Deluge of Orangutans Reaches Crisis Point at Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Project

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Deluge of Orangutans Reaches Crisis Point at Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Project

Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

 

As I write from the office of the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction

Project in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), a 2-week-old orangutan sleeps

in my arms. Satria, a male, was confiscated and delivered this morning, making

the 7th orangutan to arrive in less than 24 hours.

 

Since my arrival at the project at the start of this month, 15 orangutans have

turned up. Most are victims of the conversion of orangutan habitat into oil

palm. Starving adults, including mothers with infants, left with no other

choice, venture into the plantations where they become easy targets. Few arrive

without serious injuries. One orangutan has had her arm smashed and has lost her

sight in one eye from blows to the head. Another, a mother, suffered deep

gashes on her arms and legs, right to the bone, whilst her son has a broken arm.

Gilang, an orphan whose name means “sparkling or glittering” has the tips of a

finger or toe from each hand and foot cut off, as if received as a punishment.

Rebecca, a very sick little orphan, was voluntarily turned in, on the brink of

death. She is probably 1 ½ years old, but weighs no more than an orangutan of

six months of age. A confiscated infant named Don King (testimony to his

outrageous hairstyle) has spent so long locked up in a tiny

wooden box that he cannot walk, stand up or even sit up. He drags himself along

the floor, but has difficulty keeping his head up, so it invariably bangs on the

floor.

 

I wish I had better news to tell you, but the situation is horrendous. Add to

this the many orangutans suffering from malaria, and two on IV, and you

understand why this is a 24/7 job for people like Lone Droscher Nielsen, manager

of the project, and Karmele Llano, the vet. Orangutans arrive at all hours, day

or night, and rescue teams are being sent out the moment a call is received.

 

The rescue team just back this morning with six wild orangutans including two

infants, reported a 30-kilometer stretch of oil palm plantation chock full of

orangutans in immediate need of rescue. It begs the question, how is it that a

country that has signed the Kinshasa Declaration (to take the steps necessary to

prevent the extinction of great apes) continues to allow this to happen and

continues to grant concessions in forest areas with high levels of biodiversity,

as are evidenced by the existence of a flagship species such as the orangutan?

Why is it that the Indonesian government is still considering converting a 1.8

million hectare stretch of forest along the Malaysian border into oil palm,

whilst 25 million hectares of degraded land remain ready for cultivation?

 

Our facility is beyond capacity. Originally designed for 100 orangutans, it

now houses well over 400. We scramble to survey areas to check suitability for

release sites, but these areas are becoming few and far between. We wait for

news whether an application to the government to secure an area for release in

the remote northern region of Central Kalimantan will be granted. And meanwhile,

orangutans who have spent their lives in the wild are confined to cages, waiting

for “permission” to be released. Dozens of orangutans who have quite

successfully gone through the intensive training programme we provide for

ex-captive orangutans, wait at the penultimate stage of the process, on river

islands. They are ready to return to a life in the wild. We could then move more

“trainees” onto the island, freeing up space in quarantine and socialization

cages as well as in the baby school and midway houses.

 

I fear the day will come soon when we will receive a call to rescue an

orangutan, and we have to refuse because we have no more space. The matter is

made even more urgent by the revelation during a recent environmental impact

assessment of an area slated for oil conversion by the Pt Makin Group that the

area has the highest density of orangutans ever reported anywhere, with an

estimated 1600-2000 orangutans at immediate risk. We have no hope of rescuing

them all---the concession must be halted. The international community must

publicly condemn the conversion of the last remaining habitat of the orangutan.

 

Please, won’t you add your voice to help those that have no voice—the

orangutans?

 

Kindest regards,

 

Michelle Desilets

Director

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

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