Orangutan Outreach Website - Saving the Orangutan

Femke van den Bos, Contributor, Blandford, U.K.
July 31, 2007

Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory on Borneo island, is well known for its pristine tropical forests, rich natural resources and exotic flora and fauna. Only a few places remain on earth with such a biodiversity, providing shelter and food to hundreds of endangered species.

Kalimantan is home to 10 million people, of whom most belong to the traditional Dayak tribes, or orang gunung (mountain people). In accordance with their culture, the indigenous Dayak feel a strong spiritual connection to the rainforest, on which they depend for food and medicines, and cultivate rice and fruit on a small scale.

In recent decades, much of their rainforest has been cleared for logging and oil palm plantations for the production of palm oil — the most widely produced, cheap edible oil in the world, which is now being used in biofuels as well.

Clearing land for oil palm plantations has led to numerous conflicts with local communities.

The chair of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has warned that five million indigenous people in West Kalimantan alone are likely to become refugees because of biofuel expansion.

Soil erosion, landslides, haze, drought and floods are becoming an everyday reality as the destruction of rainforests continues. Many Dayak tribes have frequently tried to blockade logging roads to protect their forests, often to no avail.

At present, the local community in Tumbang Koling, Central Kalimantan, is trying to protect the surrounding natural environment. The forest of Cempaga is located adjacent to Tumbang Koling, a village four hours’ drive from the provincial capital of Palangkaraya. The people who live there depend on the forests for their livelihood: rubber, rattan and wood.

In 1972, the Tumbang Koling community realized they had to join forces in order to protect their rainforest.

Stone Cristoffel Sahabu formed a community group, Pantis Pandelum, for this purpose. And the right to protect their rainforest was endorsed on Sept. 27, 2001, by Utan Teke, Pundu village head, as well as Cempaga subdistrict head Zainuddin Safri.

Pantis Pandelum succeeded in preserving their forest — until October 2006.

Without warning, bulldozers and excavators entered Cempaga forest, clearing the land for yet another oil palm plantation.

According to Pantis Pandelum, PT. Nabatindo Karia Utama (NKU) started to clear 30 hectares of rainforest a day, despite local opposition and a statement by the Indonesian Palm Oil Growers Association declaring they “will not cut down forests”.

But the concession permit issued by the head of Kotawaringin Timur district has apparently overruled the principle of community forest. On Feb. 28 this year, the Central Kalimantan governor instructed the Kotawaringin Timur head to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately, the oil palm company continues to tear down trees while officials procrastinate.

The community forest, originally covering an area of 10,000 hectares, has rapidly been reduced to only 5,000 hectares in a few months.

On June 18, bulldozers entered the last remaining patches of Pantis Pandelum forest. NKU ignored protests as well as a letter issued June 9 by the local district head, Wim R.K. Ninung, demanding they halt activities within the remaining 5,000 hectares.

In May, Pantis Pandelum asked the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP; www.orangutanprotection.com), for help. In June, COP conducted a biodiversity survey in the remaining forest; the ensuing report showed a very dense population of orangutans in the Cempaga forest.

According to Pantis Pandelum’s Cristoffel, less than 30 orangutan individuals used to live in the forest area, but the population appeared to have doubled due to habitat loss in the surrounding areas, with forests replaced by oil palm plantations.

Orangutans only live on Borneo and Sumatra, and are estimated to become extinct in the wild within 10 years, joining many other lesser known species.

The COP team also found endangered langurs, gibbons, deer, crocodiles, Sun bears, dozens of endangered bird species as well as butterflies and other insects.

COP director Hardi Baktiantoro recalled a June 16 interaction with the security manager of NKU, Abdul Hadi Bondoh, who “asked if we were interested in obtaining orangutans for sale”.

In the field, he added, a bulldozer driver said “there were some problems with local people, but that this wouldn’t stop their activities, ‘as long as this case is in government hands’”.

“This way, the responsibility is being thrown from one party to another and meanwhile, PT NKU will continue clearing the land,” Hardi said.

