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N. Sumatra stakeholders unite under local wisdom to protect Tapanuli orangutan
From local communities to a hydropower company, all stakeholders are applying the customary wisdom to protect and save the rarest great ape on the planet, the endemic Tapanuli orangutan of North Sumatra.
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Sacred animal: A Tapanuli orangutan looks down from its perch in a tree in the Batang Toru Ecosystem, its natural habitat. The local people believe that orangutans are sacred, and that disturbing them will bring a blight on human settlements. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
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ocal residents, activists, researchers and an energy corporation have joined hands to protect the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan in the Batang Toru Ecosystem in South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra.
Paya, a 40-year-old male Tapanuli orangutan, has spent almost two months in rehabilitation for malnutrition as well as injuries to his face and back at the Orangutan Batu Mbelin quarantine center in Sibolangit, Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra.
Paya is the only Tapanuli orangutan among the 56 Sumatra orangutans at the center managed by Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL), an environmental conservation non-profit, and is the first recorded case of malnutrition in a Tapanuli orangutan. He will spend the rest of his life in captivity despite his improving condition, because he is considered too old to survive in the wild.
A team from the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) found Paya suffering from malnutrition and several injuries in September at a plantation outside the Batang Toru Ecosystem.
A species of great ape, the Pongo Tapanuliensies has an estimated population of only 800 animals in the wild. They are found only in the Batang Toru Ecosystem, a virgin forest covering 133,841 hectares across the three North Sumatra regencies of South Tapanuli, North Tapanuli and Central Tapanuli.
The people who live around Batang Toru are committed to protecting this most recently discovered orangutan species by relying on local wisdom.
