At the turn of the century, orangutan populations in Borneo and Sumatra numbered in the hundreds of thousands, inhabiting endless expanses of untouched tropical rainforest. Today, the situation couldn’t be more different. Large scale logging and rampant plantation expansion has seen both forest habitat and orangutan numbers plummet drastically.
Satellite imagery shows that orangutans have lost approximately 80% of their forest home in the last 20 years. All three species of orangutans - Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli - are critically endangered. All orangutans now exist in small scattered populations, islands of forest in seas of plantations, roads and urban development. It is estimated that between 4 and 5,000 orangutans are still being lost every year, due to the composite effects of habitat loss, illegal hunting and the exotic pet trade. There are hundreds of orphaned and displaced orangutans in rescue and rehabilitation centers. If this rate of loss continues, the orangutan will likely become the first great ape to become extinct in the wild.
Sadly, if human beings do not significantly alter the course of their behavior regarding the orangutan and the forests they live in, critical biodiversity, consisting of rare endangered fauna, more than 40 species of mammals and 200 species of exotic birds, could soon follow to extinction.
Our mission is therefore one of immediacy and global importance.
Current threats to the orangutan and its habitat include:
Palm Oil Plantations
The biggest threat to orangutan populations is undoubtedly the increasing expansion of palm oil plantations. Native to West Africa, the oil palm tree produces large quantities of red fruits, which, when crushed, produce an oil that has been traditionally used as a cooking oil, in soap and as a lubricant for steam engines. Extremely versatile, as its use has grown, so has demand with Indonesia and Malaysia accounting for 90% of this production (FOE, 2006). Today, palm oil is found in a vast array of food and consumer products, from ice cream to shampoo, peanut butter to candles. WWF estimates that 50% of all packaged supermarket products contain palm oil, and demand is now growing for its use as a ‘green’ biofuel.
The palm oil industry has brought huge benefits to both Indonesia and Malaysia, and is an essential factor in both countries’ economic growth. While such an industry should be welcomed in countries where many live below the poverty line, the current nature of the industry in Borneo and Sumatra has had a detrimental effect on orangutans in many ways. Orangutan’s diets consist mainly of fruit and, as such, they are found predominantly in fruit rich lowland forests. Unfortunately, this land is often the most attractive for palm oil companies. Current practice involves clear cutting, stripping the forest of all its timber and selling it off. Fires are then set, to rid the land of any wood debris, clear the undergrowth and provide the soil with fertilizing ash. As fires burn, all wildlife either dies, or flees the area, where it will often either starve to death, or be killed by neighboring plantation workers as pests. Once the oil palm is planted, the fragile rainforest ecosystem that has developed over millions of years is lost. Studies conducted in 2000 by WWF Netherlands showed that, in Indonesia and Malaysia, between 80% and 100% of the fauna inhabiting tropical rainforests cannot survive in oil palm monocultures.
Despite numerous scientific reports detailing the costs of palm oil expansion to biodiversity, endangered species, indigenous tribes and global carbon emissions, and worldwide media pressure on the plight of endangered species like the orangutan, Sumatran tiger and Bornean elephants, the conversion of forests to plantations continue unabated.
To mitigate the problems caused by the palm oil industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004, to bring growers, processors, food companies, investors and NGO’s together to find solutions and ways to make the industry more sustainable. While developments have been slow and the organization has been criticized for alleged inaction and corruption, it is hoped this consortium can be one of the solutions to the problem. (www.sustainable-palmoil.org ).
Logging- : Legal and Illegal
Before the acceleration of palm oil expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia, logging, both legal and illegal, was considered the greatest threat to orangutan populations.
Logging has historically taken place in two forms, legal logging, based on government granted concessions, and illegal logging, usually taking place by rogue groups of men on non-permitted land
Such logging practices not only indiscriminately remove the trees that orangutans depend on, they also threaten the existence of thousands of other plants, birds, mammals and insects, and negatively impact the future prospects of local people, and Indonesia and Malaysia’s forest dwelling tribes.
Illegal Gold Mining
In Indonesia, mining operations have contributed to 10% of the total environmental damage to the nation's forests and, perhaps more so than any other type of forest conversion, have the greatest impact on the landscape. The open pit method of mining used in Indonesia, most often for gold or silica, turns lush rainforest in to a barren, lifeless moonscape, where nothing can survive, and, although Indonesian law No 41 of 1999 prohibits such mining in protected forest areas, it is thought 90% of open pit mines are located in protected areas.