The government is planning a huge increase in the number of oil palm plantations to create employment and national revenue, but seems to be optimistic about the issue.

Bloomberg.com quoted State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Nadi Witoelar Kartaadipoetra as saying during a June 5 interview in Bali: “Expansion of oil palm plantations will not be allowed to sacrifice natural forests.

“They will be planted in lots that are already empty. There are plenty of these, 18 million hectares of them.”

The writer is a veterinarian at Monkey World, a primate rescue center in Dorset, United Kingdom. She worked as a wildlife veterinarian in Indonesia from 2004-2006, and is Europe spokesperson for COP.

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Source: The Jakarta Post

It really buoys our enthusiasm for what we do when young people get so involved in helping raise awareness about the plight of the Orangutan. Another case in point: young Dominic Hammond and his family…

Keep up the good work Dominic!! Hopefully, you will be an inspiration to many other young potential fundraisers out there.

Thank you so much!

BOS UK

A message from Dominic, our latest fundraiser:

My mum and I adore orangutans, and are deeply saddened by the continual suffering they encounter due to their habitat being destroyed at such an alarming rate. My dad upholsters furniture, much of which is leather. We thought that it would be a great idea to use all the off cuts of leather and make and sell bracelets, in order to raise money for BOS. We dye the leather in all different colours, so there are many designs to choose from. We cut it into thin strips and then plait the pieces. They are really quite attractive and everyone who sees them buys them with enthusiasm.

I have been selling them to all my friends at Stagecoach in Shrewsbury for £1.00 and also neighbours in the village we live in, have been really supportive and have bought many. Now that I am on my school holidays, my mum is booking market stalls and village fetes in order for us to sell our bracelets. So far we have already raised £200.00!

I also wrote to the T.V. vet and patron of BOS, Steve Leonard, who lives close by to us, explaining our venture. He was really pleased to hear what I was doing and invited me to his surgery in Whitchurch to meet him and his staff and have my photo taken with him in order to help our sales. He was very supportive and offered a lot of help.

We recently saw the Planet Earth programmes and were particularly interested to see Nick Knowles reporting from the foundation and were so moved to see the great commitment and love being given to the orphans by all the staff involved. They all do such a brilliant job out there. It was mentioned during the programme that it actually costs a thousand pounds a year to care for an orangutan. This is now our aim– to sell as many bracelets as we can to make this amount. As long as my dad keeps getting the leather, we can carry on for as long as it takes!

If anybody lives nearby, and would be interested in purchasing one of our bracelets, or if any schools would be interested in selling some of the bracelets in the Shrewsbury/Telford area, this would be great!

Please contact Alison or Dominic at our email address - j.hammomd1@btconnect.com

By Chris Briddon
29th July 2007

Rosa Dodd came and visited Nyaru Menteng and had the opportunity to meet Lone Droscher Nielsen and the orangutans.

Rosa’s report on Gibbons and Orangutans and the challenges facing their natural environment in Borneo, Indonesia was screened on BBC Two.

Rosa won a competition to visit a country where species are under threat by the actions of humans. She describes the trip as “a once in a lifetime experience to visit and help an dangered environment on the other side of the world”.

She helped in a local Gibbon and Orangutan sanctuaries, releasing animals back into the wild, providing care and injections to sick and young wildlife and feeding young primates.

Rosa felt a real affinity with the animals, she said: “feeding the animals really made me think how much they are like us and it was a real pleasure to win the competition and produce a report for the BBC.”

Rosa wants to stress that we can all do our bit. She said: “it is as important to check product labels and avoid palm oil products as it is to make documentaries.

“We can all do our bit by protecting the tropical rainforest from destruction for palm oil plantations by being careful over the type of products we buy in the shops”

The Green School is delighted and proud of Rosa’s achievements. Headteacher Mrs Pam Butterfield said “We were thrilled to see Rosa’s report on television and hope to use her outstanding work as part of our wider global citizenship education programme.

“Opportunities like this are essential in raising the profile of the plight of world endangered species and in linking classroom learning to real student concerns and experiences in the wider world’.”

