Letter: Protecting orangutans

Tue, 03/18/2008 2:20 AM  |  Reader's Forum

In December 2007, a spokesperson for the Forestry Ministry told The Jakarta Post that since the 1970s, about 3,000 orangutans had been killed every year.

Government departments when dealing with this issue are notoriously economical with the truth, so it is fair to say their estimate is likely to be on the low side.

That is about 100,000 orangutans and countless millions of other animals and birds sacrificed in the name of progress, or to me more precise to make a few people very, very rich.

This begs the question: Just when will President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono exert some real authority and bring a stop to this carnage? With only about 60,000 orangutans left, there is no more time left for talk or new reports to be filed away along with numerous others collecting dust on government shelves. Action is needed, and now.

A good start would be for the government itself to immediately stop selling licenses to palm oil companies permitting them to cut down rainforests and in doing so, kill orangutans, a legally protected species.

Mr. President, the world is watching you. Do you really want to be remembered as the President who could have taken action to stop orangutans, Indonesia's most famous and revered species, from becoming extinct, but who chose not to?

Is it also not about time your government began to enforce the Kinshasha Declaration for Great Apes, an agreement you entered into in 2005 but have so far totally ignored? If you cannot be trusted to implement that agreement, why should anyone trust anything you said in Bali last December?

SEAN WHYTE Chief Executive Nature Alert England, UK

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The Reader (not verified) — Thu, 03/20/2008 - 4:00pm

I am tottaly agree !!!

I really hope Bapak President read your article.

Titi/Sweden

Mrs Sheward (not verified) — Tue, 03/18/2008 - 11:15pm

I refer to the article published on 18th March reporting the comments made by Mr Sean Whyte of Nature Alert on the desperate situation surrounding orangutans..

As the Chairperson of a registered Charity in the UK, devoting time and money to saving the orangutan from extinction, I am contacted on a daily basis by people asking for our help to save these poor creatures. We receive letters and emails from visitors and nationals alike reporting on the atrocious living conditions and circumstances these poor apes are often found to be living in.

Some rescue centers can no longer help house the orphans as they are already full, others have insufficient funds to feed their charges they already have responsibility for.

But rescue centers do not address the route of the problem – loss of habitat!!!

Mr President - I know I speak for thousands of people worldwide when I say

“DON’T LET A ZOO BE THE LAST PLACE WE CAN FIND THESE VERY CLOSE COUSINS OF OURS”!

The Reader (not verified) — Tue, 03/18/2008 - 9:39pm

I totally agree with the comments made by Sean Whyte. The world of the orangutan is slipping through our fingers whilst officials argue and prevaricate amongst themselves! TODAY IS TOO LATE FOR THE ORANGUTANS, take action NOW to stop palm oil plantations from covering and destroying Indonesia. Do you know that when all the trees are gone Indonesia will sink into the sea?

STOP DESTROYING RAINFOREST, SAVE THE ORANGUTANS, THE WORLD WAITS AND WATCHES!

Jean Bird (Mrs)
ENGLAND

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