Orangutan Outreach Website - Saving the Orangutan

Activists of the Centre for Orangutan Protection dressed as injured orangutans take part in a demonstration in Jakarta to voice awareness to protect them. One of the biggest populations of wild orangutans on Borneo will be extinct in three years without drastic measures to stop the expansion of palm oil plantations, conservationists said. (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia: The world’s largest population of wild orangutans on Indonesia’s Borneo island faces extinction within three years due to rapidly expanding oil palm plantations, a conservationist group said Wednesday.

A report by the Center for Orangutan Protection says just 20,000 of the endangered primates remain in the tropical jungle of Central Kalimantan, down from 31,300 in 2004.

If the government does not protect wildlife from commercial exploitation, illegal logging and poachers, orangutans there could be extinct by 2011, said Hardi Baktiantoro, the group’s head.

He said more than 5,000 orangutans in the region have been lost every year since 2004, due largely to loss of habitat.

Adding to the problem is a plan by Indonesian authorities to open up 1.1 million acres (455,000 hectares) — an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island — of protected land for palm oil growers, he said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a major initiative to save the nation’s orangutans at the Bali Climate Conference last year, but it appears the plan has not received sufficient political support.

Toni Suhartono, the Forestry Ministry’s top official for wildlife protection, said government programs to save the environment are hampered by a lack of funds and lack of knowledge about conservation.

Awareness “about the conservation of endangered species is very low. It is, therefore, not easy for us to propose budgets for conservation,” Suhartono said.

Watch the video at NationalGeographic.com:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080508-orangutan-video-ap.html

Please note: Fio is fine! She just wasn’t around during the filming. Kesi, Lomon and Grendon were the first 3 orangutans in the international adoption program, so they still get top billing!

We will get footage of Fio asap. ~ Rich

Solenn Honorine is a French journalist based in Jakarta. She’s the correspondent for Radio France Internationale there, as well as for the French daily newspaper Le Figaro. She met with Lone Droscher Nielsen last October when she was working on a piece about orangutans. Listen to the interview here or here.

Source: http://jaksnaps.blogspot.com/2008/03/orangutan-life.html

For people who have had the pleasure of seeing an orangutan in real life it is no surprise – but now scientists have made it clear: Feelings and responses like empathy, laughter and imitation do not only belong to humans but also our red-haired relatives.

Observations of orangutans made by scientists at the University of Portsmouth show that orangutans’ way of interacting with other relatives remind us so much of ourselves that there is good reason to believe that the apes had the feelings first.

For Lone Dröscher Nielsen the discovery is not new; it is a daily experience at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.

”Deep down I believe that people always knew it,” Lone says. “If they closed their eyes. If they admitted that the orangutans have feelings like humans, they would not be able to live with their fate and what we humans do to them”.

The empathetic abilities of the red apes are clearly seen in Lone’s daily routine.

“If one of the orangutan girls is being bothered by one of the male ‘bandits’ they all gang up to help the victim. Not a long time age Yasmin was captured by Hamlet and then they all joined together to save her. And the interesting thing was that the females were the most aggressive – as if they could imagine how Yasmin was feeling. A sort of woman-to-woman-thing,” Lone says with a laugh.

That animals are working in groups is not new, but for orangutans it is not quite normal. They are by nature not group animals. Their social ability of familiarizing themselves makes it possible for them to put themselves in somebody’s place and empathize with them.

The studies from University of Portsmouth show that distinct expressions were picked up and copied by 25 orangutans at four different places.

Lone Dröscher Nielsen also experienced this. “If a young one watches another young one doing something getting people laughing, it imitates the first one. Exactly like small children,” she says. “And they also laugh when they are being tickled.”

