50 Orangutans Killed every week.
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50 Orangutans Killed every week.
Orangutans in Crisis
The Conservation Status of the Sumatran Orangutan
The Sumatran orangutan has been classified as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union. The population of wild Sumatran orangutans has declined drastically from over 12,000 in 1994 to 7,300 in 2003. Orangutans were historically found in forests across Sumatra but are now restricted to North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. There are less than 900,000 hectares of suitable orangutan habitat remaining on Sumatra.
The Sumatran orangutan population is declining by as many as 1000 per year. Current estimates suggest that they could become extinct in the wild in less than 10 years. The major threats to the survival of orangutans are habitat loss and the illegal pet trade.
Threats
The decline of the orangutan on Borneo and Sumatra in recent years symbolises the devastation of one of the world?s biodiversity hotspots ? the lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia.
Across the orangutans? entire range, conversion of forests to oil palm plantations is occurring on a massive scale, logging continues even within protected areas, and planned road networks threaten to fragment the habitat of the last viable populations. These factors are responsible for the loss of over 80% of orangutan habitat over the last 20 years.
In order to be considered genetically viable in the long term, populations must number 500 or more individuals. On Sumatra, only 3 such populations exist, all located within the Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6 million hectare expanse of forest spanning the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. Leuser has been acknowledged as one of the world?s most important biodiversity hotspots, and was designated an UNESCO Tropical Rainforest Heritage Site in 2004. The ecosystem incorporates the Gunung Leuser National Park, but the majority of orangutans are resident outside the boundaries of the protected area, where the forests are being reduced by 10-15% each year due to logging and clearance for agricultural plantations.
Habitat Loss
Indonesia has one of the highest tropical forest loss rates in the world. The rate of deforestation is showing no sign of slowing down: around 15 years ago an average 1.7 million hectares was cleared annually in Indonesia, increasing to 2 million hectares by 2000.
Both legal and illegal logging activity has led to the degradation of forests across Sumatra. Although logged forests are not able to support high population densities, orangutans CAN survive in these disturbed habitats. However, it is now common practise for expired logging concessions to be clear-cut and converted to plantations. The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations across Sumatra and Borneo has already involved the clear-felling of millions of hectares of forests, and all unprotected lowland forests are vulnerable to conversion in the future.
Lethal conflict is now a frequent occurrence in plantations, as orangutans are forced out of degraded forest fragments in search of enough food for survival. Perceived as a threat to the plantations? profits, these endangered and protected species, a flagship for the conservation of South-east Asian rainforests, are considered to be agricultural pests and killed.
The construction of new roads leads to inevitable increases in habitat fragmentation and degradation and opens up the forest, creating access to previously undisturbed areas for hunters and poachers.
Hunting and Poaching
Orangutans are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), prohibiting unlicensed trade due to the conservation status of the species in the wild. However, there is a huge local, national, and international demand for infant orangutans to be kept as pets. Young orangutans are highly dependent on their mothers for survival and development, and in order to obtain an infant for the pet trade it is necessary to kill the mother. It has been estimated that for every infant that survives the process of capture and transport, at least 3 others will have been lost, and each of these infants also represents the death of an adult female orangutan.
Orangutans are a "keystone" species for conservation. They play an important part in forest regeneration through the fruits and seeds they eat. Their disappearance may represent the loss of thousands of species of plants and animals within that ecosystem.
The world's remaining primary forests are essential to human wellbeing, and the key to a healthy planet is biodiversity - saving orangutans helps to conserve the countless other mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, insect, plant and other species that live in the Indonesian rainforest
http://www.orangutans-sos.org
So check it your products have Palm oil in them..and try to only buy it if it is Orangutan Friendly
Any suggestions on how we can help?
The Conservation Status of the Sumatran Orangutan
The Sumatran orangutan has been classified as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union. The population of wild Sumatran orangutans has declined drastically from over 12,000 in 1994 to 7,300 in 2003. Orangutans were historically found in forests across Sumatra but are now restricted to North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. There are less than 900,000 hectares of suitable orangutan habitat remaining on Sumatra.
The Sumatran orangutan population is declining by as many as 1000 per year. Current estimates suggest that they could become extinct in the wild in less than 10 years. The major threats to the survival of orangutans are habitat loss and the illegal pet trade.
Threats
The decline of the orangutan on Borneo and Sumatra in recent years symbolises the devastation of one of the world?s biodiversity hotspots ? the lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia.
