Nature Alert: M'sia plans to save orang utans

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

M'sia plans to save orang utans

Oct 28, 2009 The Straits Times, Singapore

M'sia plans to save orang utans

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN authorities will replant trees in a forest ravaged by logging on Borneo island in the latest effort to restore the natural habitat of endangered orang utans, a global environmental group said on Wednesday.

The government of eastern Sabah state signed an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund this week to replenish trees in a piece of forest territory totalling 2,390 acres (967 hectares) over the next five years, the WWF said in a statement. The area is nearly the size of 1,500 soccer fields.

The effort is part of the 'Heart of Borneo' initiative, led by the WWF since 2007 to strengthen conservation planning among Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, the three countries that have territory on the island.

Environmentalists say Sabah's orang utans, pygmy elephants, rhinoceroses, sun bears and other animals are at risk because their jungle habitats are increasingly taken over by loggers and plantations.

Earlier this month, Sabah authorities announced plans to bar companies from planting palm oil and other crops near rivers to preserve the natural habitat.

A French-based conservation group, Hutan, recently estimated that fewer than 11,000 orangutans remain in Sabah. Up to eight times that number existed 15 years ago. -- AP

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_447455.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.