Call to protect orangutans

2008-07-05 14:33

Bangkok - Endangered orangutans could become the first great ape to become extinct if urgent action isn't taken to protect the species from human encroachment in Southeast Asia, a new study says.

The number of orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia has declined sharply since 2004, mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, said Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in the U.S. state of Iowa, on Saturday.

A recent survey by Wich and his 15 colleagues found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped nearly 14% since 2004 to 6 600. No giant apes were found in parts of Aceh province.

The study - which appears in this month's peer-reviewed science journal Oryx - discovered the population on Malaysia's Borneo island fell by 10% to 49 600 apes.

"It's disappointing that there are still declines even though there have been quite a lot of conservation efforts over the past 30 years," Wich said.

The orangutan losses on Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate," and Wich described the situation on Sumatra as a "rapid decline".

"Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct," the researchers wrote.

The study is the latest in a long line of research that has predicted the demise of orangutans, which are only found in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In May, the Center for Orangutan Protection said just 20 000 of the endangered primates remain in the tropical jungle of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island, down from 31,300 in 2004. Based on that estimate it concluded orangutans there could be extinct by 2011.

Michelle Desilets, director of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK, praised the new study as a comprehensive look at the orangutan population in an e-mail interview. Desilets was not involved in the research.

"What matters is that the rate of decline is increasing, and unless something is done, the wild orangutan is on a quick spiral towards extinction, whether in two years, five years or 10 years," she said.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top palm oil producers, have aggressively pushed to expand plantations amid a rising demand for biofuels, which are considered cleaner burning and cheaper than petrol.

- SAPA