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Hundreds of orangutans to be returned to original habitats
Orangutans held in captivity for years will likely make a return to their original habitats soon as government pledges to issue a new permit to convert production forests to save the great ape
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rangutans held in captivity for years will likely make a return to their original habitats soon as government pledges to issue a new permit to convert production forests to save the great ape.
This will be the first permit for orangutan habitats issued in the last eight years.
The permit will cover some 86,000 hectares forest in Kutai, East Kalimantan, that could accommodate 127 orangutans.
“The permit will be issued by Forestry Minister [Zulkifli Hasan] this month,” Forestry Ministry secretary-general Boen Purnama told an international workshop on orangutan protection here on Thursday.
He said the government would convert former production forests into restoration projects for the orangutan to meet the country’s target of releasing all rehabilitated orangutans to their habitats by 2015.
The target was set out in national action plans on orangutan protection launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a climate change conference in Bali in 2007.
“The total area of forests allotted to orangutans will depend on demand from project developers who are serious about protecting the species,” Boen said.
There are now 1,200 orangutans held in rehabilitation centers both in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Experts say 100 hectares of forest is needed for every three orangutans.
The first permit will be granted to PT Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF).
BOSF advisory board chairman Bungaran Saragih said 80 percent of the planned area was still virgin forest and the remaining was degraded land.
Bungaran, a former minister for forestry and agriculture, said the foundation needed at least 200,000 hectares for 850 orangutans currently being treated at rehabilitation centers in Kalimantan.
“We didn’t release any single orangutan in the last eight years due to difficulty finding suitable forest area,” he said.
BOSF plans to release healthy orangutans in November.
Bungaran warned that the longer orangutans were held in captivity, they more prone they were to diseases such as hepatitis and tuberculosis that could affect other individuals.
Conservationists are still required to pay US$1.5 million to obtain orangutan habitat restoration permits for an area of 100,000 hectares for 60 years.
Bungaran said logging and plantation companies, government and locals should understand the need to preserve forests for orangutan habitat. He admitted, however, that he had himself issued several forest conversion permits for plantations during his term as agriculture minister between 2000 and 2004.
BOSF chairman Togu Manurung said only 25 percent of allocated areas was suitable for orangutans due to topography problems since orangutans populate lowland areas.
University of Zurich orangutan expert Carel van Schaik said releasing orangutans into the wild “requires careful preparation and monitoring,” he said.
