Nature Alert: Hands on conservation

Thursday 3 April 2008

Hands on conservation

Yenny, the vet from the Centre for Orangutan Protection, conducts blood tests on one of the two orangutans held at a rescue centre on the island of Sulawesi, west of Borneo. Both orangutans had been confiscated by the authorities.

This rescue centre is so short of money that animals

and birds there die every week; 35 the week before

this visit and on a visit I

made there in February I saw corpses stored in a freezer.

It is alleged that the local government authorities have stolen some $40,000 allocated to the centre by central government.

The British charity Orangutan Appeal UK have kindly provided funds for these blood tests and enough food to keep the orangutans alive.

They results of the blood tests thankfully show the orangutans to be free of Hepatitis A,B, C and Tuberculosis.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.