Nature Alert: COP reveals owners of illegal orangutan

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

COP reveals owners of illegal orangutan

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 04/22/2009

Orangutan activists reported list of illegal owners of orangutan to the government on Wednesday, a part of the Earth Day observance.

The Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) said that the list of owners include policemen,members of regional legislative council, civil servants and businessmen living in West Kalimantan.

"We are having an emergency situation. Two orangutans are seriously ill and paralyzed. One of them is blind. They could die if help is not given immediately, " Seto Hari Wibowo, an Orangutan Campaigner of COP, said.

"Today, on this Earth Day, COP sends a medical team to West Kalimantan to provide first aid for the poor orangutans,” he said.

In its report, the COP also revealed names and addresses of officer illegally owned the protected orangutans.

They called on the State Ministry of Environment to take action to protect orangutan.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/04/22/cop-reveals-owners-illegal-orangutan.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.