Despite all the environmental education, Rosa says the best part of the experience was getting to cuddle the animals.

Source: Richmond and Twickenham Times

The Jakarta Post
July 27, 2007

JAKARTA: The environment in five regencies in South Kalimantan — Banjar, Tanah Laut, Tabalong, Hulu Sungai Utara and Tapin — is in critical condition due to land clearing and mining projects, an official said.

“Any efforts to rehabilitate the damaged forests would take a minimum of 10 years to succeed as trees need 10 years to grow,” the head of the South Kalimantan office of the Forestry Ministry, Suhardi, said told Antara news wire Saturday.

“It also means the flooding that has frequently hit the five regencies can only be tackled after 10 years,” he added.

Suhardi said that among the five regencies, Banjar was in the most critical need of treatment, particularly in the regency’s two water catchment areas, Riam Kiwa and Riam Kanan.

He said the catchments experienced constant flooding during rains because all the flood-absorbing vegetation — such as trees and tall grass — had been cleared from the area.

“In the absence of trees, the tall grass could actually still perform as a water catchment. But even tall grass has gone because of mining and logging,” Suhardi said.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Douglas Sheil and Erik Meijaard, Bogor/Balikpapan
July 30, 2007
The Jakarta Post - Opinion Section

In the 1980s, over a million hectares of Central Kalimantan’s peat forests was cleared and drained for growing rice. To the government, this was a battle against poverty and hunger. Environmental concerns were easily brushed aside.

This vast area, once a rich productive forest is now a wasteland. The forest is gone and not one sack of rice was produced.

Such hard lessons should be a thing of the past in Indonesia. Scientists and researchers have built up a solid body of knowledge of soils, ecology and environmental impacts that can help policy makers avoid repeating past mistakes and to help address rather than exacerbate environmental problems. But this knowledge is seldom used.

Those with power and influence often find it advantageous to ignore well founded environmental concerns. Think of George Bush’s past stance on global warming. Sometimes the politicians are not wholly to blame.

In Indonesia, few people are able and qualified to improve the uptake of scientific information by decision makers.

Environmental sciences are especially ill favored.

Talented students are likely to look for careers with better rewards than those earned by environmental scientists in Indonesia. Or, more worryingly for Indonesia’s development, pursue a career overseas. Those that persevere in national systems must confront a hierarchy and a culture where debate, let alone dissent, is not encouraged. Indonesia possesses few internationally recognized academics in environmental sciences.

This is not to say real efforts are not being made. They are. We are often impressed by the hard work and commitment of our local colleagues in teaching, researching and publicizing the need for conservation, environmental awareness and applied sciences. But their task is much harder than for western scientists like us.

It doesn’t help that the most visible environmental science, as wielded by international NGOs, seems more concerned with animals than people. Many of Indonesia’s decision makers view scientific research with skepticism, and concern for the environment as a dispensable luxury.

We can’t expect public decision-makers to locate and read two-hundred scientific reports every time they make a decision. In wealthy countries, governments employ experts and advisors to read and apply this knowledge. But in Indonesia such well informed advisors are scarce.

An up-to-date environmental expert must keep abreast of the latest studies, concepts and debates. This requires well-funded libraries, top-class internet services and a strong culture of critical reading and evaluating evidence. Too many of Indonesia’s scientists are on the wrong side of the digital divide when it comes to modern libraries stacked with expensive up-to-date journals and high tech information services.

Many publications, journals and books are prohibitively expensive, and libraries often lack the resources to keep their collections accessible, safe, and up-to-date.

Expertise in Indonesia is still strongly grounded in age and experience - the immediacy of the dynamic publishing, learning, sharing and debating culture found in westernized countries remains largely non-existent. English, the common language of modern science, is often a hurdle too high for many Indonesian researchers and decision makers.

The future of Indonesia’s natural environment is too important to allow this situation to continue. Environmental scientists and scientific advisors - from students to senior researchers - must be given the skills, access, tools and opportunities to better draw on current knowledge and build a strong Indonesian research community.

