Foreign Researcher Suddenly Reveals Threat in Tapanuli, Why?
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - A foreign researcher has revealed a threat in the Tapanuli region of North Sumatra. This concerns the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), which has drastically shrunk. As a result, this native Sumatran great ape species is increasingly at risk of extinction.
According to IFL Science records, there are currently only about 800 Tapanuli orangutans still living in a small area in Batang Toru. Their habitat is also continuously shrinking, having reduced by 60 per cent between 1985 and 2007.
The drastic decline in the Batang Toru habitat area makes the Tapanuli orangutan the most endangered orangutan species. The Tapanuli orangutan is actually the “newest” great ape, only classified as a separate species in 2017. Its status in the IUCN is now “Critically Endangered.”
The habitat of Pongo tapanuliensis in the North Sumatran forest is continuously eroded by land conversion into plantation and industrial areas. Hoped-for more aggressive conservation efforts with its status as a separate species have not been realised.
“Since the species was announced, not much has changed. People thought that a new orangutan species would spur the world to rally together to save it. Unfortunately, the Tapanuli orangutan faces the same threats it did in 2017,” said Amanda Hurowitz from Mighty Earth, quoted by IFL Science.
The threats faced include illegal deforestation, illegal hunting, and the trade in baby orangutans. In the Batang Toru region, there is also a dam construction project and an expanding gold mining project encroaching on orangutan habitat.
However, Tapanuli orangutans have also started to be sighted in other areas. Last month, scientists from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Foundation found Tapanuli orangutans living in a swamp forest 32 kilometres from the Batang Toru area.
The IUCN estimates that the Tapanuli orangutan population could decline by 83 per cent in three generations if conservation efforts do not increase.