Source: Borneo Orangutan Survival
Photos © Borneo Orangutan Survival

Hi my name is Dr David Irons. I’m a medical doctor and have been working in general practice and emergency medicine for 20 yrs. At present though I’m working in Borneo at the BOS centre in Nyaru Menteng home to Fio, Kesi, Lomon, Grendon and about 650 more wonderful personalities. My function there is mainly based around adding an extra dimension to the medical services for the orangutans, but I have also been getting my hands (very) dirty building climbing / feeding platforms, helping Lone Droscher Nielsen, the Project Manager, plan new facilities and generally trying to solve problems and add my experience to Lone’s amazing creation (and trying to take a little of the huge weight off Lone’s shoulders).

So, I suppose the obvious question is why or how does a doctor end up working with orangutans? Well after working for myself as a GP and also medical teaching for 16 years I decided it was time to ‘give something back’ so I started working voluntarily with periods of ‘fund raising’ working as an emergency doctor and GP locum, in between voluntary jobs. I decided to split my energies between human and animal work, so I ended up working in a wild animal rescue centre in Thailand and also with severely under- privileged children in Argentina.

I’d had a little experience with orangutans and was generally interested in ape conservation so I used to receive various newsletters, one of which was from BOS UK. Then last Christmas I read that BOS was looking for £3000 to buy an area of forest for rescued orangutans from Thailand and I decided it would be a privilege to donate this. So I contacted the Director, Michelle Desilets, and offered the money and decided to send my CV just in case they could use my experience at the centre. Although they rarely have volunteers there they decided to take a chance with me.

So, as I say, I have added a different perspective in the medical management. I think its obvious that medical diagnosis and treatment of animals and humans is part of a continuum and where Great Apes are concerned there is a significant overlap between veterinary and human medicine. Orangutans have 97% of their DNA in common with us, their anatomy is very similar and their systems work in most cases practically the same as ours. They are prone to similar and often the same diseases and respond to similar treatments to us. Medical treatment of most Orangutans closely resembles human paediatric and adult medicine.

With these facts in mind it’s obvious that using the experience of both Veterinary and human doctors gives a more thorough, global view of what are often very challenging and serious conditions.

An example of the challenges and the problems faced relates to a recent and sad case. One of out trainee Bandit boys Julius; usually fit, very bright and naughty contracted what is normally a ‘mild’ type of malaria (malaria is very common in Orangutans and is a major source of medical problems), he was started on treatment and seemed to be doing well, suddenly we had to rush to the clinic as this normally robust baby (approx 3 yrs old) was convulsing. The veterinary team worked well and between us we controlled his condition and checked and treated him for all possible causes. He was receiving intravenous fluids and medicines and was constantly monitored. Sadly the cause of this probable Meningitis was too strong for even his constitution and he died peacefully a day later. Most of the staff had known him all his life and these hopefully rare losses are still very upsetting.

From a medical point of view, events like this have a series of ramifications. Any unknown infection has the possibility to spread and cause epidemics so clearly we had to keep Julius isolated but the problem then was to screen and quarantine any of his forest school group or sleeping compartment group who developed any suggestion of illness. Happily, no other cases presented and we suspect that the cause was a rare complication of Malaria.

However most medical problems have happy endings but I point this case out to demonstrate the demands we face particularly regarding treatment facilities and preventative care. There is always a need for funds for more sleeping quarters (to prevent the spread of disease), diagnostic equipment and tests and of course medicines.

I am always amazed to watch the orphans playing every evening after forest school. The range of personalities is as wide as any playground scene and I must admit I hardly see Orangutans now, I see children playing. I was so shocked when I first saw Lomon, I’d seen him on Orangutan diaries as a waif, mentally scarred and undernourished, so you can imagine my shock when one of the burliest largest orangutans of forest school 1 walks up to me like a simian John Wayne, sniffs my hand and then puts my arm around him (unlike, I assume, John Wayne would have). Without Lone’s unique system of forest schools and surrogacy, this now thriving gentle giant would not be with us!

I have visited and investigated numerous organizations and what I have experienced in Nyaru Menteng is remarkable, nothing is wasted and what money that is raised I can assure you goes to saving, rehabilitating and reintroducing Orangutans.

