Orangutans will be extinct from the planet within 10 years unless action is taken to preserve forests in Indonesia and Malaysia where they live, a conservation charity has warned.
The Bornean orangutan was officially listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last month, joining the only other kind, the Sumatran orangutan, in that classification.
In just 25 years, more than a quarter of Indonesia's forests – 76 million acres, an area almost the size of Germany – have disappeared.
One of the main reasons is to clear land to make way for palm oil plantations. The oil is used to make a vast array of different consumer products from crisps, pizza, noodles and donuts to toothpaste, shampoo and biodiesel.
Earlier this year Greenpeace accused major brands such as Pepsico, Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive of failing to make sure their products did not contain palm oil grown on deforested land.
Alan Knight, chief executive of the charity, International Animal Rescue (IAR), which runs a rescue centre in Borneo, warned the orangutan was now on the “precipice of extinction”.
Asked how long they might survive, Knight said: “I would probably say 10 years if we cannot stop the destruction. I think the Sumatran will go before then if they don’t sort out the situation they are in.”
Forest fires occur naturally but some are started illegally in order to open up the land to palm oil plantations.
Last year an area the size of “Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and half of Devon” combined was burned in just three months.
Even the charity’s rescue centre, where they take orangutans that have been driven starving and terrified from the forests, was damaged by one fire.
Last month, the IUCN said Bornean orangutan populations were declining “as the forests they live in are turned into oil palm, rubber or paper plantations, and others are killed by humans”.
Erik Meijaard, a member of the IUCN’s primate specialist group, said: “As orangutans are hunted and pushed out of their habitats, losses to this slow-breeding species are enormous and will be extremely difficult to reverse.”
According to the IUCN’s Red List of species, the Bornean orangutan’s population fell by more than 60 per cent between 1950 and 2010 and is expected to fall by a further 22 per cent by 2025. (The Independent)
PHOTO: An emaciated orangutan and her child – named Mama Anti and Baby Anti – are rescued by volunteers International Animal Rescue.