Orangutan Smoking Cigarettes

Orangutan are endangered animals which according to the Indonesian law must be protected from anything that might endanger its existence.

That's why I was very surprised when AFP reported that Orangutan are 'allowed to smoke in Indonesian  zoos' (below).

I hope that the zoo authority in Indonesia will clarify this disturbing report.

Orangutans 'allowed to smoke in Indonesian zoos'

JAKARTA — An activist said Saturday that orangutans in many of Indonesia's zoos were allowed to smoke as visitors could freely toss cigarettes to them without proper monitoring.

"Cigarettes are bad for orangutans' health. We demand the zoos closely monitor the orangutans," Centre for Orangutan Protection campaigner Hardi Baktiantoro told AFP.

"Orangutans can also smoke cigarettes because they tend to imitate human behaviour," he said.

Baktiantoro said the apes were able to receive any food or cigarettes thrown to them as there were no barriers between them and zoo visitors.

In Malaysia, an orangutan named Shirley that amused visitors by smoking cigarette butts thrown into her cage was being forced to go cold turkey after authorities seized the great ape from a state-run zoo last week.

Orang Utan Rescue

Every year, around 2,000 to 3,000 Orang Utan died because of loss of habitat i.e. forests in the Island of Kalimantan a.k.a Borneo, that are tranformed  into commercial plantations.

Today there are only around 45,000 to 55,000 Orang Utan left, most of them in Indonesian provinces on the Southern part of the Island, and 15,000 in Malaysian States on the Northern part of the Island.

Efforts have been made to rescue the Orang Utan from extinction, details of which can be found on the article I quoted from The Star (below).

Sunday December 19, 2010  

My mother was burnt alive

By Amy Chew
sundaymetro@thestar.com.my

The orang utan is our closest ‘relative’ yet we have taken more than our fair share of the land, destroying their habitat, driving them to certain death. Two foundations are racing against time to lease forest land to shelter them. They need our help.

THIS cuddly, adorable baby orang-utan is an orphan in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan. Thousands of them are also found in Sumatra island and Malaysia’s state of Sabah and Sarawak.

Under what circumstances his mother died, his carers at the Nyaru Menteng Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre do not know.

 

                                       Helpless: This baby orang utan is an orphan in 

     Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan Nyaru Menteng 

Rehabilitation Centre.

But what is certain she met with a cruel and violent end – hacked to pieces, burnt or shot to death – like so many others before her.

As forest land is cleared by legal and illegal logging, palm oil and other agricultural plantations, thousands of orang utans are losing their habitat and source of food.

Hungry and desperate for food, they sometimes wander into palm oil plantations and eat the shoots of young plants where plantation workers will kill them in the most inhumane way.
“Palm oil workers, often offered a bounty, will take out these orang utan by any means possible,” says Michelle Desilets, founder of the Orang Utan Land Trust (OLT).

“Our rescue teams have found orang utan beaten unconcious and buried alive, butchered with machetes, beaten to death with iron bars and wooden planks,” she says.

“There have been times when the workers douse the orang utan with petrol and then throw a lighted match, burning them alive,” Desilet adds.

Every year, an estimated 2,000-3,000 orang utan perish from the loss of their habitat, causing them to die of starvation or suffer cruel deaths.

 

                                       Safe: A baby Orang Utan from the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre.

Orang utan also die when forests fires break out, either set alight by the dry season, or deliberate burning by errant plantations or traditional farmers.

The orang utan, which means people of the forest, is our closest relative. It has a DNA which is almost 98% of that of a human being.

Only two percent separate us from these highly-intelligent creatures who have the capacity to feel the same emotions as a human being – pain, joy or sorrow.

The female orang utan are amongst the most protective mammals in the animal kingdom, who will give up their lives to protect their young.

When poachers hunt for baby orang utan to be sold off at a princely sum to animal traffickers, they always have to kill the mother who will defend her young to her last breath.

It is estimated that only 45,000-55,000 orang utan are left in the wild. Of that, 11,000 are in Sabah and another 4,000 in Sarawak.

More than a century ago, some scientists estimate there could have been as many as a million of these creatures.

OLT and Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) are working together to secure land in Kalimantan to save the orang utans from extinction.

OLT, a registered charity in England and Wales, supports sustainable solutions for the long-term survival of the orang utan in the wild by securing safe forests for their continued existence.

“If we can secure forests BEFORE it is cleared, then fewer orang utans will face this fate ... so that orang utans do not face a lifetime in a cage in a rescue centre,” said Desilets.

