Illegal logging a threat to Sumatra's orangutans<\/p>\n
By Bernard Estrade<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (AFP): One of the world's most important research
\ncenters on orangutans, in the north of the huge Indonesian island
\nof Sumatra, is under threat from massive illegal logging which
\nauthorities seem unable to stop.<\/p>\n
\"Yesterday chainsaws were felling trees along the river at the
\nbase camp. We could see some of the trees falling and heard trees
\ncrashing down at a rate of one every three to four minutes.\"<\/p>\n
That alarm was sounded in a letter in the form of an appeal
\nfor help written by Michelle Merrill, an American student doing
\nresearch on orangutans in Suaq, in the Leuser national park.<\/p>\n
In the whole of Sumatra there are only 7,000 to 11,000
\norangutans. The primates are one of the world's most endangered
\nspecies, threatened by poaching but mostly by deforestation and
\nthe disappearance of their habitat.<\/p>\n
Unlike others of their species who are solitary, the big
\nginger-haired primates in the Suaq region live in structured
\nsocial groups, and are remarkable for their extraordinary ability
\nto make and use tools.<\/p>\n
Though it is generally acknowledged the use of tools
\ndifferentiates man from animals, the orangutans of Suaq often use
\ntools -- sticks wrapped with hair to trap termites in tree
\nhollows, and spoons to scoop out honey combs or to drink without
\ncrouching.<\/p>\n
Before becoming \"stars\" of many documentaries produced by
\ninternational television networks, they had for years been the
\nsubject of observation and study by primatologists worldwide.<\/p>\n
It is the very existence of the Suaq research center, set up
\nin 1992 by Professor Carel van Schaik, of Duke University in the
\nUnited States, a leading authority on large primates, which is
\nnow threatened.<\/p>\n
\"If nothing is done fast the site could be closed, about one
\nquarter of the research area had already been illegally logged,\"
\nsays Doctor Kathryn Monk, research coordinator at the Leuser
\nmanagement unit which oversees Suaq.<\/p>\n
But Monk stresses that it is not just Suaq whose existence is
\nthreatened, but the whole Leuser ecosystem, one of the biggest
\nprotected areas in the world which is now under siege, mainly by
\nillegal loggers.<\/p>\n
\"We have been notifying the local government, we had meetings
\nwith the vice-governor and all the relevant authorities and drew
\ntheir attention to the general increase in illegal logging, and
\nsome particular very severe cases like Suaq.<\/p>\n
\"Yet nothing has been done and there is always the same lack
\nof compliance and enforcement of the law,\" Monk says.<\/p>\n
The relentless exploitation has not even benefited the local
\npopulation whose traditional lifestyle has also been devastated,
\naccording to researchers who have studied the issue.<\/p>\n
An illegal sawmill is set up, often with the complicity of the
\nlocal authorities, most often the police and the army. It buys
\nthe felled trees for a minimum price, often from local
\ninhabitants but more often from the tree fellers who follow them.
\nThen, when there is nothing left to cut, they strike camp,
\nleaving devastation in their wake.<\/p>\n
Centered around a nature park of some 890,000 hectares, the
\nLeuser ecosystem covers some 2.5 million hectares, from the
\nbeaches of the Indian Ocean to the hills along the Straits of
\nMalacca and contains two mountain chains some 3,000 meters high.<\/p>\n
The flora and fauna are some of the most diverse in the world
\nand one of the few places where one can find, living together,
\nelephants, rhinoceros, tigers, clouded leopards, orangutans and a
\nmultitude of other primates.<\/p>\n
The inability of central and local authorities, who are in
\nsome cases themselves implicated in the pillage of natural
\nresources, to enforce the law now threatens the survival of the
\npark, not to mention the unique flora and fauna, and the quality
\nof life of the two million people who live there.<\/p>",
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