Nature Alert: Before our very eyes - the disappearing rainforests.

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Before our very eyes - the disappearing rainforests.

In the deep south-west of Kalimantan (Borneo) there is a little known but extremely large bauxite mine that has, and continues to, wipe out thousands of hectares of rainforest and all that live(d) in it - including orangutans. Bauxite is a surface based ore that can be mined relatively cheaply and quickly - no tunnelling is required. The ore is primarily used for making aluminium. This mine is owned by the Chinese Harita Group....the influence of Chinese businessmen is spreading like a plague over Indonesian Borneo.

These photos are taken from a distance - guards protect the area. Our local investigator believes there are still a few orangutans literally holding on in the small pockets of forest you can see in these photos. All we do know is, many orangutans will have been either killed or captured in this area - no one has ever

seen one come out

alive.

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.