Dr David Irons MB ChB MRCGP

By Eirik Knutzen
Copley News Service

Only a thin wall separates Lone Droscher-Nielsen from the 24 orphaned babies sleeping in her house every night. And she doesn’t sleep very well, as she is awakened many times during the night by terrified infants whimpering, crying and screaming for their mothers.

Often emaciated, sick and wounded, they are the children of “the people of the forest” - who share 97 percent of man’s DNA - left to die in the steaming tropical rain forest of Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) after watching their parents slashed to death with machetes or blown to bits by shotguns fired by illegal loggers.

Helpless, the tiny, traumatized creatures with long red hair and big pleading eyes cling to each other - or caring humans with warm hearts, soothing voices and gentle hands. And these are the relative handful of lucky tykes - all Pongo pygmaeus, aka orangutans - in the sanctuary of Droscher-Nielsen’s home at the Nyaru Menteng Rescue and Rehabilitation Center she founded in 1999.

“I sleep next door and hear the babies begging for milk when they wake up, but after 12 years of sleeping with them, I can’t do it anymore,” said the 43-year-old former SAS flight attendant from Aalborg, Denmark. “It may not add up to a lot of rest, but two baby sitters work through the night now to take care of every infant’s needs. But I’m there if any animal is sick.”

Working with the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, Droscher-Nielsen now manages the largest primate project on the planet. With 631 orangutans fairly evenly divided between young orphans and wild adults currently in her care, her job is actually more like a 24-7 situation requiring a great deal of diplomacy, incredible administrative detail and ceaseless fundraising.

Money is always a serious issue as no orangutan is turned away regardless of physical condition in a feverish bid to stave off the orangutan’s almost inevitable extinction by 2020. No one knows how many orangutans are left in the wild of Southeast Asia (a vast majority reside in Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra), but an educated estimate ranges between 25,000 to 30,000. Unfortunately, some 5,000 orangutans are expected to die annually over the next few years, mostly due to corporate greed, habitat destruction, misguided ecologists and individuals capable of unspeakable animal cruelty.

Droscher-Nielsen and the supportive Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation now entails some 100 employees ranging from veterinarians and lab technicians to cooks and orangutan nannies.

Finding creative ways of obtaining new funding is not one of her strengths, according to Droscher-Nielsen, but as luck would have it, she works with a number of people who excel at raising money.

“Some of the girls here were inspired by feature films like ‘Lord of the Flies,’ but with a twist,” she explained, laughing.

“Instead of children ending up on an island to love and hate each other, we have 42 young adult orangutans introduced on a 100-acre island in the middle of Borneo. Human support is quickly withdrawn and they are forced to rely on each other to sharpen their survival skills for the next, and last, level: the return to their natural habitat some day.”

And, borrowing bits and pieces from the documentary “March of the Penguins” and the intimate, long-range examination of animal behavior in the Animal Planet documentary series “Meerkat Manor,” “Orangutan Island” was born.

The fun - and drama - starts when the mischievous band of red apes is dumped from the boat and learns to fend for themselves, recorded by an unobtrusive film crew.

“We hope viewers will fall in love with them all and in the process raise the awareness of the plight of the orangutans, who are in dire need of help,” said the self-taught Danish primate expert.

She wants everyone to see her personal favorites, the sweet and lovable Cha Cha, the sexy Jasmine, the feisty Daisy, the happy Bandit Boys, the randy Saturnus and the wily Hamlet - and how they cope.

“The primary reason the rehabilitated orangutans are with us today is the destruction of their habitat,” said Droscher-Nielsen.

In essence, enormous amounts of mature trees are felled by illegal loggers who sell the wood to Chinese and Indian factories making them into coffee tables for the European and American markets. The ancient trees that provided the great apes with food and shelter have been replaced by palm oil saplings providing biodiesel fuel that burns cleaner in cars and ingredients used in thousands of products from hand soap to cooking oil. Cleaner air and armpits mean another orangutan dies soon in Southeast Asia.

