ON EARTH

Critically endangered by deforestation

Orangutans in Indonesia

The official situation facing orangutans in Indonesia, a country that has 10% of primary forests in the world, and is home to 772 endangered species, is currently extremely dire. Their disappearance has increased dramatically over the last few decades, as the rapid pace of deforestation has grown to make way for profitable palm plantations and coal mines.

The size, tropical climate and geography of the archipelago make Indonesia one of the countries with the highest level of biodiversity in the world. Forests cover approximately 60% of the country and it has a high degree of endemism in its species.

Visiting Indonesia means immersing yourself in one of the last great rainforests of the planet where all free-ranging orangutans in the world take refuge. These large primates are indigenous to Malaysia and Indonesia and only inhabit part of Borneo and the north of Sumatra, being bound to extinction, if nobody prevents it, in a not too far future.

An estimated 6,000 orangutans die each year in Indonesia and the areas of virgin rainforest are becoming smaller and more fragmented. There are 28 million hectares of destroyed land in Indonesia. Trees are razed to make way for palm oil plantations, a globally demanded compound that is then used in a high percentage of basic products for human consumption on a daily basis and to produce biofuels. However, obtaining this biofuel - so demanded in developed countries for being a cleaner alternative energy source that is necessary to curb climate change- in practice turns out to be more harmful to the environment than petrol itself since, by cutting down all trees, sinks of carbon dioxide are being removed. Due to this massive logging, Indonesia is the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 and it hardly has any industry. It is after USA and China, and only due to environmental destruction.

In this sense, most consumers are misinformed and continue using the electricity that is produced with this biofuel and buying food products and cosmetics at very affordable prices, without realising that 10% of these supermarket products contain palm oil, which is obtained by destroying the natural habitat of the orangutan.

Unsustainable activities

Palm oil is a permanent crop of which Indonesia has become the second largest producer after Malaysia. It is followed by mining and logging, all of them activities that have become an alternative source of income for local communities living and working in the area. However, the soil loses all its minerals after a few years and the area becomes a true desert. Nothing can grow there and floods are terrible. Not only is the orangutan habitat destroyed, but also the local people are deprived of their source of income. If unsustainable palm oil imports are slowed down, that is, that obtained from rainforest deforestation, we will contribute to safeguarding these habitats.

Companies advocate their innocence by arguing that they are being unfairly accused by conservation groups. However, environmental organisations warn that the consequences will be dramatic in the coming years if nothing is done to stop the killing of orangutans and the destruction of their habitat.

Rehabilitation centres in Sumatra and Kalimantan are struggling to prevent this from happening. The Tanjung Putting National Park, designated as a UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserve in 1977 and a protected area in 1982, was the first park devoted to the protection of orangutans. Located in the heart of the Kalimantan province, in the Indonesian part of Borneo, this protected oasis has three centres dedicated to this protection task. Camp Leakey, founded in 1971 by expert primatologist Mary Biruté Galdikas, was the first Research and Rehabilitation Centre at this Park.

The role of these three centres, apart from studying orangutans’ behaviour, is to help the specimens rescued from captivity, or that were orphaned wild animals, in their integration and learning so that they can survive in freedom. In this way, they manage to mingle with other members originating in Tanjung Putting, procreate and return to some of the wild instincts they were deprived of such as seeking food by their own means.

In addition, the Gunung Leuser National Park, on Sumatra Island, is also a sanctuary recognised by UNESCO, where dozens of endangered species coexist. This Park, covering an area of 7,927 km² (larger than the entire Basque region) is one of the world’s largest tropical rainforests and the only one in the country that is home to four large endangered mammals: the Bengal tiger, the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Asian elephant and the Sumatran orangutan. Gunung Leuser is included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and declared World Heritage, hosting more than 10,000 different flora and fauna species, many of which are endemic.

Despite these efforts, the number of orangutans continues to decline, due to rainforest deforestation and illegal pet trade. Poachers receive large sums of money for a baby orangutan, who is then sold as a pet on the black market. But worst of all is that, to catch the baby, they do not hesitate to kill the mother and all those orangutans trying to prevent it.

14 million years on the planet

Orangutans, who share 97% of their genes with humans and whose name «Orang Utan» means «Man of the Forest », are slow to reproduce and usually have three babies at most in their lifetime, one every six years, which makes their survival difficult. These large primates, who shared a common ancestor with human beings, have lived 14 million years on the planet and are a keystone species for rainforest ecosystems, as they often feed on fruit seeds that are excreted undigested and dispersed everywhere, which helps to disseminate the different plant species and contributes to the high level of biodiversity in the country.

They are the largest arboreal mammals in the world. They spend most of their time in trees and can live up to 40 years. However, wild orangutans are dying at a higher rate than would be required to secure the survival of the species. It is therefore necessary to find suitable mechanisms and strategies to develop sustainable alternative livelihoods to support communities, while preserving their flora and fauna in order to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. The success of these initiatives requires the joint effort of both local governments and communities, NGOs, and their active participation in preserving this area.

An unsustainable situation

Nobody knows exactly how many specimens are still left today. The only thing we can state with certainty is that their number has decreased considerably. At present, there are fewer than 60,000 specimens, which is about half of those existing in the seventies. There are about 8,000 in Sumatra and a maximum of 50,000 in Borneo. This figure drops every day.

The orangutan population has declined almost to extinction due to logging (often illegally), poaching, and the fact that an orangutan can be worth €30,000 on the black market. Under the Natural Heritage Conservation Act, the killing of these large primates, a highly protected and critically endangered species on earth, is punished with a sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment. There is also emerging evidence that palm oil companies are behind these crimes paid by plantation owners, who regard orangutans as «pests» for their crops.

The Indonesian government finally recognised that this situation was unsustainable, and in 2007 it launched the ‘Green Heart’ project to protect 200,000 km² of natural forest and stop massive logging. Thanks to this initiative, which involves both conservation organisations, schools and local population, thousands of hectares of forest have been replanted in the past few years, and even some logging companies, which then devastated the forest, are becoming increasingly aware and have started to use sustainable logging practices. For example, three seeds are planted for every logged tree.