BOS is an non-profit organisation with the vision to establish a Bornean orang utan conservation in its natural habitat. It’s financial reports are audited annually by reputable auditors.

BOS, with the support of OLT, is raising money to lease 300,000ha of tropical forest land spread across the vast expanse of Kalimantan to save the orang utan from certain death.

The 60-year-lease for the 300,000ha from the Indonesian government costs 45 billion rupiah (RM15.9 million).

“To date, BOS Foundation has raised 13 billion rupiah (RM4.56 million) to pay for the licence fee in East Kalimantan for an area of 86,450 hectares,” said BOS chairman Togu Manurung.

BOS still needs to raise the remaining sum of money to pay for licence fees for the remaining 213,550 hectares of land as well as to fund the costs of transporting the orang utan to leased forest land.

With 25ha of rainforest being destroyed every minute, time is running out.

Instead of another nice dress or shirt, why not give someone a meaningful Christmas gift by donating to give the orang utan a chance to live?

In doing so, we restore our own humanity, worthy to be called human.

To donate, go to www.forests4orangutans.org or www.orangutan.or.id.

SMART vs. Greenpeace

Environment organization Greenpeace has continuously alleged that Indonesia's largest producer of Palm Oil i.e Sinar Mas Agri (SMART) has massively cleared Peatland and Primary Forests as habitat of Orangutan in Indonesia.

Due to this fact, SMART has lost major customers of its products including Unilever, Nestle and Kraft.

So in order to counter the allegations, SMART has commissioned two independent inspection companies i.e. Control Union Certifications and BSI, to carry put an audit on this matter.

And last Tuesday, SMART president Daud Dharsono told reporters that the result of audit shows that the above allegations were largely unfounded and that SMART was not responsible for deforestation of primary forests and the destruction of Orangutan habitats.

However, Greenpeace denied this saying that said audit has actually "confirmed Greenpeace's findings" that the company cleared Peatland and Primary Forests.

Source : AFP/Google

Orangutan Conservation

During the 2007 Climate Change Conference in Bali, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono announced the launching of Indonesian Orangutan Conservation Strategy and Action Plan until 2017 which will provide new Protected Area for Orangutan.

In this connection, an International Workshop on Orangutan Conservation is held today and tomorrow in Bali, aiming to stabilize the habitat and populations of Orangutan by 2017, and to complete a three years-old rehabilitation program to release previously captive Orangutans back into the wild by 2015.

Please find below an article about this that I have quoted from The Jakarta Globe.

A male baby orangutan drinks a bottle of milk at an animal nursery in Safari Zoo, Cisarua, Bogor, Indonesia in this file photo. Conservationists and animal rights activists have urged the Indonesian government to stop deforestation in order to protect rapidly decreasing orangutan populations. (EPA Photo/Weda) 

Cooperation Urged to Bring Indonesia’s Dwindling Orangutans Back From Brink

Sanur, Bali. Conservationists, wildlife experts and government officials are set to meet today at an international conference in Bali to save the orangutan from extinction.

The International Workshop on Orangutan Conservation, which will run through Friday at the beachside resort town of Sanur, is aimed at stabilizing the habitat and populations of both the Sumatran and Bornean subspecies by 2017, as well as completing a three-year-old rehabilitation program to release previously captive orangutans back into the wild by 2015.

However, the chief of the Borneo Orangutan Survival foundation, Bungaran Saragih, on Wednesday said that very little progress had been made toward either goal.

“First, there are still no visible signs of stabilization of orangutan habitats or their populations,” he said.

“Second, the rehabilitation target is still far out of reach, because in the three years since the plan was announced, we haven’t seen a single individual released back into the wild.”

Part of the problem, Bungaran said, was the difficulty in finding suitably large, undisturbed areas of forest in which to release the animals.

“At BOS, we have around 850 orangutans in rehabilitation [centers], but we can’t release them precisely because of this problem,” he said.

Bungaran di d, however, say the international workshop was a step in the right direction and would allow all stakeholders to share their experiences on the current dire situation facing orangutan, as well as to evaluate actions taken thus far.

“Since 2007, there has been almost no coordination between the various stakeholders — the government, NGOs, the private sector,” he said.

“I believe that this opportunity to evaluate the implementation of the action plan couldn’t have come at a better time. Hopefully we can reach some kind of understanding and get the full cooperation of all stakeholders.”

