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Orangutan habitats decreasing every year
PONTIANAK: Plantation and mining activities in Ketapang regency, West Kalimantan, are cutting down forests and reducing the population of orangutans every year
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ONTIANAK: Plantation and mining activities in Ketapang regency, West Kalimantan, are cutting down forests and reducing the population of orangutans every year.
“In Ketapang, there are 90 plantation permits issued by the local administration, and 147 mining permits,” Tito P. Indrawan, a member of Palung foundation, said as quoted by Antara news agency.
He said that if every plantation company had 16,000 hectares, the orangutan population degradation would be massive, and that did not include the impacts of mining companies.
He said that most orangutan populations in West Kalimantan had moved from the middle of forests to forest borders. As a result, orangutans are coming into direct conflict with humans — and the humans are winning, he said.
“We can’t calculate the orangutan population in Ketapang and the size of their migration process. But in 2006 we saw six orangutans living along the riverbanks. Also in the same year, the communities caught many orangutans entering their villages and handed the orangutans to us,” he said.
