Twice as many orangutans, but future just as bleak

Twice as many orangutans, but future just as bleak

Jacqueline Mackenzie, Contributor, Jakarta

The most detailed count of wild orangutans in the last decade has
found that there are between 50,000 and 60,000 orangutans left in
the tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo, twice as many as had
been estimated in recent years.

However, a conference of international orangutan experts at
the Schmutzer Primate Center in Jakarta recently has also found
that the species has declined by a third in the past decade, and
will become extinct in around two decades, if nothing is done to
halt the trend.

"New survey data and computer modeling techniques revealed
several new populations of orangutans in Central and western
Kalimantan. It's clear that we have greatly underestimated the
numbers in Borneo," said Dr. Willie Smits, Chairman of Borneo
Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation, said to be the world's
largest primate conservation project.

"But this is not great news, because the rate of decline of
the species through habitat destruction and poaching is just as
horrendous. If this continues, in 20 years there will be no
orangutans left in the wild."

The conference also heard about recent efforts by Indonesian
authorities to stop poaching, with seven prosecutions of illegal
traders in the last six months.

However, these prosecutions have made little impact on the
illegal trade, according to Dr. Smits. He estimates a thousand
infant orangutans, whose mothers are shot in order to capture
them, were smuggled into countries such as Thailand and Malaysia
in 2003.

"You have to remember that only 50 percent of the babies
survive the shooting of the mother," said Dr. Smits.

"We have so many with bullets in the eyes and brains and near
the heart, and they are only the survivors. Many others die the
moment the mother is beheaded, as sometimes the babies get their
arms and hands cut off too."

Many more babies then die on the roads to the big cities, as
the wrong diet gives them diarrhea and yet others die from
stress. So each of the thousand represents two more thousand
orangutans that never made it to trade.

By Dr. Smit's calculation, a total of 3,000 babies and 3,000
mothers - 4,500 females - are lost from the remaining orangutan
population each year.

"Even if you had 200,000 orangutans, you're still losing them
very, very fast. The only thing the extra numbers do say is that
it is not yet too late to save them."

"Oil palm plantations are now vigorously expanding all over
Borneo, into the lowland rain forests which are orangutan
habitat," said Dr. Smits.

"The plantations create small pockets of rain forest where the
orangutans are starving, opening the way for hunters. They eat
the meat of the orangutan, they shoot them to sell the skulls to
stupid tourists, they sell the baby orangutans in international
trade."

But the main cause of habitat destruction continues to be
illegal logging, which has increased since the push for local
autonomy in recent years.

"More than half of all the wood cut in Indonesia is illegal,
there is no control," said Dr. Smits.

"The concessions, that try to protect their own timber, they
are now disappearing also and the people go freely wherever they
want. It's really like the wild west."

The fact that the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is now
the world's largest primate conservation project is not something
that makes Dr. Smits proud.

"I would only be proud if I could close down these
rehabilitation centers, if there was no need to take in more
babies. The centers mean we're failing to save the wild
orangutans."

But Dr. Smits does not believe the situation is hopeless. He
sees the recent prosecution of illegal traders as an indicator
that change is taking place.

"The fact that illegal traders are trying to campaign against
the current enforcement of the law is a good indication that we
must be getting deep into the comfort zone of some people," he
said.

He also gauges his effectiveness according to the number of
death threats he receives, and in the past month he's received
two hundred.

"My family has moved twice already because of the terror
against us -- our effectiveness means we are bound to have huge
fights coming up," he said.

"But we should not run away from the conflict. It's the
eleventh hour for this great ape species, and if I did not
believe it could be saved, I would not be doing the things I do
now."