By Grace Hammond

This weekend, Alan Titchmarsh hosts the start of a series of celebrity-led wildlife films to raise cash for the world’s endangered wildlife.

As wildlife faces a crisis, there are projects working to save key species and habitats, to provide a secure future for people and wildlife. In a new BBC1 series, nine celebrities travel to investigate the issues on the ground.

Saving Planet Earth begins with Sir David Attenborough looking at the impact of humans on the planet and ends with a live, fund-raising finale. The money will fund wildlife conservation projects in the UK and around the world.

Sir David says: “We all need space to live, but our species is taking more than its fair share. According to recent figures, the average person in the UK uses six hectares of the planet every year to live. That may not sound like much, but if every human being were to use this amount, we would need three Earths to survive. What does our over-consumption mean for the rest of life that shares planet Earth? Can a growing human population still leave space for wildlife?”

Through archive and footage from BBC1’s Planet Earth, he outlines the threat to the remaining planet and urges viewers to protect as much wilderness as possible.

“During the course of my career, I have had the good fortune to visit some of the most remote places on our planet – places rich in a variety of life. Now, increasing human pressure threatens many of the places and animals I have seen. Some experts believe we are in the middle of a mass extinction, and our species is to blame.”

He highlights the conflict that occurs as animals are adapting when their wilderness disappears and they are forced to live closer to people. In India, leopards walk into the bustling city of Mumbai, while in Africa, elephants trample villagers and wreck crops. These conflicts are often a matter of life and death for both animals and humans.

As he strolls through Caledonian woodland, he draws parallels between the co-existence of wildlife and humans in Britain and the rest of the world. He describes how previous generations in the UK were so frightened of wolves that they deliberately destroyed habitats in order to eradicate them – and succeeded.

Changes in agriculture have also taken their toll on the world’s delicate infrastructure, as farming practices have had to adapt to increased food demand. The move to plant GM crops in North America’s Corn Belt is destroying the habitat of the monarch butterfly, whose caterpillars feed on milkweed. And, after the longest migration of any insect to over-winter in Mexico, their forest refuge is also being threatened by illegal logging.

In Borneo, it’s the legal destruction of the rainforest for a world market in palm oil which is threatening the orang-utan. Forests are burned down, leaving hundreds of baby orang-utan orphaned. Although some are rescued, their return to the wild is hampered by the fact that these social animals need their parents to teach them how to survive.

Sir David concludes: “We know we are using more than our fair share of the planet and its resources, and we must now redress this imbalance. Any effort to do so – no matter how big or small – is valuable if we
wish to ensure a future that is healthy for all life on planet Earth.”

Will Young is one of the nine celebs involved and he makes an emotional journey into the heart of Africa where logging and bush-meat poachers are taking their toll on the elusive lowland gorillas of West Africa.

As loggers raze the once-impenetrable jungles, poachers follow in their wake. Some scientists estimate that there are only 100,000 western lowland gorillas left in the wild.

Will Young investigates two very different sides of gorilla conservation. In Cameroon, he visits a refuge caring for the often traumatised orphaned gorilla victims of the bush-meat trade, while in Gabon, he sees for himself the success of preserving the gorillas’ jungle habitat.

At the Cameroon Wildlife Aid Foundation (CWAF), surrogate mum Rachel Hogan introduces Will to the traumatised babies rescued after their parents were slaughtered. Just like human children, young gorillas separated from their parents need individual care. Without emotional support, they rarely survive
the trauma.

Rachel explains: “They’re all orphans of the bush-meat trade, which means that the hunters have slaughtered the family group. Normally, the infants are too small to be killed for meat, so the hunter will take them, try to keep them alive and maybe sell them as pets. But with gorillas, they’re so sensitive and emotionally fragile that it’s really difficult. Within 24 to 48 hours, they often just give up and die.”

Gorillas share more than 96 per cent of their DNA with humans, and for Will, a close encounter with a wild gorilla is a remarkable experience.

“The most bizarre thing is they look so human,” explains Will. “I feel like I want to talk to them. It’s quite amazing to see something so similar to us. And to think that they could be gone in my life.”

But, although sanctuaries such as CWAF are vital for the care of gorillas affected by poachers, they are not the answer to gorilla survival. Will travels to the Mikongo Conservation Centre, in Gabon, where scientists, helped by the local Baka pygmies, study the gorillas in the wild. Ten per cent of the country has been declared a national park, and the forest around Mikongo is believed to have the greatest concentration of lowland gorillas in the world.