In addition to the devastating loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and runoff from open pit mining has caused normally transparent blackwater rivers to run a muddy, opaque brown, and of great concern are the long lasting effects of some of the chemicals used in the mining process. Despite being illegal in Indonesia, mercury is often used to extract gold, and contamination of rivers and water sources by this chemical can have a disastrous affect on fish stocks and human health. Anecdotal data from a village in central Kalimantan suggests fish stocks decreased by 70% in areas near to mercury using gold mines, and studies have shown exposure to high levels of mercury can damage the human immune system. Despite this, Indonesia ranks second to China in the use of mercury in gold mining
Pulp and Paper Plantations
One of the biggest drivers of forest loss in Malaysia and particularly Indonesia has been the expanding pulp and paper market.
The pulp and paper industry in Indonesia, which supplies products including toilet paper and printer paper to the world export market. I
Like the palm oil industry, the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia has been riddled with corruption, and has been the subject of vociferous criticism over the years regarding its impact on the environment, on endangered species such as the orangutan and particularly its appalling human rights abuses against the indigenous forest dwelling tribes of Indonesia. If plans to convert the forest surrounding the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in to a pulp and paper plantation go ahead, it would destroy the release site and habitat for the world’s only Sumatran orangutan reintroduction program, which has released over 100 ex-captives in to the parks buffer zone, the first time there have been orangutans in the area since they went extinct in the 19th century
Hunting
Orangutans have the longest birth interval of any land mammal, with females usually producing no more than 3 or 4 offspring in their lifetime. As such, they are particularly sensitive to hunting pressure, with the loss of just one individual having a huge effect on overall population viability.
Hunting and the use of orangutans for sustenance has always been a factor in Borneo and Sumatra, and traditional hunting by indigenous people has been responsible for a number of local extinctions. Although hunting is less of an issue today, a recent survey conducted in Kalimantan suggests up to 1,000 orangutans are still being lost every year to local hunting pressures (Meijaard, 2010), and research in 2006 suggest that if local people no longer hunt orangutans, it is because they are now so rarely seen, rather than because of any change in beliefs (Marshall et al, 2006).
Today, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, orangutans are found mainly in areas where the Iban, the indigenous people of the area, have a taboo against the killing of orangutans. In areas where local people have no such taboo, orangutans are extinct. The eating of orangutans is also less common in areas where local people have converted to Islam, due to the religions restrictions on meat eating.
The killing of orangutans by plantation workers, or by farmers who see them as pests, is still a serious issue, and the majority of orangutans currently in rehabilitation centers are orphans rescued from plantations after their mothers have been killed.
Illegal Pet Trade
It has been illegal to own or trade orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia for decades, but despite the substantial resources and media attention devoted to the issue, the trade in orangutans, predominantly infants, continues to flourish.
Although hunting is still an issue in both Indonesia and Malaysia, and illegal poaching does occur, most of the illegal trade in orangutans is a by-product of the destruction of the orangutan’s habitat. As the rainforest is cut down, terrified orangutans have nowhere to go and will descend to the ground, where they will usually encounter loggers or field workers. These orangutans, usually mothers with dependent offspring, are inevitably attacked, killed and eaten, their babies taken from them and either kept as pets or sold in to the illegal animal trade. 
Most infants do not survive the harsh journey to the wildlife markets in Jakarta, Bali or other international locations. Poor care, disease, injury and the psychological trauma of losing their mothers means most captive infant orangutans do not survive their first year, and it is believed that for every orangutan that does survive, 6-8 will have died.
If an orangutan does survive the journey, for the first 2-3 years of their life they will make cute and appealing pets. However, by the age of 3 or 4, an orangutan will already be as strong as an adult human, and by the time an orangutan is approaching maturity at 10 years old, it will be between 5 and 7 times as strong as a male human. At this stage, most owners will keep the orangutan permanently caged, kill it or discard it. The lucky few will be confiscated.
There are currently over 1,500 hundred orangutans in rehabilitation centers in Borneo and Sumatra.
Forest Fires
Forest fires are a usual occurrence in the parts of Indonesia and Malaysia where local people still practice traditional slash and burn agriculture. Under normal circumstances, however, the moisture contained within primary rainforests would control such fires, and the practice has coexisted with healthy orangutan populations for centuries.
In recent years, the frequency and intensity of forest fires has increased, and the results have been catastrophic, for rainforests, orangutans, humans and for the economy of Indonesia, Malaysia and the wider South East Asia area.
Drought coupled with poor logging practices, have seen a buildup of fuel loads in logging concessions, and the draining of peat swamp forests, add to the severity of the fires.
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