Nature Alert: Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS)

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS)

re: Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS)

News has arrived which gives me cause for some optimism. The issues raised below are now being taken seriously. Although it will take time for each one to be dealt with appropriately I think we can look forward to seeing steady progress.

Just a reminder: As I have said many times before, my criticisms of BOS have always excluded their Nyaru Menteng rescue centre, whose superb work I am very familiar with and for which I have always had the greatest respect. Nyaru Menteng features on the BBC “Orangutan Diary” and Orangutan Island” series.

In the meantime it is no longer necessary for letters to be sent to BOS or WSPA. I think we now need to give BOS the time and space needed to help the orangutans featured on this Blog. We can only hope they will soon do so.

Whenever I have more news I will post it on the blog. In the meantime, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to those of you who have already written – your personal help has always been sincerely appreciated and for the moment it looks to have produced the desired outcome: Only time will tell.

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.