Across the orangutans? entire range, conversion of forests to oil palm plantations is occurring on a massive scale, logging continues even within protected areas, and planned road networks threaten to fragment the habitat of the last viable populations. These factors are responsible for the loss of over 80% of orangutan habitat over the last 20 years.
In order to be considered genetically viable in the long term, populations must number 500 or more individuals. On Sumatra, only 3 such populations exist, all located within the Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6 million hectare expanse of forest spanning the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. Leuser has been acknowledged as one of the world?s most important biodiversity hotspots, and was designated an UNESCO Tropical Rainforest Heritage Site in 2004. The ecosystem incorporates the Gunung Leuser National Park, but the majority of orangutans are resident outside the boundaries of the protected area, where the forests are being reduced by 10-15% each year due to logging and clearance for agricultural plantations.
Habitat Loss
Indonesia has one of the highest tropical forest loss rates in the world. The rate of deforestation is showing no sign of slowing down: around 15 years ago an average 1.7 million hectares was cleared annually in Indonesia, increasing to 2 million hectares by 2000.
Both legal and illegal logging activity has led to the degradation of forests across Sumatra. Although logged forests are not able to support high population densities, orangutans CAN survive in these disturbed habitats. However, it is now common practise for expired logging concessions to be clear-cut and converted to plantations. The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations across Sumatra and Borneo has already involved the clear-felling of millions of hectares of forests, and all unprotected lowland forests are vulnerable to conversion in the future.
Lethal conflict is now a frequent occurrence in plantations, as orangutans are forced out of degraded forest fragments in search of enough food for survival. Perceived as a threat to the plantations? profits, these endangered and protected species, a flagship for the conservation of South-east Asian rainforests, are considered to be agricultural pests and killed.
The construction of new roads leads to inevitable increases in habitat fragmentation and degradation and opens up the forest, creating access to previously undisturbed areas for hunters and poachers.
Hunting and Poaching
Orangutans are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), prohibiting unlicensed trade due to the conservation status of the species in the wild. However, there is a huge local, national, and international demand for infant orangutans to be kept as pets. Young orangutans are highly dependent on their mothers for survival and development, and in order to obtain an infant for the pet trade it is necessary to kill the mother. It has been estimated that for every infant that survives the process of capture and transport, at least 3 others will have been lost, and each of these infants also represents the death of an adult female orangutan.
Orangutans are a "keystone" species for conservation. They play an important part in forest regeneration through the fruits and seeds they eat. Their disappearance may represent the loss of thousands of species of plants and animals within that ecosystem.
The world's remaining primary forests are essential to human wellbeing, and the key to a healthy planet is biodiversity - saving orangutans helps to conserve the countless other mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, insect, plant and other species that live in the Indonesian rainforest
http://www.orangutans-sos.org
So check it your products have Palm oil in them..and try to only buy it if it is Orangutan Friendly
Any suggestions on how we can help?
Last edited by slane on 30 May 2007, 14:26, edited 2 times in total.
Damn, I never knew they used animals to make oil!! 8O
thats not cool. Are ALL the Orangutan friendly palm oils labeled Orangutan friendly?
thats not cool. Are ALL the Orangutan friendly palm oils labeled Orangutan friendly?
“The true bare of any man is his willingness to accept the consequences of his actions.” - iser0073
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@Psyclown: They don't use the Orangutans to make the oil. They chop down their rainforests and sell the wood. Then they sometimes plant palm oil in the place of the rainforests. The Orangutans starve and when they come to the Palm plantations, they get burnt, stabbed or shot. 50 die every week, and they are highly endangered in Borneo and critically endangered in Sumatra.
They will become extinct unless we insist that the shops stock only Orangutan-Friendly Palm oil.
They will become extinct unless we insist that the shops stock only Orangutan-Friendly Palm oil.
Plenty of products. But we are not saying you should boycott Palm oil, that would not work. You must insist that the Palm oil comes from sustanable Palm plantations that have not destroyed rainforest, and killed Orangutans.HdB wrote:What kind of products contain Palm Oil?
Not many people in SA know about this. We need to get the word out about this to as many people as possible to inisist on ORANGUTAN FRIENDLY palm oil.
Go to this website:
http://www.films4.org/palmoil/
Spread the message out there. Not many people know about this in SA, and we import tonnes of Palm oil.
http://www.films4.org/palmoil/
Spread the message out there. Not many people know about this in SA, and we import tonnes of Palm oil.
