Saving orangutans not an easy job

Saving orangutans not an easy job

By Carola Frentzen

BOHOROK, North Sumatra (DPA): Branches crack, leaves fall and
among the treetops, red-haired tufts can been seen moving. It's
Minah, a female orangutan, climbing through the thick jungle
flora.

She is enormous, agile and very noisy. The ape scratches her
head with leathery hands, takes a bunch of bananas from the
ranger and sits down with legs spread on the branches of a big
tree. It's quite a spectacle.

"According to latest estimates, there will be no orangutans
like Minah left in Sumatra within the next 10 years," says Chris
Stone, vice-president of the Florida-based Sumateran Orangutan
Society (SOS).

Today, there are 5,000 primates living in the Gunung-Leuser
National Park, which spreads across 946,000 hectares in northern
Sumatra. There were as many as 15,000 just three years ago.

Orangutans survive only here and in nearby Borneo. This year,
the Sumatran orangutans were finally classified in the
international list of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as
"critically-endangered".

In the Bohorok Rehabilitation Center for Orangutans, deep
inside the national park, visitors can take a uniquely close look
at the cuddly giants: their eyes reveal intelligence, kindness,
melancholy and humanity.

"Without orangutans, the world will be a little more sad,"
says Kathryn Monk.

The British researcher has spent five years on the Leuser
Development Program, which draws on European Union funds to
safeguard the park's biodiversity and wildlife.

The orangutans' main enemy is illegal logging in Sumatra's
rainforests. Thousands of hectares are burned down each year by
local farmers, spurred by foreign multinationals, to satisfy
international demand for wood and make space for more profitable
palm oil plantations and rice fields.

Large sections of forests are permanently on fire,
particularly in the southern end of the fourth-largest island in
the world. During the dry season, the smoke is so thick that it
darkens the sky in Medan, more than 1,000 kilometers to the
north, making it difficult to breathe for months. Medan's airport
is regularly shut down as visibility approaches zero.

"The situation is a lot worse than what we feared. Unless
countermeasures are taken by 2005, there will be no forests left
in Sumatra," says Monk, citing a World Bank report.

The destruction of forests would not only endanger the animals
that live there. Without trees, rainfall would diminish,
threatening rice production and consequently, the livelihood of
humans.

Orangutans are not just menaced by the loss of habitat. Humans
jeopardize their existence in more direct ways. Although hunting
them was made illegal in 1931, there is strong evidence that in
Medan alone, at least 50 orangutan babies are kept as pets by
locals.

"Behind every one of those pets you can see the ghost of their
mothers," says Monk.

Mothers mate just once every eight years and would rather give
their lives than one of their offspring. Meanwhile the poachers
show no mercy.

Because of traditional indifference, efforts to crack down on
the illegal trade are only now beginning to produce some results.

In August, Indonesian police arrested a bird trader who tried
to sell a baby orangutan to an animal rights activist posing as a
western tourist. But the arrest only made the national headlines
after a large group of Indonesian children were shown on
television protesting the animal trade in the center of Jakarta.

The word "orangutan" originates from the Malese for "man of
the forest". Gibbons and macaques, which share their habitat,
turn pale with fright when they come across their giant cousins.

Various organizations across the globe are attempting to save
the primates from extinction. In 1973, two Swiss women set up
Bohorok's rehabilitation center.

Originally, the center was directed by a German Zoological
Society and the World Wild Fund for Nature. Its aim was to
reintroduce orangutans that had been held as pets for years back
into their natural environment.

But today, even centers like Bohorok risk doing more harm than
good.

Since it was taken over by the Indonesian government, in 1980,
the center has received little outside funding and survives on
entrance fees paid by visitors. Consequently, the apes have been
turned into tourist attractions.

"The village of Bukit Lawang, close to the rehabilitation
center, is a standard feature in every tour of the island",
points out tour leader Khairul Sikumbang.

What follows is a vicious circle: without tourist money, the
center cannot survive. But paying visitors want to see and touch
orangutans. Such interactions, however, slow down the animal's
efforts to reclaim their survival instincts. Moreover, the
orangutans are susceptible to all kinds of human diseases.

Orangutan defenders are now working on plans to set up a new
rehabilitation center south of Bohorok. They hope that this time
it will be well out of tourists' reach.