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.