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Orangutans Become Refugees From Deforestation, Poaching
The palm oil business in Indonesia is not only fueling the world’s worst fires, it’s enabling a murderous trade in animal trafficking, including Orangutans.
Once captive mother orangutans are raising their children in the hills of the Leuser ecosystem – the most biodiverse forest in Asia.
In the Gunung Leuser National Park, refugees of rapacious deforestation are reintroduced into a semi-wild existence.
Increasing numbers of baby orangutans are growing up as orphans – their mothers killed by poachers.
Panut Hadisiswoyo leads patrols against illegal poaching, a trade he says only exists because deforestation is hemming the animals into shrinking enclaves.
“When orangutans were poached they actually shot the mother and to get the baby, they must shoot the mother,” said Hadisiswoyo. “People want to keep the orangutan as pet you know, so [the] pet trade is increasing because there is access that is triggered by the deforestation and then because of that traders want to sell orangutans to overseas including to Malaysia, to Thailand.”
The poachers operate largely in the 2.6 million hectare Leuser ecosystem - home to some 6,700 orangutans, as well as rhinos, elephants, tigers and leopards.
More than 1.3 million hectares of forest was lost in Sumatra between 2001 and 2014, much inside Leuser according to Global Forest Watch.
Perhaps the biggest culprit is illegal plantations of palm oil, a boom crop used in most snacks and cosmetics.
Peatland is drained and burned for clearance, destroying habitats and sparking the world’s worst fires.
People like Ian Singleton, founder of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, are left to deal with victims.
“When these companies go into these areas they’ll chop all the major trees down, they’ll bulldoze it, they’ll burn it and they’ll kill every living thing even down to ants and mosses and lichens, not just orangutans, but most of the orangutans are killed in that process too,” said Singleton. “I always refer to these as the lucky survivors of that apocalyptic wave of destruction, but they’re also refugees.”
Aceh’s semi-autonomous government now wants to open up vast tracks of Leuser – almost half according to conservation groups - for legal cultivation through a proposed spatial plan.
For those working tirelessly to protect the animals, that would be an abject disaster.
The palm oil business in Indonesia is not only fueling the world’s worst fires, it’s enabling a murderous trade in animal trafficking, including Orangutans.
Once captive mother orangutans are raising their children in the hills of the Leuser ecosystem – the most biodiverse forest in Asia.
In the Gunung Leuser National Park, refugees of rapacious deforestation are reintroduced into a semi-wild existence.
Increasing numbers of baby orangutans are growing up as orphans – their mothers killed by poachers.
Panut Hadisiswoyo leads patrols against illegal poaching, a trade he says only exists because deforestation is hemming the animals into shrinking enclaves.
“When orangutans were poached they actually shot the mother and to get the baby, they must shoot the mother,” said Hadisiswoyo. “People want to keep the orangutan as pet you know, so [the] pet trade is increasing because there is access that is triggered by the deforestation and then because of that traders want to sell orangutans to overseas including to Malaysia, to Thailand.”
The poachers operate largely in the 2.6 million hectare Leuser ecosystem - home to some 6,700 orangutans, as well as rhinos, elephants, tigers and leopards.
More than 1.3 million hectares of forest was lost in Sumatra between 2001 and 2014, much inside Leuser according to Global Forest Watch.
Perhaps the biggest culprit is illegal plantations of palm oil, a boom crop used in most snacks and cosmetics.
Peatland is drained and burned for clearance, destroying habitats and sparking the world’s worst fires.
People like Ian Singleton, founder of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, are left to deal with victims.
“When these companies go into these areas they’ll chop all the major trees down, they’ll bulldoze it, they’ll burn it and they’ll kill every living thing even down to ants and mosses and lichens, not just orangutans, but most of the orangutans are killed in that process too,” said Singleton. “I always refer to these as the lucky survivors of that apocalyptic wave of destruction, but they’re also refugees.”
Aceh’s semi-autonomous government now wants to open up vast tracks of Leuser – almost half according to conservation groups - for legal cultivation through a proposed spatial plan.
For those working tirelessly to protect the animals, that would be an abject disaster.