Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation - Saving the Orangutan.

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Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

BOS UK Saving the Orangutan

 

 

 

 

 

know more about this issue and how to help save them:

http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/

 

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BOS UK - Saving the Orangutan

The Orangutan is one of man's closest relatives, but man's activities have left

the Orangutan in danger of extinction. Over the last century their population

has dwindled by 90%, while approximately 80% of their habitat has been lost

during the last 20 years.

 

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) is a not-for-profit foundation.

BOS works under an official agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry

for the conservation of Orangutans and their ecosystem by involving and

educating the local people.

 

Find out more about Orangutans and their plight on this website and help us help

them by becoming a BOS member or by simply giving a donation to BOS.

 

 

 

Orangutans

" Their eyes hold a story that is indecipherable and yet intuitively we relate to

them. Just one look into those eyes and you are hooked. "

 

Orangutans are highly intelligent with an ability to reason and think. This

large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same

DNA as humans. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape " Orang

Hutan " literally translating into English as " People of the Forest " .

 

In times past they would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was

simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or

become a slave.

 

Orangutans are unique in the ape world. There are four kinds of great apes:

gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from

Asia; the others all come from Africa. There are two separate species of

orangutan - the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan

(Pongo pygmaeus) Orangutans are only found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

 

The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is actually the largest tree

living mammal in the world. The rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping

nests in the trees, but are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the

ground). Even the hair color of the orangutan, a bright reddish brown, is unique

in the ape world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orangutan Threats

Why does the orangutan need our help? Orangutans are one of the most critically

endangered of the great apes, due to poaching and habitat loss. Based on the

World Bank's estimation that mechanized logging in the Kalimantan forest,

(Indonesian Borneo), will result in its total loss by 2010, and other statistics

stating that wild orangutans are disappearing at a rate of 5,000 orangutans per

year, optimistic predictions give the orangutan ten more years before extinction

in the wild.

 

A crisis exists for the orangutan

Never before has its very existence been threatened so severely. Economic crisis

combined with natural disasters and human abuse of the forest are pushing our

closest cousins to extinction. They have lost approximately 80% of their habitat

in the last 20 years. We lost approximately 1/3 of the wild population of

orangutans during the fires of '97-'98. There are approximately 12,000 to 15,000

orangutans remaining in Borneo (compared to about 20,000 in 1996) and

approximately 4,000 to 6,000 left in Sumatra (compared to about 10,000 in 1996).

 

The threats to the survival of the orangutan are numerous and difficult to

remedy.

 

These include:

 

1.. Loss of Habitat

2.. Poaching

3.. The illegal pet/zoo trade

 

 

 

 

know more about this issue and how to help save them:

http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/

 

 

 

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Forest Fires in Borneo - Boycott Palm Oil:

 

 

 

 

Nyaru Menteng Rescues Orangutans from Fires Palm Oil Companies to

Blame for More Devastation

 

 

The fires now have nearly reached the level they

did in 1997-98

 

 

 

 

 

Fires, primarily set by palm oil companies, continue to rage out of

control in Borneo and Sumatra, sending a thick, choking haze over Singapore,

Malaysia, Thailand and even as far away as Guam, 3600 km to the east. Schools

and airports in the region have been closed, and people advised to stay indoors.

The fires now have nearly reached the level they did in 1997-98, which cost the

region an estimated US$9 billion in disruptions to air travel and other business

activities, and which wiped out as much as a third of the existing population of

orangutans. The fires were estimated to have destroyed 5 million hectares -- an

area equivalent to Costa Rica.

 

Palangka Raya, the area where our Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Project is

located, is the worst hit, with over 2.5 million acres of peatland currently on

fire, and with visibility now down to less than 30 meters. The reports from the

field are horrendous, and our rescue teams have been working without let up. The

area where we released 42 wild orangutans in March is now on fire, as well as

parts of the Mawas Reserve.

 

Hardi, the assistant manager at Nyaru Menteng,

recently wrote: " There is a big forest fire in the Agro

Bukit concession. We believe that it burn by workers under the order

of plantation management. Orangutans run burning forest to plantation and many

of them killed! Our rescue team works hard to save them by translocate to

another area. We got 4 orphaned babies. "

 

Ministers from ASEAN countries met last week in order to come up

with a plan to tackle the problem, but failed to reach a detailed attack plan.

Indonesia is the only country in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian

Nations that has yet to ratify the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze

Pollution, which would result in the establishment of a regional co-ordinating

centre capable of reacting quickly to the smoke and in which signatories gain

access to a 'haze fund' to help them with fighting fires and the seeding of

clouds. However, even without ratification, Indonesia was offered help to put

out the fires, but there has not been any positive response to accept the

assistance.

 

Fleur Butcher, of BOS Australia, recently returned from Nyaru

Menteng. She wrote: " It was with relief and excitement I boarded a cramped

little aircraft, leaving

the chaos of Jakarta knowing I would soon be at Nyaru Menteng. It

was a short flight and in no time at all I was descending through the clouds. I

peered through the window looking for familiar landmarks and the scars of

cleared forest on the land. The clouds seemed to go on forever. It took some

time before I realised we were flying through thick smoke. The ground appeared

briefly before we smacked into the runway. The brakes squealed and the plane

shuddered as the pilot did his best to slow us down. We ended up with a meter to

spare at the end of the runway. Welcome to Palangkarya.

 

" Going down the stairs of the plane I was not only hit by the

expected heat and humidity, but by choking smoke.

It was like standing on the wrong side of a camp fire.

My chest burned and eyes started to water.

 

" I was met by Lone's friendly face. She explained the smoke was just

the norm at the moment. It had not rained for two months, and fires just burned

constantly. Driving down the nerve wrecking roads was given an added dimension

with the reduced visibility. " The Indonesian Government has stated that the

burning is coming from the traditional slash-and-burn activities of smallholders

and not plantation companies. They add that the only way to stop the fires is to

wait for the annual rains, which are expected to arrive within the next few

weeks. Even if the rains do come, the peat can continue to burn for many more

months, bringing with it even more victims.

 

Today, another email arrived from Hardi in Nyaru Menteng: " Saturday

night, I work 24 hours to save 3 orangutan babies from palm oil plantation.

Forest fires more and more bigger in Sampit, especially in Agro Bukit. We also

got 2 gibbons from the areas.

 

On Monday, we got one more orangutan. Her feet burned very bad. At

Tuesday morning (02.00), the reporter from National Geographic come with 1 red

leaf-eating monkey...infant baby. She looks dying.

I was crying and asked: why? Thanks to medical team!

She still alive until now...unfortunately the death come to

another orangutan. Metallica passed away. Do you still remember her?

Girl with fingers cut off by plantation workers. Today, the rescue team come

with 1 orangutan and 2 gibbons. I also get sms from Bram and team

from Agro Bukit. He told me that he found an adult male orangutan

with broken hand. At least 20 people catch him...with wooden stick! He is

bloody.

 

Michelle, I have no anymore hope to solve this problem. I have to

find any alternative ways....to stop this soon. "

 

To demand urgent international action to address

this issue at the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in

Nairobi, go to:

http://www.climateark.org