Vast swathes of tropical rainforest are being cleared to grow palm oil, especially in Kalimantan, where it is estimated that an area the size of three football pitches is cleared every minute. This deforestation is avoidable – millions of hectares of degraded land stand empty or unused in |ndonesia – but the potential profits from selling the timber reduces the costs of setting up a plantation by around 40%. Often, unscrupulous companies acquire land for the sole purpose of selling the valuable timber harvested from the hardwood forests – in many places the cleared land is not then developed for palm oil, with companies declaring bankruptcy in order to fulfil their contractual obligations. Even companies that do establish palm oil plantations sometimes choose to convert forested land because of the profit from the timber – this provides an immediate cash injection into the company when they must wait 3 to 4 years to harvest a profitable crop from young oil palms.
World-leading orangutan experts have now identified the clearance of rainforest for palm oil expansion as the single greatest threat to the survival of the orangutan in the wild. Current estimates are that each year 5,000 orangutans are dying in Borneo, and 1,000 a year in Sumatra – that means 15 orangutans are dying every single day. This is catatrophic for the orangutan, but also reflects the loss of a wider rich and unique biodiversity within the Indonesian rainforest. For example, Sumatran lowland forest is 2.5 times richer in terms of biodiversity of species than the very best Amazonian rainforest, and 1.8 times richer than the best Central African rainforest. This means that unsustainable palm oil production is destroying the most species-rich rainforests in the world. Orangutans, Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, hornbills – these are just some of the better-known species losing their habitat and their lives due to unsustainable palm oil expansion.
World-leading orangutan experts have now identified the clearance of rainforest for palm oil expansion as the single greatest threat to the survival of the orangutan in the wild. Current estimates are that each year 5,000 orangutans are dying in Borneo, and 1,000 a year in Sumatra – that means 15 orangutans are dying every single day. This is catatrophic for the orangutan, but also reflects the loss of a wider rich and unique biodiversity within the Indonesian rainforest. For example, Sumatran lowland forest is 2.5 times richer in terms of biodiversity of species than the very best Amazonian rainforest, and 1.8 times richer than the best Central African rainforest. This means that unsustainable palm oil production is destroying the most species-rich rainforests in the world. Orangutans, Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, hornbills – these are just some of the better-known species losing their habitat and their lives due to unsustainable palm oil expansion.
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It is not just Palm Lotion. 1 in 10 products on the supermarket shelves contains Palm Oil. Sometimes it is labelled as Vegetable Oil, but not always.
It is found in Chocolate, Ice-Cream and many other products.
Spread awareness about this - the more people that know about it, the more likely the chance of them introducing Orangutan-Friendly palm oil into the products.
Come on people - pass this message on to all your contacts. We can make a difference here.
It is found in Chocolate, Ice-Cream and many other products.
Spread awareness about this - the more people that know about it, the more likely the chance of them introducing Orangutan-Friendly palm oil into the products.
Come on people - pass this message on to all your contacts. We can make a difference here.
thats horrific, some ppl are so greedy they forget that those animals are helpless to fend for themselves, just so some guy can make his fortune a entire species is about to get destroyed, then what? what will our childrens children have to go visit when they younger, cause it wont be a zoo, it will be the museum!
when in doubt, paddle out...
You'd be amazed at the amount of items in which one can find palm oil. Just now during lunch found it listed in my cappucine, in my cup of soup...
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Palm Oil is found in many items. I am not saying we should Boycott Palm oil - that would just encourage the people there to chop down the trees and sell the wood to make money.
We need to insist on Orangutan-Friendly Palm oil that comes from Regulated and sustainable Palm plantations that do not destroy current rainforest to plant palm.
There is a lot of empty land in Borneo and Sumatra where they can plant the palms. They choose to destroy the rainforest because they can sell the wood for a cheap buck.
We can do the following to help:
1. Spread the word about Palm oil, email your friends, post in forums.
2. Insist on Orangutan-Friendly - phone your supermarkets, write, email manufacturers.
3. Donate to Orangutan societies if you're willing and have spare money.
4. Ecourage other people to donate as well.
Spread the word.
We need to insist on Orangutan-Friendly Palm oil that comes from Regulated and sustainable Palm plantations that do not destroy current rainforest to plant palm.
There is a lot of empty land in Borneo and Sumatra where they can plant the palms. They choose to destroy the rainforest because they can sell the wood for a cheap buck.
We can do the following to help:
1. Spread the word about Palm oil, email your friends, post in forums.
2. Insist on Orangutan-Friendly - phone your supermarkets, write, email manufacturers.
3. Donate to Orangutan societies if you're willing and have spare money.
4. Ecourage other people to donate as well.
Spread the word.