Nature Alert: Don’t relocate orangutans for eco-tourism: Sabah

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Don’t relocate orangutans for eco-tourism: Sabah

Published: Tuesday January 19, 2010

By MUGUNTAN VANAR The Star, Malaysia

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is not keen to relocate any orangutans to peninsular Malaysia for eco-tourism purposes.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said that not only was it dangerous to remove the environment-sensitive primates from their natural habitat, but local people were also against such a move to send away the state’s icon.

He was commenting on a proposal by Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk James Dawos Mamit to obtain orangutans from Sabah and Sarawak to set up an eco-tourism attraction similar to the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary in Sandakan and the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre in Kuching.

Masidi said that orangutans were not like some other animals that could be relocated from their habitat easily, and such movement could prove traumatic for them.

He said relocating an orangutan involved a lot technicalities and planning, saying they cannot be just caught and flown out to another location.

“The orangutans should stay where they are. Those who want to see orangutans will have to come to Sabah to see them,” Masidi said on Tuesday.

Mamit had told reporters in Kuching on Sunday that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had requested some orangutans be sent to peninsular Malaysia to promote eco-tourism.

Masidi said that there has been no official request made to the state government for the orangutans.

“If there is, we are willing to talk and explain our views,” he said.

There are about 11,000 orangutans left in Sabah, and the Sabah Wildlife Department is working towards rehabilitating orangutans affected by forest clearings for agricultural purposes over the years.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/19/nation/20100119161719&sec=nation

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.