According to Bungaran, one of the main obstacles toward realizing the action plan was the apparent reluctance of the government and private sector to get involved in orangutan conservation efforts.

“Protecting orangutans should not be the sole domain of NGOs,” he said. “We need support from the government and from businesses, and that’s the message we’ll try to get through at the workshop.”

There are an estimated 7,500 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, and some 45,000 of their Bornean cousins. The latter subspecies is categorized as endangered, while the former is critically endangered.

Orangutan expert Sri Suci Utami Atmoko, from Jakarta’s National University, said that more needed to be done to protect the animals.

“The current quandary is in law enforcement,” she said. “There are just as many cases these days of illegal orangutan trading — particularly in Kalimantan — as there has always been.”

In terms of releasing rehabilitated orangutans into the wild, Suci said businesses needed to play a bigger role in the conservation effort.

“Consider this: nearly 70 percent of orangutans live outside protected parks and reserves,” she said, “so it’s crucial that we get the private sector to contribute their land and efforts, otherwise forget about protecting the orangutan.

“There’s this impression that only conservationists, scientists and the government should deal with orangutan conservation, but we want all stakeholders, particularly businesses, to contribute to the effort. The national action plan will never work otherwise.”

Suci said that many logging and plantation companies across the country wanted to help but were hampered by poor coordination by the authorities, which she accused of not being serious about designating conservation areas for orangutans.

“That’s a shame, because the companies are really keen about helping out, and we’d really like to welcome them on board,” she added.

Harry Santoso, director of biodiversity at the Ministry of Forestry, conceded that the orangutan release program was “going rather slow,” but blamed it on the dearth of institutions willing to contribute to the effort.

“It’s going to be tough to meet the 2015 target because there aren’t that many institutions in the country that deal with orangutan conservation,” he said. “That’s why we’re hoping for a breakthrough at this workshop.”

Harry dismissed accusations that the government had been dragging its feet on the issue of orangutan conservation by arguing that its job was to supervise, facilitate and regulate, and not to get involved in the implementation of programs.

“That’s why we’re focusing on strengthening the existing regulations, facilitating stakeholders and increasing supervision for orangutan conservation,” he said. “Our hope is that other stakeholders, such as the private sector and NGOs, also play a part.”

Verification over Forest Destruction

In 2008, international environment organization Greenpeace announced that some producers of Crude Palm Oil(CPO), including PT. Sinar Mas, had converted natural forest and peat land as habitats for Orangutan, Tigers, Rhinoceros, into oil palm plantations.

As a result, Unilever, as the world's largest buyer of CPO, has stopped buying from PT. Sinar Mas.
Due to which fact, according to The Jakarta Post, PT. Sinar Mas has assigned two international surveyors i.e. Control Union Certification (CUC) and British Standard Institute (BSI) to clarify this matter.

I hope that the above international surveyors would clarify this matter based on the truth.

Verification over forest destruction claims to be completed in June 

Mustaqim Adamrah ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 04/07/2010 8:22 PM  |  Business 

Publicly listed crude palm oil (CPO) producer PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) expects to have a verification work over forest destruction claims finished by June’s end.

“We have delivered the term of reference (part of the verification work) to the two consulting (firms) … we still need to arrange some details,” SMART president Daud Dharsono told reporters on Wednesday after a meeting with Trade Ministry officials and the Netherlands-based consumer goods producer Unilever executives.

“We hope the verification will complete within the next eight to 12 weeks – by the end of June.”

For the verification, SMART has appointed the Netherlands-based Control Union Certification (CUC) and British Standards Institute Group (BSI) headquartered in London through their representative offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in Singapore, respectively.

Results of the verification are expected to, as SMART says, “clarify” issues raised by environmental non-governmental organization Greenpeace in the latter’s report.

Meanwhile, Unilever Indonesia corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said Unilever would wait for the results before deciding to whether resume buying CPO from SMART or not.

In a 2008 Greenpeace report, the organization indicated that CPO producers, including SMART, had converted peat lands, natural forests and habitats of Indonesia’s indigenous Orangutan into oil palm plantations. The report was later supported by a field investigation and satellite data.

Returning Orangutan

The news media has been reporting about the plan of  the Department of Forestry to transfer maintenance of endangered animals to other parties, such as by renting out Sumatra Tigers to rich people, and renting out Komodo to a zoo in Budapest, Hungary.

Actually, there are better ways to save endangered animals, as reported by The Jakarta Globe below.
 
