Orang-utan plan

Abstract

Conservationists are hoping to do a deal with oil palm growers in Borneo to help save the orang-utan in its last stronghold. Nigel Williams reports. Conservationists are hoping to do a deal with oil palm growers in Borneo to help save the orang-utan in its last stronghold. Nigel Williams reports. Wildlife campaigners are hoping to do a deal with the burgeoning oil palm industry in Borneo in the hope of creating a forest framework to save the threatened orang-utan. Palm oil companies and the Sabah government in Borneo have agreed to a project to create wildlife corridors that will link forest areas and create a network of safe havens for the ape. Palm oil companies and the Sabah government signed up to a pilot scheme in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, in October and met again last month in London to try to agree the details. There are hopes the project can be expanded. Marc Ancrenaz, director of the Kinatabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project, agreed that alliance between the conservationists and the oil-palm industry had been difficult, but said that it was essential to be pragmatic to try to save the ape. “The oil-palm industry is going to stay,” he said. “There's no point fighting development. We need to look for a solution together to save the orang-utan. By creating 100-metre wide corridors of forest along major rivers we will provide contiguous corridors of natural habitat to link isolated orang-utan populations. The oil-palm industry has to be part of our conservation efforts if we want to succeed, as the majority of orang-utan populations are fragmented by oil palm estates.” What researchers have found is that orang-utans dislike the palm plantations and need native forest canopy to move from region to region. The London meeting was organised by the World Land Trust. Mary Tibbet, of the WLT, said it was important to keep all sides talking. “The palm oil industry has been villified but there could be a mechanism in which they are engaged in the conservation of orang-utans.”Over the past century orang-utan numbers have fallen by more than 75 per cent, and in Sabah they have declined by 90 per cent over 200 years. But Sabah remains their stronghold with more than 11,000 animals living there, 20 per cent of the estimated total population. Over the past century orang-utan numbers have fallen by more than 75 per cent, and in Sabah they have declined by 90 per cent over 200 years. But Sabah remains their stronghold with more than 11,000 animals living there, 20 per cent of the estimated total population. The palm oil industry has expanded rapidly over recent years, replacing native rainforest with plantations in response to growing western demand for palm oil. Some Western food producers have been so concerned about these developments that they have publicly announced that they will not use palm oil in their products. Nonetheless, business is booming, with Malaysia, the world's largest producer of palm oil, announcing that it is the country's third-biggest export last year. Orang-utans live only in Borneo and Sumatra but have been pushed back into ever-smaller areas of native rainforest because of the increase in logging and agriculture. Over the past century orang-utan numbers have fallen by more than 75 per cent, and in Sabah they have declined by 90 per cent over 200 years. But Sabah remains their stronghold with more than 11,000 animals living there, 20 per cent of the estimated total population. Without natural forest corridors, the remaining populations would become increasingly isolated and vulnerable without the ability to breed outside their dwindling colonies.