Despite the abundance of gorillas, they are extremely elusive. The scientists track the gorillas every day and painstakingly piece together the reality of their lives. Tracking gorillas deep into the forests gives Will an insight into the gorillas’ habitat.

“It’s really amazing if you stop and listen to the sounds of the forest as they sound very similar to a piece of music, because there are so many different elements,” says Will.

After a three-day expedition with scientist Gabrielle Sciatelle, Will has a rare encounter with a wild gorilla family. It’s a moment, he says, he will always
remember.

Sharing Planet Earth, the opening programme in BBC1’s series Saving Planet Earth, tomorrow, 7pm.

Source: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features?articleid=2977204

Alarming new evidence gathered recently by Indonesia’s own Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP), proves the palm oil company PT NABATINDO KARYA UTAMA is currently destroying pristine orangutan habitat in Central Kalimantan.

PT NABATINDO KARYA UTAMA, despite worldwide protests, despite local opposition, despite Ministerial protest, despite the Indonesian Palm Oil Growers Association saying they will not cut down forests, despite the government of Indonesias agreement under the Kinshasa Declaration not to destroy orangutan habitat, this company is rapidly cutting down, every day, 30 hectares of rainforest close to Cempanga village, Central Kalimantan. At least 50 orangutans, 11 species of protected mammals and reptiles and 34 species of birds will killed only in this month if Government do not react rapidly to stop it.

Hardi Baktiantoro, Director of the Centre for Orangutan Protection said; “I call on the Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry to please stop, immediately, palm oil companies from logging any more forest both at Cempanga and elsewhere in Borneo. We all know there is already plenty of cleared land suitable for new crops.”

Eyewitness accounts talk of orangutans being scared away by the excavators. Yet another forest, once forest full of diversity, providing food and fuel for local people, is now being reduced to barren earth.

“All the forests that I have lived off and protected since 1972 have been cleared for palm oil plantations.

The loss of our forests means the loss of wild animals and plants that are useful for our Dayak traditional medicine. The forest where we depend a lot for our livelihood such as rubber, rattan, and wood has been devastated in recent months. I am sure if the government will not stop the operation of PT NKU within this month, there will be nothing left for us,” said Stone Christopel Sahabu, a local Dayak who managed the forest for 3 decades.

*Additional notes*

The forest of Cempaga is located beside Tumbang Koling, a village, some 4 hours drive from Palangkaraya. Though legally bought by PT NABATINDO KARYA UTAMA, local people do not want the forest cut down.

As often happens, no one listens to local communities when big profits are at stake.

A research team from the Centre for Orangutan Protection report that an excavator is already destroying 30 hectares of forest every single day. The community forest, originally covering an area of 10,000 hectares, has now been reduced to only 4,000 hectares; this last 4000 acres will disappear very soon unless the Minister intervene NOW.

Stone Christopel Sahabu has been managing the community forests since 30 August 1972. This forest has been endorsed by the Utan Teke as the head of the Pundu village. Zainuddin Safri, Head of the Cempaga sub district on 27 September 2001, strengthened this endorsement. The concession permit issued by the Head of Kotawaringin Timur apparently has overlapped with the principle of the community forest and on 28 February 2007, the Governor of Central Kalimantan had instructed the head of Kotawaringin Timur District to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately, the big excavator equipment operators (palm oil companies), continue to tear down trees whilst the officials procrastinate.

The rapidly deteriorating forestry situation in Indonesia is being monitored closely by foreign NGOs and the media. Sean Whyte, Chief Executive of Nature Alert, leading the international campaign to raise public as well as commercial awareness of the TRUE COST to the environment of most palm oil grown in Indonesia says, “The eyes of the world are watching Indonesia to see how little rainforest and how few orangutans will be left, before the government of Indonesia stops the palm oil companies from logging any more forest.

The last thing we want to do is to name and shame those individuals who harm orangutans with this merciless logging, but make no mistake, we will. When asked by the people of Indonesia to help them save their forests, traditions and wildlife, we will.”