Droscher-Nielsen, the daughter of a carpenter and a homemaker, stumbled over her true calling when she arrived on vacation 14 years ago at a compound in Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park run by Canadian primate expert Dr. Birute Galdikes.

“I have always been lucky and wanted to give something back,” she explained. “When I saw the malnourished, intelligent, childlike orangutans with outstretched hands and pleading eyes, I had to save them. I had no choice.”

Oct. 20th 2007

My name is Patrick, I’m a filmmaker dedicated to conservation. I’ve been in Nyaru Menteng for the last two weeks. The other day an orangutan broke into my room and ram sacked the place. It looked like in the movies when the bad guys trash an apartment because they didn’t find what they were looking for. At first I was upset and felt the unpleasant sensation that my privacy had been broken into, but as I was cleaning the place up I realized that everyday we, as humans, are destroying the orangutans’ homes in a much more devastating way. Most of the forest around here has been wiped out. Indonesia has the highest rate of deforestation in the world, the highest number of species threatened with extinction. Here I am feeling upset that my room was broken into but what can the orangutans possibly “feel” about seeing bulldozers trash there homes?

Nobody knows the answer to that question, but surely the orangutans are suffering. In the last two weeks, I have spent a lot time with Sandra, an adult female orangutan who was rescued from a palm oil plantation last year. She’s not doing well right now. She’s in the clinic. All the time I spend by her bedside, looking at her silently, I have the impression she’s going through a lot of pain, not physical pain, but something closer to “emotional” pain. As if she had nightmares, as if she had horrible things going on in her mind. I don’t know what goes in the mind of an orangutan, but the more I spend time with Sandra, the more I feel that another form of consciousness is looking at me.

If nothing is done, our generation will be responsible for the extinction of the last wild orangutans: a small error for man but a great shame for humanity. We are all responsible for this, so if we want to save the forest (and the orangutans) we must all act now. We must stop supporting the industries that thrive on deforestation: We must stop buying tropical hardwood, as well as plywood and paper made from tropical wood. We must stop consuming all products that contain palm oil from Indonesia or Malaysia. We must refuse the development of bio-diesel from palm oil. We must all do something.

For the last five years, I’ve been trying my best to help the forest through filmmaking. This is my way of doing something active. The last film I did in Indonesia is called “Losing Tomorrow” which was then screened in schools and villages in Sumatra. From these screenings I did another small film called “Dear Mr. President”, asking the president of Indonesia to do something about illegal logging and deforestation. Today, I have received confirmation that the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yunodo, has indeed seen the film “Dear Mr. President”. I do not know how he reacted to the screening, or if his viewing the film will make the slightest difference for the forest of Indonesia, but at least the message was recorded, delivered and received.

If there are any of you who would like to screen “Losing Tomorrow” and “Dear Mr. President” in schools or any free assembly, please let me know and I will make sure to send you a copy. The more people become aware of the situation here, the better.

My mail: patrickrouxel@hotmail.com

Website: www.patrickrouxel.fr

August 07, 2007 — By Lewa Pardomuan, Reuters

MEDAN, Indonesia — War in Indonesia’s Aceh province has been a blessing in disguise for the orangutan, preventing logging firms and palm oil estates from entering one of the world’s richest expanses of rainforest.

This has helped the critically endangered mammals flourish, at least for now.

“If the civil war hadn’t happened and they all operate and clear the forest, we’ll be dealing with a few hundred orangutans now,” said Ian Singleton, scientific director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.

“And if they clear these extra bits of forests here in the near future, then the same thing will happen again. All the orangutan will die. They don’t sort of like pack their bags and move somewhere else. They stay and die,” he told Reuters in North Sumatra’s provincial capital, Medan.

The war in Aceh on the tip of Sumatra had prevented logging concessions and palm oil estates, which had been granted permits during the 1990s, from operating around the so-called Leuser Ecosystem — the last place on Earth where orangutans, tigers, rhinos, leopards and elephants can be found in one area.