 Rescued Orangutans Return to the Wild

Lone Droscher-Nielsen, left, and her staff at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Project plan to release 75 rehabilitated orangutans into the wild early next year. (Photo: Linda Davidson, AP)

Over the past decade, Lone Droscher-Nielsen, a former Scandinavian Airlines Systems flight attendant, has saved nearly 600 orphaned orangutans in Borneo from almost certain death. Funded by donations from abroad, she’s given the apes food, shelter and better health care than many humans in these parts ever get. 

Now, the 46-year-old Dane is preparing for a more difficult — and controversial — task: returning for the first time ever tame orangutans to the wild. “They were born wild and they deserve to go back in the wild again,” said Droscher-Nielsen, founder and director of the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Project. “That is our ultimate objective.”

Early next year, if all goes according to plan, she’ll release a first batch of about 75 rehabilitated orangutans into a remote forest in Central Kalimantan. Tiny radio transmitters placed under the skin will monitor their movements — and also help answer a big question: Can they survive?

Some experts wonder whether orangutans raised by humans will be able to hack life in the forest, and also worry that diseases they might have caught in captivity will harm kin that never left the jungle.

Droscher-Nielsen, whose 10-year-old project has grown into the world’s largest primate rescue effort, expects most to make it. “The ones we set free are not going to be wild, but they can manage,” she said.

It will take a couple of generations for bad habits picked up in captivity to be completely purged. Disease, she added, shouldn’t be a problem because the area selected for the trial release doesn’t have a viable orangutan community of its own.

The orangutan — which in Indonesian means “man of the forest” — is one of mankind’s closest cousins in the animal kingdom, sharing about 97 percent of its DNA with humans. But it has suffered catastrophically from contact with man.

A century ago, Borneo had more than 300,000 wild orangutans. Today, the number has fallen to about 50,000, most of which live in Central Kalimantan. They could vanish if forests keep getting chopped down at the current rate of what Indonesian environmentalists say equals the size of six football fields every minute. Palm oil plantations, which have expanded rapidly in recent years as demand for the cheap oil surged, have led to an even bigger influx of baby apes at the rescue center.

Droscher-Nielsen initially hoped to start returning orangutans to the wild years ago but, as forests kept retreating, it became increasingly difficult to find a safe place to put them. The task was further complicated by the fact that rehabilitated apes don’t fear humans — a big problem when many humans see them as a menace and want them dead.

Keeping orangutans fed and sheltered is expensive. The Nyaru Menteng project has a staff of about 200 people. Salaries, food, medicines and other expenses mean that it costs about $2,000 a year for each of the nearly 600 apes in residence. That is more than twice the average annual income for humans in the area. Another 400 or so are being cared for in other rehabilitation centers elsewhere in Borneo.

“I’d like to be an orangutan,” said Nordin, a local environmental activist. “They get given meals and when they get sick they get sent to hospital.”

Adult orangutans spend much of the day in a nearby peatland forest that is off-limits to loggers and oil palm growers. Each afternoon, dozens come out of the trees for a “social hour” in the main compound. They munch fruit, climb on a jungle gym and play on swings. At night, the adults are escorted to a cluster of cages while the young are piled into wheelbarrows and taken to a separate sleeping area.

To survive back in the wild, orangutans will have to forget their pampered past lifestyle. Droscher-Nielsen’s staff has devised a number of techniques to try and help prepare them for life on their own in the forest. About 125 apes have been moved onto islands in a nearby river, where they have little contact with humans. They still get most of their food provided but have to work harder to get it: It has been stuck up in trees instead of just left on the ground. 

Some of her center’s orangutans, said Droscher-Nielsen, have scant chance of ever surviving in the wild, so they will have to stay put until they die. This could mean decades, as the average life expectancy is 40 to 45 years. Those likely to stay include the blind, the maimed and apes “just too plain stupid to make it.”

Rescuing baby orangutans is a “welfare issue but it is not good for conservation,” said John Burton, head of World Land Trust, a British conservation group. He’s against returning orangutans that might be carrying human diseases to the forest and thinks that keeping them in expensive rehabilitation centers is “not cost-effective” as it only adds to a “world surfeit of captive orangutans.” The main focus, he said, should be on protecting forests and the wild apes that live in them.

“I don’t look at this with my brain. I look at it with my heart,” Droscher-Nielsen said. “We’re the cause of their becoming orphans. What should we do, just euthanize them? Should we just kill them  say, ‘I don’t really care?’ ”


The Washington Post