Sumatran orangutans face extinction as peace comes<\/p>\n
Jeremy Lovell, London<\/p>\n
Rebuilding after December's devastating tsunami and the dawn of
\npeace in Indonesia's Aceh province could mean annihilation for
\nthe region's orangutans.<\/p>\n
The area is the last refuge on Sumatra island of the timid and
\nhighly intelligent "people of the forest" which live high in the
\ntrees of dense rainforest and are already on the endangered list
\nas their habitat shrinks under human onslaught.<\/p>\n
"It is a double-edged sword," Ian Singleton, scientific
\ndirector of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, said of
\nthe return to normality after a separatist conflict. "As peace
\nbreaks out so the orangutans could be wiped out."<\/p>\n
He said a combination of illegal logging for export and
\nreconstruction after the killer tidal wave plus resumption of
\nlegal logging put on hold by the civil war was to blame.<\/p>\n
"Everybody is raring to go. It is full steam ahead and it
\ndoesn't look good for the orangutan," said Singleton, in London
\non Thursday for the launch of the first World Atlas of the Great
\nApes and their Conservation.<\/p>\n
The U.N.-sponsored book charts the dwindling ranges of the six
\nspecies of great apes -- western and eastern gorillas,
\nchimpanzees, bonobos and Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.<\/p>\n
Already numbers of Sumatran orangutans have plunged to around
\n7,000 from 85,000 in 1900 and Singleton estimates they could be
\ndown to less than 250 within 50 years as their habitat is
\nliterally hacked to pieces for profit.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry calculates an area of
\norangutan habitat half the size of Switzerland is lost each year.<\/p>\n
"Orangutans are prima donnas. They are very sensitive to
\nchange," Singleton said.<\/p>\n
He said the authorities were well aware of the problem and
\nwere talking a good fight. But there was little relation between
\nplans on paper and what was happening in practice.<\/p>\n
"It is corruption. Aceh is a stunning resource. It is a matter
\nof trying to persuade them to protect it," he told Reuters. "But
\nthere is huge pressure to get rich quick and that doesn't augur
\nwell."<\/p>\n
Every night convoys of vehicles carrying timber can be seen
\nleaving the forests -- taking with them the future of the
\nenigmatic great ape which only exists in northern Sumatra and on
\nnearby Borneo.<\/p>\n
"The trade is worth millions of dollars, and you need money to
\nfight it. You can't stop it with a few thousand dollars here and
\nthere," he said.<\/p>\n
But Singleton said if logging, hunting and the replacement of
\nvast tracts of forest by oil palms for Western cosmetic
\nindustries could be halted then orangutan numbers could be
\nstabilized on Sumatra.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sumatran-orangutans-face-extinction-as-peace-comes-1447893297",
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