutan Project (TOP) because she wants to research more on Orangutan habitat. She has recently returned from a trip to the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, where the advance of the palm oil industry is threatening an ecosystem which is estimated to be home to 150 orangutans.

According to her research, in the past 20 years they [orangutans] have lost 80 per cent of their habitat. “One of the really big eye-openers for me was during the six-hour drive from Jambi airport to the national park, where for the majority of it all we could see were palm oil or rubber plantations where the dense rainforest use to stand’’, She said.

“It was truly harrowing to see the extent of the destruction of the rainforest first-hand.” And “we all are trying to change the laws on palm oil labeling so that people can make an informed decision on what they are buying’’, she further said.