The 2.6-million hectare (6.5 million acres) Leuser Ecosystem, roughly the size of Belgium and the largest protected rainforest area in Southeast Asia, covers parts of Aceh and adjacent North Sumatra province.

“Preventing them from operating has given us a second chance to save the orangutan. We may have lost around 5,000 orangutans between 1995 and 2000, and then that suddenly stabilised because of the civil war,” said Singleton.

There are about 7,300 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. The number has been relatively steady in recent years but is half as many as the early 1990s, when there were estimated to be about 15,000.

HABITAT LOSS, MORATORIUM

“In the early-to-late 1990s, there was a lot of habitat loss, especially in Aceh in the lowlands. Much of that was legal forest clearance. There was also illegal forest clearance in protected areas and there was also conversion of forest to palm oil estates,” said Singleton.

The conflict in Aceh ended in 2005 with a peace pact between Jakarta and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after at least 15,000 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in the war that lasted for nearly three decades.

Singleton said Aceh’s newly elected governor, Irwandi Yusuf, was under pressure from the central Jakarta government to open at least some of the logging concessions.

In general, the Sumatra orangutan fared better than their cousins in the neighbouring island of Borneo, where annual forest fires, land clearing by farmers and plantations and poaching has drastically cut the numbers of the orange-haired apes.

“The pet trade, the captive orangutans, tend to be a byproduct of habitat loss. And because there is so much habitat loss in Borneo now, the numbers that are coming into captivity are huge. Thousands every year, and that’s just lucky survivors.”

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme was set up in 1990s to help save the animals by creating quarantine centres for confiscated pet apes.

“We average only around 30 animals per year, two per month. Most of those animals are kept by military, police, local government officials — people who should know better,” Singleton said.

Source: Reuters

June, 2007
By Katelyn Feit
Student, Florida State University

After 28 days in the Samboja Lestari (jungle), a run away sun bear, laughing with ridiculously nice people and losing about a pint of blood due to mosquito bites, I’d say my stay at Samboja Lestari was extraordinary to say the least.

Staying at Samboja Lodge and working with the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has allowed me to experience the daily work of a large scale non profit, non governmental organization and to get to know the Indonesian culture. The scope of activities at Samboja Lestari is wide and varied. With 53 sun bears, over 100 orangutans, 6 gibbons, the reforestation of an entire rainforest and a comprehensive satellite monitoring system are the major projects that are going on there.

Being in Indonesia on my own and really interacting with the local people has made me realize how easy it was for my parents to fall in love with this place when they lived here 25 years ago. Seeing endangered species first hand and physically keeping them alive by feeding them and cleaning their enclosures really made me feel like I was making a difference in the world.

Although there is so much more that goes into keeping the animals alive and happy; helping them have a full stomach is very gratifying.

Before I arrived I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. To my surprise when I arrived, I found out I would be staying in one of the beautiful rooms at the lodge (with air conditioning no less!). Apart from the occasional weekend guest and large groups of visitors, I was the only person at the lodge. Most would think that would be lonely but I took it as an opportunity to get to know the lodge staff.

I loved the out door atmosphere, the beautiful natural garden and sitting up in the lodge tower over looking what I call the “instant rainforest” and the orangutan islands. Half way through my stay three new girl volunteers came. Two were from California State University in Fullerton and one from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. They were all in their twenties and we got along really well. Often times bordering on obnoxious at the dinner table when we couldn’t stop laughing about something.

Once I had gotten settled in, I got into a daily routine which kept me busy. A traditional breakfast of nasi or mie goreng (fried rice or noodles) and toast was at seven am. After that I would start work at eight am with the technicians. I would eat lunch at the lodge and afterwards teach an English class if there weren’t any other guests. Let’s just say that Indonesians love to laugh and really are eager to learn English. Class was definitely a highlight of the day. At four pm when the work day is over I would go back to the lodge, read, draw and hang out with the staff.

