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Plan to release orangutans stalls
The government’s plan to return all rescued orangutans to their natural habitat by 2015 is unlikely to be realized, experts say
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The government’s plan to return all rescued orangutans to their natural habitat by 2015 is unlikely to be realized, experts say.
Conservationists have said they are still finding it difficult to locate areas of forest safe enough to release the orangutans into.
“I see no real action taken to protect the orangutans,” Bungaran Saragih, chairman of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “It seems only NGOs are busy saving orangutans.”
Bungaran, a former agriculture minister, said the government had not developed the necessary human resources to protect the species.
“If no breakthrough is agreed upon in the Bali meeting, then protection for orangutans has been an empty promise,” he said.
Government stakeholders, local and foreign conservationists and private companies running businesses in forestry are to gather to discuss the future of orangutans.
The conference, jointly organized by the Indonesian Forestry Ministry and the Indonesian Orangutan Forum (Forina), will feature speakers including Bungaran, Boen Purnama, the secretary-general of Forestry Ministry, Anne Russon from Glendon College, York University and Carel van Schaik from University of Zurich.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono outlined a national strategy to protect orangutans during the UN climate change conference in Bali in 2007.
The plan stated that all orangutans still in rehabilitation centers would be returned to their natural habitats by 2015.
As of 2007, there were about 1,200 orangutans in rehabilitation centers in Kalimantan, including Wanariset — Samboja in East Kalimantan, Nyaru Menteng in Palangkaraya and Pasir Panjang in Central Kalimantan.
Some 16 orangutans are still in a quarantine center in Batu Mbelin, Sibolangit, North Sumatra.
Forestry Ministry data showed that there were 203 orangutans in zoos and safari parks across the country in 2006.
About 90 percent of all orangutans in the world live in Indonesia, on Sumatra and the Borneo islands.
About 6,667 orangutans are in Sumatra, mostly in Leuser National Park, and 54,567 in Kalimantan.
The remaining 10 percent are in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia.
Conservationists believed that reintroduction of orangutan into their original habitat was the best option for handling rescued orangutan.
Director of Biodiversity Protection at the Forestry Ministry, Hari Santoso said releasing the orangutans into the wild would take time.
“[Forestry] Minister Zulkifli Hasan has signed a letter to award forest concessions for orangutan. We hope it will be launched soon,” he said.
He said that the ministry would also issue a new decree to accelerate of the animals into the wild.
“We are also working with the scientists to ensure the genetic preservation of the orangutan,” he said.
