Indonesia: Update on rapid pace of Orangutan extinction

While orangutans are at first very gregarious, as adults they live
largely solitary lives, foraging for fruit or sleeping. Orangutan”
means “man of the forest.” One of her main projects today is her
rehabilitation center in a village outside Tanjung Puting, overflowing
with more than 300 animals orphaned when their mothers were killed by
palm oil plantation workers. With forests disappearing, the red apes
raid crops, grabbing freshly planted shoots from the fields. “Many
come in very badly wounded, suffering from malnutrition, psychological
and emotional and even physical trauma,” says Galdikas, as she watches
members of her staff prepare six young orangutans for release one
overcast Saturday afternoon.

It is a three-hour journey along bumpy
roads to the release site. By the time they arrive, it is raining and
the last gray light is feebly pushing its way through the deep canopy
of trees. After years of being cared for, fed and taught the ways of
the woods, the young orangutans scramble nimbly to the tops of trees.
Branches snap as they make their nests for the night. “It is getting
harder and harder to find good, safe forest in which to free them,”
says Galdikas, who today spends half her time in Indonesia and most of
the rest teaching at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
Forestry Minister Malem Kaban says the government is committed to
protecting Indonesia’s dense, primary forests and that no permit
should be granted within a half-mile of a national park.

Even so, one
palm oil company has started clearing trees within Tanjung Puting’s
northern perimeter, leaving a wasteland of churned-up peat and charred
trunks. Four others are seeking concessions along its eastern edge.
Derom Bangun, executive chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil
Association, says while his 300 members have vowed to stay clear of
national parks, others have been known to operate within areas that
should be off-limits. Sometimes it is not their fault, he notes,
pointing to the need for better coordination between central and local
government on border issues.

Galdikas, a passionate field researcher,
says one of her great regrets is that she does not share Goodall’s
skills in raising awareness and funds for the great apes. But she is
happy Tanjung Puting has over the years grown into a popular tourist
destination. She says there’s no better advertisement for conservation
than being in a rain forest. Some visitors are even lucky enough to
come face to face with an orangutan on a slippery jungle trail. “As he
passes you, you nod and he nods back to you and continues on his way,”
she says, adding that looking in the eyes of a great ape, it instantly
becomes clear that there is no separation between humans and nature.
“If they go extinct, we will have one less kin to call our own in this
world,” says Galdikas, who is also president of the Los Angeles-based
Orangutan Foundation International. “And do we really want to be alone
on this planet?”
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