Orangutans Heading for Extinction in Less Than Five Years!!
In Environment on July 8th, 2008 | 45,276 views
Sad, but true, we’re on the way to losing the world’s orangutan population. We continue to shout from the hilltops that the health of the environment is linked to the health of each individual on earth. That means you, your family and your friends, not to mention those across the globe. So when Big Agriculture destroys the earth for non-green food production, it also destroys habitats which rocks the balance of life on the planet. The orangutan problem stems from the greedy bastards who are farming palm oil
Tanjung Puting National Park on the island of Borneo is made up of vast tracts of wetlands, forest and ancient peat swamps. Its 1,600 square miles are home to endangered species including proboscis monkeys, gibbons, clouded leopards, more than 220 species of birds, and orangutans.1 Orangutans, which live only on Borneo and Sumatra, are seriously endangered. Not only is their natural habitat being destroyed, they are captured and attacked by palm oil workers who do not want the animals to harm them or their crops. Tanjung Puting offers a rehabilitation home for 2,000 once-captive orangutans, but even these apes are threatened by the encroachment of palm oil plantations. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation predicts that if palm oil 
plantations continue to expand at their current rate, the orangutan will be extinct by 2012.
Gunung Palung National Park, another haven for orangutans, is being encroached upon by Cargill-owned plantations. To the east, Borneo’s largest national park – the Kayan Mentarang National Park—is being threatened by the proposed 850 kilometer Kalimantan Border Oil Palm Mega-Project. If developed, it would be the single largest palm oil plantation in the world, destroying intact tropical rainforests and the ancestral territory of up to a million Dayak people, according to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples Rights.
If you care enough to get involved with this problem, click here.
Sources:
- Rainforest Agribusiness, The Last Haven for Orangutans Threatened by ADM’s Palm Oil Expansion, ran.org
Michelle Desilets
Says:July 9th, 2008 at 9:26 am
It is often asked, “How many orangutans are left?” The numbers themselves do not matter. What matters is that the rate of decline is increasing, and unless something is done, the wild orangutan will go extinct. Once remaining populations become so small and fragmented, there will be no way to recover the species, as these small populations will be genetically unviable in the long run.
What also matters is the welfare angle of this decline 5000 are dying unnaturally–either from starvation as a result of habitat destruction or from human-wildlife conflict. Working with orangutans for 14 years now, I see them as individuals capable of emotions and pain. The loss of just one of these is heartbreaking. 5000 is genocide.
We have a moral obligation to save these sentient, intelligent cousins of ours from this brutality. I do not subscribe to the view that we need to keep orangutan numbers up so our children have a chance to see them in the wild. Orangutans do not exist for our benefit. They themselves have a right to life, regardless of whether we get the added benefit of gazing upon them in their world one day.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is the largest primate rescue project in the world. We look after close to 1000 rescued orangutans presently, and have rescued and released more than 1000 others so far. We are the only organisation actively rescuing the wild orangutans from certain death in these oil-palm plantations. 2 weeks ago we released a further 25 wild orangutans rescued from oil-palm plantations into a remote protected forest in the north of Central Kalimantan. This release site could potentially support more than 1000 orangutans, making it a viable population. BOS also manages the Mawas Reserve, a forest of 360,000 hectares, home to some 3500 wild orangutans. If BOS can continue to protect populations like those in our release site and in Mawas, we can prevent the extinction of the orangutan in the wild. Find out more at http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk.
Michelle Desilets
Founding Director
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK
Nutrition Researchers
Says:July 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Michelle;
This is very well written, most notably your comment, “Orangutans do not exist for our benefit. They themselves have a right to life, regardless of whether we get the added benefit of gazing upon them in their world one day.” It’s a brilliant point you make. Thank you.
Nutrition Researchers
Says:July 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Just to reiterate, visit this website for more valuable information on the orangutan… http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/?page_id=19
lisa bergman, md
Says:July 16th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
This is a terrible situation. Overpopulation is destroying our world faster than anybody in their SUVs and air conditioned houses have the capacity to realize. It is more than a shame, it is a waste. A terrible waste. I apologize for my glum perspective, but, really, what can we expect in a world like ours in which our president refuses to do his part in curbing the destruction and in which war is still seen as an option to solving problems?
venus aged 8
Says:March 23rd, 2010 at 5:23 am
i think orangutans are lovely and i think peeple shood stop destroying the forsets were thay live.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
orangutans are my favorit animal!