Nature Alert: Hundreds of Species in Kalimantan Threatened with Extinction

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Hundreds of Species in Kalimantan Threatened with Extinction

Hundreds of Species in Kalimantan Threatened with Extinction

Tuesday, 18 November, 2008 TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:

Forest clearing is threatening 236 plant species and 51 animal species in Kalimantan with exctinction. Orangutans, owl monkeys and tarsius are the most endangered animals.

"They are losing their sources of food and water," head of the Center of Orangutan Protection, Hardi Baktiantoro, told reporters yesterday.

He said cutting down forests to clear areas for palm oil plantations is the biggest threat because it changes the total structure of the area. Hardi views the plummeting crude palm oil prices in the international market has not given any significant impact because forest clearings are still being carried out.

Companies also profit by the sale of logs resulting from the clearing. "This is a long-term business. They keep opening the lands while waiting for prices to go up again," he said. The number of animals, especially orangutans, is declining as fast as 9 – 10 percent a year.

According to Hardi, if nothing is done to prevent this, around 8.400 orangutans outside the protected forest will disappear within three years.
Vennie Melyani
http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2008/11/18/brk,20081118-146748,uk.html

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.