Nature Alert: Will orangutans follow tigers into oblivion?

Saturday 18 July 2009

Will orangutans follow tigers into oblivion?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5850187/Just-1000-tigers-left-in-India.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8150382.stm

Regular readers will probably recall my prediction about one year ago that orangutans could go the same way as tigers. I recall the media saying then there were about 1600 tigers remaining. Now they say tigers are down to the last 1000. Please click on above links.

There are similarities between campaigns to save the tiger and the orangutan. Large iconic species, recognized the world over. For years officially classed an endangered species. Tens of millions of dollars of public money raised and spent by WWF alone, without saving a single tiger in over 25 years. USAid/OCSP managed to get through a staggering (absolute minimum) $11.5 million with their orangutan action plan between 2004-8 …. has anyone ever heard how many orangutans or forests they saved for their $11.5 million of US taxpayers money?

Corrupt and/or incompetent governments intent only on extracting overseas aid to save 'their' tigers whilst all the time not really giving a damn about them. Identical to the Indonesian governments attitude to orangutans.

One thing is clear regarding orangutans. About 3000 a year have been killed for each of the last 25 years. Whatever has been tried previously to save them, numerically speaking, has consistently failed. So, if all we keep on doing is more of what we have always done, it is obvious we will only get the same result each year; namely, about another 3000 dead orangutans.

If we are to really save orangutans from following tigers into oblivion, those of us who really care will either need to do things differently or to work harder. If we are not winning the battle, we are losing, and to many of us I know losing is not an option.

Reading this and maybe even agreeing with it will change nothing. Each of us has the ability and responsibility to do more to save orangutans - whilst we still have time - unlike for tigers.

We can always do more. I promise to do so. Will you?

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.