For further information and / or high-resolution photographs, please contact: Hardi Baktiantoro, Director of the Centre for Orangutan Protection
www.orangutanprotection.com
Email: orangutan@indosat.net
Tel: 081398229911

Sean Whyte, Chief Executive, Nature Alert.
www.naturealert.org
www.born-to-be-wild.org
Email: sw@naturealert.org

HARDI BAKTIANTORO
CENTRE FOR ORANGUTAN PROTECTION
PO.BOX 2406 JKP 10024
JAKARTA – INDONESIA
orangutan@indosat.net.id

21 June 2007
Aman can now see again thanks to the Geat Orangutan Project

AMAN the orangutan might be able to return to the wild following the restoration of his sight after the world’s first cataract operation on the species.

The 19-year-old male was blind for 10 years but since the successful operation organised by The Great Orangutan Project based in Dunstable Road, Redbourn, he can now see his three offspring for the first time.

The project was founded by local conservationists Guillaume Feldman and Afzaal Mauthoor. They set up the base for their company, Way Out Experiences, in Redbourn in 2003 which gives volunteers the chance to work on conservation projects across Asia.

The aim of the Great Orangutan Project is to increase the size of the Borneo orangutan populations and bring them back from the brink of extinction.

The project organised Aman’s operation at the Matang Wildlife Centre in Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo which provides rescued orangutans with a safe haven.

The Orangutan Appeal UK charity funded the £2,700 costs of the operation with the ophthalmologist, anaesthetist and vet involved donating their services.

The latest event is a twist in Aman’s otherwise sad tale. He was rescued from a market in Sarawak in 1989 and was then kept as a pet before being handed over to the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

While at Semenggoh he bit into a power cable which gave him a severe electric shock which is thought to have brought on the cataracts.

Aman’s deteriorating sight meant he had to be brought back into captivity and the safety of the Matang Wildlife Centre.

Aman is just one of the Orangutans the project has helped. But Afzaal, of Birchmead Close, St Albans, explained the real aim was for the projects to continue after the helpers had gone. To do that they had to involve the local community.

He said that many gap-year projects failed after the volunteers had left because the locals had not been educated on how to use the resource.

He said: “In Sarawak for example the locals used to see orangutans as pests and would shoot them. But by involving them in the project they now they see them as a way of making a living and look to protect them.”

Source: http://www.hertsad.co.uk/

JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 19, 2007 (ENS) – Indonesia’s efforts to crack down on illegal logging are holding out some hope for endangered oranguntans, the red-haired apes that inhabit the Indonesian rainforest, the UN Environment Programme says. But hundreds of orangutans have fled their homes and ended up in “refugee” camps as illegal logging rapidly destroys the last remaining rainforests of Southeast Asia.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner says, “Indonesia cannot and should not have to deal with this issue alone.”

International support and regional cooperation, especially from timber importing countries, is essential to preserve the remaining orangutans, the rainforests of Southeast Asia, and the people whose livelihoods rely on these ecosystems, he says.

Illegally felled logs from an Indonesian forest are hauled to market. Photo by Alain Compost © WWF / Canon

In recent weeks, Indonesian authorities have stepped up action against the illegal timber trade, arresting six people and seizing 30,000 cubic meters of processed wood in Nunukan, East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.

Another 40,000 cubic meters of processed wood was confiscated in Kutai, East Kalimantan and several more arrests were made.

The seizure of 70,000 cubic meters of illegal wood represents around 3,000 truck loads of timber, but Steiner points out that by some estimates illegal logging is clearing 2.1 million hectares of forest in Indonesia worth an estimated $4 billion every year.

“This may equate to several hundred thousand truckloads – corresponding to a continuous line of trucks from Paris to Bangkok,” said Steiner, speaking at the conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, that concluded Friday in The Netherlands.

More wardens on the ground as well as improved policing and customs operations are needed, he said.

Investigations by the UN’s Great Apes Survival Project, GRASP, its network of nongovernmental partner organizations, and CITES have found that hundreds of orangutans are being rescued and kept in “rescue” or “rehabilitation” camps as the forest is cut or burned, straining the resources of many NGOs.

A confused baby orangutan is abandoned in the Indonesian rainforest. Photo © BOS

A UNEP Rapid Response report released in February, “The Last Stand of the Orangutan” presents evidence that logging companies, employing heavy machinery and armed personnel, are operating in Indonesia’s national parks in defiance of the law.

