Nature Alert: Asia Pulp & Paper threatens the Habitat of Sumatran Orangutan

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Asia Pulp & Paper threatens the Habitat of Sumatran Orangutan

Press Release

To be published on July 15, 2009

Asia Pulp & Paper threatens the Habitat of Sumatran Orangutan

More than a hundred of Sumatran Orangutan in Bukit Tigapuluh area, in Tebo, Jambi province is in great danger. Paper company Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers -- which are also its subsidiaries – PT Wira Karya Sejati (PT WKS) and PT Rimba Hutan Mas (PT RHM), have developed a corridor road in the forests area which are the natural habitat of Sumatran Orangutans, Tigers, and Elephants, three endangered animals specific to Indonesia.

The 82-kilometer road was built right in the middle of roaming areas of the three endangered species and very close to the release area of Sumatran Orangutans which had been established long before the presence of the company. Orangutans have been released into the wild years earlier.

The road has opened a wide access to illegal loggers and hunters. PT RHM dan PT WKS have let the loggers to open the forest and remove the villagers afterward just to confiscate the logs cut by the villagers to be made into pulp. What the companies have conducted were illegal activities.

“Our investigation team’s report and pictures we owned show their loaded trucks transporting illegal timber,” said Sadewa, Orangutan Campaigner from the Centre for Orangutan Protection.

Sadewa also said that APP should not have built the road since the investigation result of COP team, local NGOs in Jambi and the public have all pointed out that the company could have used the road of HPH (forest concession right) which has proven its strengths – it has been used to transport HPH timber much bigger than those transported on the corridor road slashing the forest.

“The corridor road has threatened the habitat of Sumatran Orangutans. Distance of the road to the release area is about 5 to 7 kilometers, which is the roaming distance of Orangutans. These companies do their business despicably, destroying the forests and threatening the lives of endangered species,” Sadewa added.

COP’s investigation team also found that the study of environemental impact analysis of those two companies had been conducted without professional study analysis. In the Guidance Frame of Environmental Impact Analysis (KA-ANDAL) the fact that the area is natural habitat of Sumatran Elephants and Sumatran Orangutans including research and Orangutan reintroducing station of run by the Frankfurt Zoologial Society (FZS).

“The government has to cancel the recommendation and principle permit for Asia Pulp and Paper and its suppliers in the area. The government, particularly the Ministry of Forestry, has to take a serious approach toward this case. The Bukit Tigapuluh area has a high value of conservacy and has to be protected from threats coming from factories that produce tissues and paper products you use everyday in your house and office,” stressed Sadewa.

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.