This is where international donor agencies can make a real difference beyond their overseas scholarship programs. They can improve access to knowledge by providing translations, subsidizing electronic media, and publishing cheap attractive non-specialist books such as the Ecology of Indonesia series, which summarizes and provides context for a vast amount of past research on the Indonesian environment.

An example of how donors can assist occurred with our own recently published books in Indonesian and English on reconciling forest management with wildlife conservation in Borneo. With support from the World Bank, UNESCO and others, we were able to ensure the books better addressed the needs of local scientists, policy makers and forestry professionals. We summarized a large number of practical recommendations, outlined the research behind them, and offered guidance and solutions to decision-makers.

Most importantly, donor support allowed us to make the books available not only in English and Indonesian. But also–and this is significant for developing country scientists–donor support allowed us to give them away free via our website, hosted by the donor funded Center for International Forestry Research (www.cifor.cgiar.org). Extensive feedback from Indonesian researchers suggests this approach is valued and that the books are an important contribution to forestry and conservation practices in the region.

Support from within Indonesia is also crucial. We hope the Indonesian government realizes the importance of a strong national community of scholars.

Researchers (local and foreign) can do more to ensure their research is useful and that its implications reach decision makers. Local universities should encourage more publishing among staff and students. This requires training, outreach and perhaps a change in the way we work. Indonesia needs dynamic scientific communities that can help develop technical debates over the pros and cons of policies and the means to address environmental concerns.

One good example is development seen in the donor-supported Asia Forest Partnership (AFP), a forum for national and international policymakers and researchers to share concerns and solutions to pressing forestry challenges in the region.

Are mistakes like the million hectare rice scheme still possible? Perhaps they are. Recent years have seen several proposals to plant oil palm along Kalimantan’s mountainous interior border region — despite the fact oil palm plantations cannot grow economically in most of this area. The government continues to say no to the proposals. But proponents remain active and the outcome remains uncertain.

It is true decisive action to address environmental problems requires political will. But too often, decision makers and the voting public lack the information needed to act wisely. Scientific understanding is essential to cleaning-up and maintaining Indonesia’s air, rivers and seas and ensuring sustainably productive forests and fisheries.

Douglas Sheil is a researcher at the Center for International Forest Research, Bogor, Java. Erik Meijaard is a senior science advisor to The Nature Conservancy, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan

Source: The Jakarta Post

July 27 2007

An orangutan is holding his first solo exhibition of his paintings in a zoo in Germany. Like many artists, he knows the therapeutic value of art: He took up painting after his partner died.

The therapeutic value of art is well known — when things are bad, artists both amateur and professional pick up the brush to ease their aching souls. The American Abstract Expressionist sculptor David Smith threw himself into his work when his second wife left him, saying it was “the only way to snap out of it.”

Now one highly intelligent artist who took up painting to console himself after losing his partner is holding his first solo exhibition in Germany. However the painter, known only as “Buschi,” is an artist with a difference — he is an orangutan.

Buschi, who lives in Osnabrück Zoo in the western German state of Lower Saxony, is something of a prodigy — he only took up painting one year ago, when his partner Suma died. He was encouraged to do so by staff who wanted to keep him busy so he wouldn’t feel so lonely.

Now Buschi, whose chosen medium is fingerpaints on paper, is holding his first solo show at the age of 34. His paintings are being shown in the ape house of Osnabrück Zoo and can be bought by visitors. Proceeds go to the charity Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which works to save orangutans and their habitat in their native Indonesia.

Orangutans, whose name means “people of the forest” in Malay, are considered to be extremely intelligent. “Buschi is certainly not the only orangutan who paints,” Ute Magiera from Osnabrück Zoo told the DPA news agency.

The exhibition can be seen in Osnabrück Zoo until the end of September.

View the online gallery of photos.

Source: Spiegel Online

The shooting deaths of four mountain gorillas — three females and an alpha male silverback — are prompting a United Nations agency to send a mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rangers made the gruesome find in the southern sector of Virunga National Park earlier this week, said Flora and Fauna International, an organization that acts to conserve threatened species and ecosystems. The group said it is unclear who shot the gorillas or why.