My first week there I worked with the technicians at the Sun Bear sanctuary. Daily jobs included feeding the bears in the large enclosure and the reintroduction cages. We would also spray out cages and care for one of the injured bears. They would eat papaya, coconut, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, snake fruit, pumpkin, watermelon, pineapple, bananas, sour sop, and other fruits which are mostly locally grown.

BOS focuses largely on the development and sustainability of the Samboja village community. BOS provides jobs, opportunities in agro-forestry (growing fruits and vegetables between existing planted trees) and a market for locally produced handy crafts.

Sun bears’ huge claws, long tongue and sharp canines make watching them eat an awesome sight. The first time I saw one rip open a coconut like a human opening an orange, I was in awe. Their long tongues can lick up honey at the bottom of a water bottle and lick up sugarcane juice that dripped on their chests.

After being there for a week someone brought in a new three month old bear that had lost its mother… I don’t want to know how. They named him Hayden after the American MotoGP racer Nicky Hayden. With everyday I could see him getting stronger and stronger. Even though it was sad that he is destined to live in the enclosure for the rest of his life, being able to raise a little bear for a few days was exciting. I was careful not to get too attached so leaving him wouldn’t be as hard.

The rest of my time I worked with the technicians in the orangutan cages. I had to wait to pass a quarantine period to make sure I didn’t have any diseases I could pass on to the orangutans.

On my first day I walked up to what I call the “technician clubhouse” which is where all the supplies and lockers are for the workers. A bunch of young guys were talking and laughing in the smoky shed while they loaded up the motorcycle with bags of fruit to take up to the orangutans.

Mita, the project manager, mentioned to me that all the technicians were young guys and having a girl around would mix things up a little, but she assured me that they were all great friendly guys and wouldn’t give me any trouble. Even with her reassuring words, when I first walked up it felt like I was walking into a men’s club… a little intimidating. But before I knew it they were talking to me, making me bracelets from grass and showing me genuine Indonesian hospitality. I could really feel the sense of community between the technicians and the pride they took in their work.

Each cage has one technician and roughly 10 to 30 orangutans. The more seasoned technicians knew each one of the orangutans’ names and a little bit of their history. After drinking some sugar with coffee and reading the latest MotoGP news the technician would head up to their cage for the morning.

My first encounter with the orangutans was definitely more emotionally moving that I thought it would be, but it was awesome at the same time. As I walked up to their raised cages and saw them close up it felt as if I was the new kid walking into a classroom in one of those teen movies. They were pressed up against the cage and sizing me up.

It shocked me how each one was its own being– like different students in a class. They had different skin colors, body types and even hairstyles. Before, I thought an orangutan was an orangutan but our genetic similarity comes through in ways more than just appearance.

Each morning, jobs include feeding and cleaning the concrete slab underneath the cages. I got chills as I looked down to see a few of them reach their rough hands out to get fallen fruit. They looked like hands of human prisoners trying to grab at my feet. I had to look up to see their bodies to reassure me they weren’t. As I spent more and more time with the orangutans I saw they clearly had different personalities. While cleaning underneath the cages I got a healthy dose of these personalities. A new volunteer for them is a new target for spit, pee, mouthfuls of water, chewed up banana stems and whole banana stems… right on the head. Yeah, those tend to leave a little bump.

After a week in the cages I worked on one of the islands where the orangutans with hepatitis live because they cannot be released into the wild. They were fixing up the island and putting in enrichment which consisted of a system of poles and ropes throughout the island as well as rope nests. I worked with the technicians and the three other volunteers moving– or trying to move– iron wood poles, and swimming in the mote to clear weeds. The technicians had so much energy and kept us laughing the whole time with their flips into the water and Indonesian ballads.

It was hard to leave Samboja but I am definitely going to keep ties there and visit when I’m back in Balikpapan. I can’t thank every one enough for being so nice to me and treating me like family.

For more information go to www.orangutan.or.id

(Kate)

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