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n the wake of recent tragedies in which four elephants and a Sumatran tiger were found dead at oil palm plantations in Bengkulu and Riau, a private logging firm in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, has been able to protect orangutans on their timber production area, according to an NGO.

However, Sawit Watch, a palm oil industry watchdog, denounced the NGO’s conclusion, arguing that no companies were permitted to operate in endangered species’ habitats.

Norman Jiwan of Sawit Watch said that although PT Suka Jaya Makmur has received an award from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a German, NGO, the company was still destroying the protected forest.

“Since the beginning of the concession, they should have known that they are not allowed to conduct their business in orangutans’ habitat. However, they are still doing it, even now,” Norman said.

Norman also doubted that the company had really received permission from the communities in the vicinity of the concession area.

FSC awarded the logging firm a forest management certificate last week for its success in preserving the endangered animals while simultaneously exploiting the forest.

FSC is a member of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL) Alliance, an association of voluntary international standard-setting and certification organizations focused on social and environmental issues.

Since 2006, FSC has complied with ISEAL’s code of conduct for setting social and environmental standards for assuring high standards of credible behavior and ethical trade.

Ida Bagus Wiradmyana Putra from Alas Kusuma Group, the parent company of PT Suka Jaya Makmur, said that the company protected the orangutans due to its eagerness to follow international forest management standards.

Ida also said that, with 171,341 hectares of logging concessions, the company began protecting flora and fauna in June 2008 with a thorough identification of all the animals and plants in the forest.

“We also invited participation from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia. It turned out that an estimated 600 orangutans were living within our logging concession,” he said.

WWF Indonesia wildlife conservation specialist Chairul Saleh said that of the 54,000 total orangutans in Kalimantan, 70 percent were living outside protected forests. “The fact that 70 percent of the orangutans in Kalimantan live outside protected areas — including logging concessions — is not widely known,” Chairul said.

Furthermore, Chairul said that WWF Indonesia has found 222 varieties of trees that are food sources for orangutans of a total 640 tree varieties in the logging concessions.

Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto said that in April 2009, former forestry minister MS Kaban sent a letter to Agriculture Minister Suswono stating that land that was being converted from forest to plantation and was inhabited by endangered species must remain unconverted to protect the animals and to maintain biodiversity.

In May 2010, the government issued a presidential instruction declaring a moratorium on land conversion in primary forests and peatlands.