“Just over 700 mountain gorillas survive in the wild today, and none exist in captivity,” Flora and Fauna International said in a statement. “For such a small population, the unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of four mountain gorillas is a huge loss.”

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said Friday it will send a mission to the site as soon as possible “to provide support to those fighting to preserve the integrity of Virunga National Park.”

The agency said it will try to find out the reasons behind the slayings and work with Congolese authorities and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation to prevent future deaths.

The females, named Safari, Neeza and Mburanumwe, and the male, Rugendo, were shot Sunday night, UNESCO said. They belonged to a group that was frequently visited by tourists, providing an economic boon to the area. “The situation threatens to become an ecological and economic disaster for the neighboring local communities,” the agency said in a statement.

The chief executive of Flora and Fauna International expressed deep concern about the killings, which he said follow more than 20 years of successful collaboration for mountain gorilla conservation.

“Whatever the motive underlying this tragedy, the gorillas are helpless pawns in a feud between individuals,” Mark Rose said.

The death of Rugendo could have a ripple effect, the organization said. “Alpha males fulfill a leadership role within a group, and in their absence the integrity of the group is often compromised.”

Rugendo’s group contained 12 gorillas before he was killed, the group said. Now, six have been found safe, but two — a female and an infant — are missing.

Seven gorillas have been killed in the park so far this year, Flora and Fauna International said.

At least two of them were believed killed by supporters of rebel leader Gen. Laurent Nkunda, Flora and Fauna International said. The skin of one was found in a latrine in a nearby rebel camp. The infant of another female gorilla is being hand-raised by the nature conservation institute, which oversees the Democratic Republic of Congo’s wildlife and protected areas.

Nkunda’s rebels have been fighting government troops in the eastern part of the country for several years.

Conservation institute patrols were increased in the park’s southern sector with support from the DRC army, the organization said, and guard posts are being built to enable 24-hour park surveillance.

The bodies of the four gorillas will undergo post-mortem examinations, Flora and Fauna International said, and will be buried near Bukima, a park outpost.

“Just two months ago, we celebrated the increase of the gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda,” said Kwame Koranteng, a regional representative of the World Wildlife Fund’s Eastern Africa Regional Program Office, in the Flora and Fauna statement. “Seven gorillas killed in seven months is a horrifying statistic and a trend that cannot continue.”

Source: CNN

Juliette Jowit, environment editor
Sunday July 22, 2007
The Observer

Spreading plantations are blamed for a threat to wildlife

Two of the country’s biggest retail names are to ban the sale of palm oil from unsustainable sources because of fears that it is leading to the destruction of rainforests. Palm oil has become one of the world’s biggest traded commodities and is now the unidentified ‘vegetable oil’ in an estimated one in 10 of all products sold in Britain, from chocolate to cosmetics to animal feed.

The booming demand in Europe and Asia has led to growing concern that huge swaths of rainforest are being cut down to make way for plantations - damaging important eco-systems on which animals and local people depend - and threatening the survival of one of the world’s last great apes, the orang-utan, the poster boy for a gathering global campaign. Rainforest destruction also accounts for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for climate change.

Asda has become Britain’s first supermarket chain to tell suppliers it will not accept products unless they can guarantee their palm oil is from sustainably run plantations. Body Shop, the toiletries and cosmetics company, has established a sustainable organic supplier in Colombia. Asda has banned palm oil sourced from the worst affected regions in Borneo and Sumatra and within a year hopes to have banned all unsustainable palm oil from 500 products.

Later this year retailers and manufacturers across Europe who have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil are expected to publish details of how they will create a network of certified sustainable plantations. The move by Asda and Body Shop prompted calls for other companies to speed up the changes.

‘It sends a very strong message to the Indonesian and Malaysian governments that, if they don’t stop destroying rainforests, they’ll be destroying their international market,’ said Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth. ‘Our fear is that all the supermarkets have joined the Roundtable but they are not going to really implement the policy. What we saw when we got these companies to join is once one joined, another joined and it built up a head of steam. If they are now competing with each other to say, “We’re not going to source it from Borneo or Sumatra”, they are likely to do the same thing.’