While the Indonesian government has stopped illegal logging in some parks by the use of police and military force, the companies, prompted by the growing demand from importing countries, continue their illegal operations in others.

Satellite images, together with data from the Indonesian government, indicates that illegal logging is now taking place in 37 out of 41 national parks and that suitable orangutan forest habitat may be gone in a little as a decade.

The rate of loss of these forests outstrips a previous UNEP report released in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development.

Experts then estimated that most of the suitable orangutan habitat would be lost by 2032. New satellite imagery reveals that the illegal logging is now entering a new critical phase with the rainforests of south East Asia disappearing 30 percent faster than previously thought.

The burning and clearing of rainforests for palm oil plantations to produce biofuels is a new source of pressure on orangutan habitat.

The greenhouse gas emissions generated from the damage to forests may entirely off-set the gains in emission reductions when the biodiesel produced from palms planted there is substituted for petroleum as a transport fuel, UNEP warns.

Melanie Virtue, who leads the GRASP project at UNEP, said, “We are observing illegal trade in live orangutans as a bi-product of the illegal logging. When the forests are burnt or cut down, mothers are often killed, while the juveniles are caught to be used as pets, or sold on to zoos or safari parks.”

Mother and infant orangutans at a rescue shelter. Photo courtesy GRASP Australian Orangutan Project

Female orangutans only give birth every six to eight years. Often, their mothers are shot and juvenile apes then captured, said Virtue. In some cases, orangutans are sold for as little as $100 and locally even cheaper. As the forest is cut down, more orangutans move into farmlands in search for food and are then either shot or captured.

CITES Secretary General Willem Wijnstekers said, “It is very clear from what is jointly conducted by CITES and GRASP, that there is a highly organized structure of illegal trade in orangutans. Consequently, there needs to be much higher law enforcement priority allocated to combating this destructive criminality.”

“Such priority needs to come not only from Indonesia, but from the countries importing illegal timber and orangutans,” Wijnstekers said.

The number of orangutans sold and exported is unknown but is believed to be in the hundreds. Rescue or rehabilitation centers in Borneo contain around 1,000 orangutans and one has over 400 individuals.

Recently, illegally obtained young Bornean orangutans have been found in zoos in Thailand and Cambodia.

Christian Nellemann, a lead author on the UNEP Rapid Response report, said, “The rate of decline of the forests is the most alarming we have seen yet anywhere in the World. The real blame lies on the countries buying the timber and wood products from illegal sources.”

“The stepping up of law enforcement in Indonesia is a very encouraging step indeed,” said Nellemann, “but governments in importing countries bear a direct responsibility for the crisis.”

UNEP says consumers can help by choosing wood products that are certified and labeled as being sustainably harvested.

Orangutans are intelligent and have the ability to reason and think. They closely related to humans, sharing 97 percent of the same DNA. The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is the largest tree living mammal in the world.

Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call these ape Orang Hutan, or “People of the Forest.” In the past, they would not kill orangutans, which they viewed as persons hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become slaves.

Source: Environment news Service
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2007/2007-06-19-03.asp

Kalimantan, the untamed wilderness, where great apes roam free in tropical rainforests, where the forests remain mysterious and still refuse to yield undiscovered animals and plants, where humans still live in harmony with nature. If you want to witness this Kalimantan for yourself, than you will have to be fast.

The tropical rainforests of Indonesia are being rapidly destroyed for the fuel of the future, Palm oil. Palm oil is in big demand for the biofuel market. But bear in mind, this biofuel is not the green answer to pending oil shortages, and is certainly not benefiting planet earth. Local farmers, who have for generations worked on and respected the land, are being forced off by the big Palm oil companies.

In Central Kalimantan many different companies are working with one main purpose, rapidly converting forests to Palm oil plantations. For example, PT Nabatindo Karya Utama is at present destroying the last remaining 7,000 hectares of tropical rainforests within the Kotawaringan area. Orangutans, Gibbons, and all the other animals have nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. The survivors are forced in to the small remaining pieces of forests, the so-called “green zones”, where due to overpopulation they will be forced to compete for food and space, and many will die of starvation.

