Tuesday 10 February 2009

Orangutans in Indonesian suffering from illegal trade, rampant hunting

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/10/content_10794132.htm

Orangutans in Indonesian suffering from illegal trade, rampant hunting

JAKARTA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- More than 500 Kalimantan's orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus) are trafficked illegally in the Indonesian market every year, while rampant hunting is predicted to threaten the extinct in the next 50 years, said an activist.

"Those traded are their babies. Hunters kill the mothers in order to catch them," the national Antara News Agency on Tuesday quoted Arbi Valentinus of the Orangutan Conservation Service Program (OCSP) as saying.

He reiterated that orangutan's habitat in Kalimantan continued decreasing by about 3 square kilometer a year, making the animal one of the endangered species included in appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Law No. 5 / 1990 on Bio-diversity and Ecosystem.

According to the law, orangutan is in the list of protected species, and unlicensed domestication is a violation.

"There were only four great ape species in the world, three of which were found in Africa while the other one in Indonesia and Malaysia, namely orangutans," he said.