The move to crack down on the damage caused by palm oil production follows a three-year intensive campaign by environment groups that won Friends of the Earth an award in this year’s Observer Food Monthly awards.

Chris Brown, Asda’s head of sustainable sourcing, said it would take time to work with suppliers to find sustainable supplies, but the supermarket was starting before the Roundtable report because of the speed of rainforest destruction. Friends of the Earth calculates an area the size of Wales is being cut down in Indonesia alone every year, and a ‘major driver’ is palm oil. ‘I don’t want to be associated with orang-utan habitat destruction,’ said Brown. ‘We can wait while committees pontificate, or say, “Let’s get on with it”.’

Body Shop, which has 2,200 stores in 57 countries, said within six months it planned to source only sustainable palm oil for soap, which accounts for 80 per cent of its use of the ingredient.

Given the scale of global demand for palm oil, a shift to sustainable production will be difficult in the near future, but supporters say there is scope to ban crops from newly cleared forests because of inefficient practices and ‘millions of hectares’ of already cleared forest land.

Rikke Netterstrom, Body Shop’s head of ethical policy, called on other companies to follow to drive producers of unsustainable oil out of business: ‘There’s a definite tipping point once you get sufficient volume to drive the price down for the whole supply chain.’

Source: The guardian Unlmited
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2132140,00.html

His tufts of hair sticking straight up and with what appears to be a big smile on his wrinkled little face, this baby orangutan is ready to take on the world.

Elmo is just four days old, but he has already captured the hearts of his keepers in the animal hospital at Taman Safari in Bogor, West Java.

© Daily mail

Source: The Daily Mail

July 26, 2007
By Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has been urged to stop deforestation in order to protect the rapidly decreasing orangutan population on the island of Kalimantan.

“We demand the government, in this case the Forestry Ministry, re-evaluate and stop forest deforestation and conversion to oil palm plantations,” chairman of the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) Hardi Baktiantoro said Wednesday.

“They are a threat to the existence of orangutans.”

Hardi said at a press conference on orangutan protection that the species was mostly seen by plantation companies as a pest because it ate palm oil buds.

“Our organization is not anti the palm oil industry, which produces green energy or biofuel. However, many of their workers will cruelly do anything to the primates to protect their crops,” he said.

“This is a violation of the 1990 Conservation Law. Violators may face up to five years in prison or a fine of Rp 100 million.”

Also present at the press conference were chairman of the Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative of Indonesia, Barita O. Manullang, and Harvard University anthropologist Cheryl D. Knott, who is also chairman of the Palung Foundation in West Kalimantan.

The COP estimates that at least 1,500 orangutans were killed in Central Kalimantan alone last year as a direct result of forest conversion to oil palm plantation.

“Kalimantan still has about 34,000 orangutans left. Plantation companies should try to use critical or abandoned land instead,” Hardi said.

However, Forestry Ministry spokesman Masyhud said the figure was “bombastic, because there are not many oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan,” he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

“Converted forests are those already set for production purposes and not for conservation purposes.”

Kalimantan orangutans are also struggling to survive in their natural habitat because of fires set to clear land.

Barita said that people should not rely too much orangutan mortality rate figures as they were only extrapolations of other data.

“Even the Forestry Ministry asks us NGOs for orangutan mortality statistics,” said Barita.

Knott said that empowering local communities to cultivate other type of plants for consumption could help in fostering biodiversity.

Separately, Central Kalimantan governor Teras Narang said that despite the administration’s efforts to save the orangutan and its habitat, a better set of protection laws was still needed.

“The laws are yet to lean on primates or biodiversity protection,” Teras said over the phone, adding that he opted for multicultural rather than monoculture plantations due to their greater ability to conserve biodiversity.

“Moreover, what we have tried to conserve here would be pointless if the central government, in this case the Forestry Ministry, keeps issuing massive concession permits,” he said.

Source: The Jakarta Post