Another orangutan haven disappears in Indonesia
Another orangutan haven disappears in Indonesia
By Bernard Estrade
JAKARTA (AFP): Illegal logging and mining are just two of the dangers which have sounded the death knell for one of the most important remaining sanctuaries for orangutans in Indonesian Borneo.
The activities of poachers and political upheaval have also forced the abandonment of the Tanjung Puting haven, which provided an invaluable shelter to the endangered ginger-haired primates, experts say.
"Tanjung Puting used to be the safest place. We are very concerned, we may not find orangutans anywhere anymore," said Jatan Supriatna, professor of primatology and director of Conservation International Indonesia.
Disappearing rainforest habitats have long threatened to render the highly intelligent, hirsute animals extinct. Experts estimate their numbers on Borneo and Sumatra to be no more than 15,000.
In recent months, researchers and ecologists in Indonesia have reported an explosion of illegal poaching, deforestation and mining for gold and diamonds.
Such threats to the orangutans have multiplied in the political upheaval that the country has experienced since the fall of veteran president Soeharto in May last year.
"Logging and poaching in Indonesian reserves have accelerated in the power vacuum since the collapse of the Soeharto government last year, and local authorities as well as the military are implicated," said one Indonesian conservationist, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The only way to conserve forests in Indonesia may be for conservationists to bribe whoever happens to in control locally more than the loggers, poachers and miners, or to subsidize dangerous military operations," he said.
"Simply asking officials with authority to enforce their laws almost certainly will continue to be futile unless it can be made more profitable than not enforcing the laws."
The conservationist said the worst affected regions were the national reserves of Sumatra, and a band of forest stretching from Leuser in the north of the Indonesian island to Way Kambas in the south.
The forests of neighboring Borneo island, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia, were also fast disappearing, he said.
Indonesian Borneo's Tanjung Puting, which measured about 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 square miles), was hit by huge forest fires in 1996 and 1997, for the most part lit by industrial plantations clearing land.
Today it is in the grip of illegal loggers and gold miners who had no compunction about invading an area which was supposedly inviolate in law.
"They threatened researchers until they left, they also threatened tourists," said Professor Supriatna.
He noted that Tanjung Puting was not only a sanctuary for orangutans, long hunted by poachers for their beautiful hides, but for local tribespeople whose jungle way of life is also threatened.
Supriatna sounded a gloomy note when asked about the fate of the 2,000-3,000 orangutans estimated to have been living in Tanjung Puting.
"Where do you think they are, if there are no more trees?" he said.
Kathryn Monk, research coordinator at the Leuser management unit which oversees the Suaq national park on Sumatra, said that illegal logging could see her orangutan haven share the fate of Tanjung Puting.
"The survival of the Suaq research center is still in question," she warned.
"We should consider ourselves fortunate. We have seen the fabled forests of Borneo and Sumatra. But what will we leave to future generations?"