Palm Oil Frenzy Threatens to Wipe out Orangutans

by Mary Richard | January 21, 2009 at 12:08 pm

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Greenpeace volunteers daub 'Climate Crime' on a ship carrying palm oil in Dumai port, Indonesia

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TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK, Indonesia - Hoping to unravel the mysteries of human origin, anthropologist Louis Leakey sent three young women to Africa and Asia to study our closest relatives: It was chimpanzees for Jane Goodall, mountain gorillas for Dian Fossey, and the elusive, solitary orangutans for Birute Mary Galdikas.

Nearly four decades later, 62 year old Galdikas, the least famous of his "angels," is the only one still at it. And the red apes she studies in Indonesia are on the verge of extinction because forests are being clear-cut and burned to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.

"I try not to get depressed, I try not to get burned out," says Galdikas, as she worries that many questions may never be answered. "But when you get up in the air you start gasping in horror; there's nothing but palm oil in an area that used to be plush rain forest. Elsewhere, there's burned-out land, which now extends even within the borders of the park."

The demand for palm oil is rising in the U.S. and Europe because it is touted as a "clean" alternative to fuel. Indonesia is the world's top producer of palm oil, and prices have jumped by almost 70 percent in the last year.

But palm oil plantations devastate the forest and create a monoculture on the land, in which orangutans cannot survive. Over the years, Galdikas has fought off loggers, poachers and miners, but nothing has posed as great a threat to her "babies" as palm oil.

A worker weighs a male orangutan named Joni on a scale before his release into the wild

Workers at the Tanjung Puting National Park, home to 6,000 orangutans, have been preparing some of their residents for release back into the wild.

It is, however, no mean feat. The apes need to be weighed, measured and medically checked to make sure they have the best chance of survival back in the wild.

Primatologist Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas, who has been studying primates for 40 years believes it is critical we protect the orangutan's in their ongoing battle against extinction

Galdikas says: 'If they go extinct, we will have one less kin to call our own in this world.'

Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas has spent decades researching the lives of primates and highlighting the threats they are facing

Worker gently lifts a tranquilized orangutan as researchers

There are an estimated 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, mostly living in small and scattered populations in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.

With an estimated 300 football fields of trees cleared every hour the future is looking bleak for the primate species that shares more than 95% of the human gene pool.

Illegal poachers and loggers also risk the survival of the species

Massive land clearing fires have turned the country into one of the top emitters of carbon. Tanjung Puting National Park is in the southern tip of Borneo island. Its 6,000 orangutans - one of the two largest populations on the planet, together with the nearby Sebangau National Park - are less vulnerable to diseases and fires. This has allowed them , to a degree, to live and evolve as they have for millions of years.

"I am not an alarmist," says Galdikas, "but I would say, if nothing is done, orangutans populations outside of national parks have less than 10 years left. "

Orangutan Foundation International

Friends of the Earth

Greenpeace International

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Amy Judd

at 13:18 on January 21st, 2009

Birute was my one of my professors at SFU for a semester - she is really amazing. The work that she still does is really inspiring and she was great to learn from.

When she says something about the environment, we should all listen - she really knows what she's talking about.

Thanks for this story.

Ruth Flickr

at 14:25 on January 21st, 2009

René

at 15:23 on January 21st, 2009

It is the population that fuels the hunger for fuel. No matter where they settle, the environment will suffer. And we will lose incredible animals.

Maireid Sullivan

at 16:51 on January 21st, 2009

I find it so hard to understand why there isn't some regulation authority - such as the UN, making an effort to explain that palm oil fuel is a short-lived alternative to oil! These 'speculators' have absolutely no interest in the fact that their investment is not sustainable. Why isn't the Indonesian government trying to plan ahead, by protecting their irreplaceable forests? Sadly, this is another indication of corrupt government.

A. Tran

at 20:00 on January 21st, 2009

Thanks Blue Crush for this piece and the alert on status of the Orangutans in Indonesia. It's the western countries' demand for palm oil that drives the Indonesians to strip their own forest, not so different from the Brazilian stripping its own forest for lumber demands.

158

at 18:49 on January 21st, 2009

Thanks for this important story. Something needs to be done at once.

Uwe Paschen

at 19:51 on January 21st, 2009

Humanities extremes ad lack of wisdom and ability to keep balance and sound management will destroy humanity it self.

ReveWorks

at 22:44 on January 21st, 2009

Adult female Orangutan, Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonessia

ReveWorks has contributed a photo to this story.

Lazylizards

at 02:31 on January 22nd, 2009

Orangutan aren't handsome looking, but when I watched them swinging from the treetops in Danum Valley in Sabah, the feelings were indescribable. It made me feel we could swap places: I could be an animal and they, human.

The way to save them, I think, is to go and see them yourself. See the rainforests in Borneo before they are thinned out. Thousands of hectares of virgin jungle are still waiting to be explored. I enjoyed very much my hikes in Danum, Maliau and Tabin. I loved the trees and the unique vegetation. They are just remarkable.

But I also saw the threats of mining exploration by an Australian company in one of my trips. I felt that quite often, when western countries protest development, we aren't completely unhypocritical.

Once governments realise forests are more valuable as hot tourist spots, they may think less about clearing them for palm oil.

Daniela White Images

at 03:03 on January 22nd, 2009

I went to Bukit Lawang 80km north of Medan in Sumatra http://www.dharssi.org.uk/travel/Indonesia/bukitlawang.html. The reason why I chose this destination for my honeymoon was to see this wonderful place , The Orang Utan Rehabilitation and Feeding Centre where rescued orangutans are slowly released back into the jungle, alas quite a few do not make it. The Centre does a fantastic job treating sick and ailing Orang Utans and preparing them for release back into the wild. I had the good fortune to come quite close to some of the animals (almost humans really) and was touched by their beauty and intelligence. Our guide Dama has dedicated his whole life to the plight of these creatures and enlightened us with amazing and sad stories about them. Preservation of the rainforest is so important for the survival of this wonderful species and for our environment. The foundation's Ser Indra goal is to keep, and for the future, grow the rainforest so it can bring balance into the disturbed environment.
by Daniela White

Daniela White Images has contributed a photo to this story.

trcalcutt1

at 04:43 on January 22nd, 2009

My photo (link below) is of a Semi-Wild Orangutan in the Gunung Leuser National Park near the village of Bukit Lawang. They're doing fantastic things there in their attempts to reintroduce Orangutans into the rainforest and helping them to depend less on humans and fend for themselves once again. Beautiful place to visit as well...it really is another world.

trcalcutt1 has contributed a photo to this story.

solaris955 (not verified)

at 12:08 on January 29th, 2009

Seriously, I am so thankful that there are still people like Birute who are really trying to help orangutans and sound the alarm to the rest of the world about the true situation that these beautiful animals have found themselves in.

I just hope that Obama and his new administration will manage to turn the tide of environmental destruction and hopefully we'll see the end of this senseless palm oil frenzy as well ...

Of course, we all need to work together and stop all the infighting.

Good luck to us all.