These animals are highly endangered and protected under Indonesian law but yet no effort to enforce the law is undertaken to save these animals. The Orangutan is one of the last great apes, and is not only protected under Indonesian law but also internationally under the Convention for the Trade in Endangered Flora and Fauna (CITES). Appendix II of the CITES convention states that these apes can’t be traded for any commercial purpose. To destroy their habitat for profit is in violation of the core principle of the convention.

The Orangutan can be seen on the old 5,000 Rupiah notes, as a proud symbol of Indonesia’s fauna. But its home is disappearing and the Orangutan with it. If the destruction goes on at the current rate, the sad irony is that the only place we will be able to observe Orangutans in the near future will be on the 5,000 Rupiah note.

Where once stood rich forest, now millions of palm oil plants can be observed. The heat and drought is unbearable, making it hard to imagine that this area used to be humid and full of life.

A group of local people are working to preserve the last remaining 7,000 hectares within the area of Kotawaringan, an area that they are dependant on and have been preserving since childhood. The lake from which the local residents depend on for their fisheries is polluted with pesticides from the Palm oil plantations. Dead fish can be spotted on the edge of the lake, and locals in contact with the water will end up with skin problems. How long can they keep up the fight against the massive Palm-oil industry alone?

Global warming is happening here and now. The destruction of Indonesian rainforests is bringing this planet closer to the edge. Palm oil cannot become the fuel of the future at the expense of the rainforests. The blood of animals is fueling the Palm oil industry, causing irreversible damage.

Femke
www.orangutanprotection.com

KUCHING: Agricultural producers must ensure they do not damage the environment, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui.

He said this was vital as countries, particularly those in Europe, had made it a requirement that imported food had to come from producers who were not causing damage to the environment.

“Environment has become an increasingly important issue in food production,” he added when asked on his recent weeklong mission to Europe to counter anti-palm oil lobbyists in the European Union.

Chin said although governments were not allowed to use trade barriers or tariffs on imported food, as this was against World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, they were using non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to lobby companies, like big supermarket chains, not to import food which was not produced with care to the environment.

He said NGOs in Europe were using the Orang Utan issue to campaign against palm oil from Malaysia as they alleged that deforestation and forest fires in land clearing had threatened the survival of the animal.

Chin said it was now a very clear trend that consumers, particularly in Europe, expected food producing countries not only to supply quality and safe food but also to take good care of the environment in the production process.

Source:
The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters

THE HAGUE, June 11 (Reuters) – Illegal logging could destroy the last forest strongholds of orangutans within a decade and the world should do more to help Indonesia halt smuggling both of apes and of timber, a U.N. report said on Monday.

Burning of forests, sometimes to clear land to grow palm oil for biofuels, was adding to threats to endangered orangutans which live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, according to a report issued at a U.N. wildlife conference.

“Indonesia cannot and should not have to deal with this issue alone,” Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said in a statement. He urged more funding for wardens and a global customs crackdown on illegal trade.

“It is very clear … that there is a highly organised structure of illegal trade in orangutans,” said Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

China was the main destination for illegally logged timber from orangutan regions, mainly in Indonesia, but much of it also ended up in Japan, the European Union and the United States, according to UNEP.

Hundreds of orangutans were believed to have been exported, often caught as they fled loggers. Young orangutans had been spotted in zoos in Thailand and Cambodia.

“Satellite images, together with data from the Indonesian government, indicates that illegal logging is now taking place in 37 out of 41 national parks and that suitable forest habitat (for orangutans) may be gone in as little as a decade,” it said.

A United Nations report in 2002, which raised alarm about the plight of the apes, had projected that most of the habitat suitable for orangutans would be lost by 2032. In February, UNEP had put the date at 2022.

“We are bringing the date forward again,” said Christian Nellemann, a lead author of the report. “The rate of decline of the forests is the fastest we have seen anywhere in the world.”

UNEP praised Indonesia for cracking down on loggers by seizing 70,000 cubic metres of processed wood, enough to fill 3,000 trucks, in East Kalimantan province and arresting several people in the past few weeks.

But UNEP’s Steiner said: “This must be set against the fact that by some estimates illegal logging is clearing 2.1 million hectares of forest in Indonesia annually worth an estimated $4 billion.

“This may equate to several hundred thousand truckloads — corresponding to a continuous line of trucks from Paris to Bangkok,” he added.

UNEP estimated there might be between 45,000 and 69,000 orangutans in Borneo and 7,300 in Sumatra.

Source: Reuters AlertNet