Illegal trade devastates Sumatran orang-utan population

WWF 16 Apr 09;

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Lack of law enforcement against illegal trade in Indonesia threatens the survival of orang-utans and gibbons on Sumatra, a new study by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC shows.

Despite considerable investment in wildlife conservation, numbers of the critically endangered orang-utans captured mainly for the pet trade exceeded the levels of the 1970s. A lack of adequate law enforcement is to blame, TRAFFIC says.

Records of orang-utans and gibbons put into rehabilitation centers serve as an indicator of how many of these animals were illegally held. Meanwhile numbers continue to decline in the wild, with the most recent estimate of just 7,300 Sumatran Orangutans surviving.

Orang-utans, which can weigh up to around 90 kilograms and reach 1.5 metres in length, end up in such centers after they become too old and big to be held as pets. But owners of the reddish-brown coloured apes do not face any legal consequences.

“Confiscating these animals without prosecuting the owners is futile,” said Chris R Shepherd, Acting Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

“There is no deterrent for those committing these crimes, if they go unpunished. Indonesia has adequate laws, but without serious penalties, this illegal trade will continue, and these species will continue to spiral towards extinction.”

An estimated 2,000 orang-utans have been confiscated or turned in by private owners in Indonesia in the last three decades but no more than a handful of people have ever been successfully prosecuted.

Between 2002 and 2008, for example, the newly opened Sibolangit rehabilitation centre in Sumatra took in 142 Sumatran orang-utans, while its predecessor, Bohorok rehabilitation centre accepted just 30 animals between 1995–2001 (when it closed), and 105 orang-utans between 1973–1979.

“When the first rehabilitation centres were established for orang-utans and later for gibbons it was hoped that with more apes being confiscated, levels of illegal trade would fall,” said Vincent Nijman, a TRAFFIC consultant and author of the report, based at Oxford Brookes University.

“But with hundreds of orangutans and gibbons present in such centres, and dozens added every year, it is hard to view these numbers as anything other than an indictment against Indonesia’s law enforcement efforts,” he said.

The report also documents the 148 Sumatran gibbons and siamangs and 26 Sumatran orang-utans kept in Indonesian zoos.

“Proper enforcement of laws protecting orang-utans is critical in Indonesia” said Wendy Elliott, species manager at WWF International. “If the situation continues, the Sumatra orang-utan could well face extinction.”

The report recommends that the root causes of trade be examined and that laws be better implemented for the protection of orang-utans, gibbons and the island’s other wildlife.

Sumatra’s wildlife is also threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation, logging, land conversion, encroachment, and forest fires.

WWF is working to reduce the destruction of wildlife habitat in Sumatra by working with industry to ensure High Conservation Value Forests are not converted for agriculture, empowering local communities to manage natural resources in a sustainable way, and providing alternatives.

Indonesia's Illegal Orangutan Trade On The Rise - Report
Sunanda Creagh, PlanetArk 16 Apr 09;

JAKARTA - More of Indonesia's critically endangered orangutans are being caught for the pet trade now than in the 1970s, reflecting the country's weak law enforcement, a wildlife protection group said in a report published on Thursday.

Less than 8,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild but a new report from wildlife trade monitors, TRAFFIC, found that an increasing number are being rescued from private ownership and handed over to Indonesian rehabilitation centres.

"More effort has gone into orangutan conservation than any other wildlife over the last 30 years and yet we are seeing the same thing happening," said Chris Shepherd, Acting Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

"Confiscating these animals without prosecuting the owners is futile. There is no deterrent for those committing these crimes, if they go unpunished. Indonesia has adequate laws, but without serious penalties, this illegal trade will continue, and these species will continue to spiral towards extinction."

An estimated 2,000 orangutans have been confiscated or handed in by their owners to rehabilitation centres in Indonesia in the last 30 years, but very few owners or traders have been prosecuted, TRAFFIC said.

The head of the enforcement arm of North Sumatra's Regional Office for the Conservation of Natural Resources, Djati, said he had never charged, jailed, or fined anyone for owning an orangutan, despite the fact that it was against Indonesian law.

"When we find them, we request that they give them up and if they do not, we take the orangutan away by force," said Djati, who like many Indonesians has only one name.

"Most of the people who own them are village people who do not realise it is against the law," he said, adding that his office was setting up a new wildlife crime unit to crack down on black market traders.

A new population of up to 2,000 orangutans was recently discovered in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, but TRAFFIC's Shepherd said this community was also in great danger from poachers, who tend to kill female orangutans and steal their babies.

"It would be surprising if traders didn't know it was there already," he said.

(Editing by Sara Webb)

Pet trade puts orangutans at risk
Richard Black, BBC News 16 Apr 09;

The trade in Sumatran orangutans for pets shows little sign of decline and is taking the species to the brink of extinction, a report concludes.

Compiled by Traffic, the international wildlife trade monitoring network, it suggests that more orangutans are being traded than in previous decades.

The species is listed as critically endangered, with only about 7,000 left.

Traffic says Indonesian authorities need to pursue prosecutions and heavy penalties against illegal traders.

The Sumatran orangutan is protected under national laws and international conventions.

But Traffic says the authorities rarely prosecute; and when they do, penalties are mild.

"There is no deterrent for those committing these crimes if they go unpunished," said Chris Shepherd, acting director of Traffic in Southeast Asia.

"Indonesia has adequate laws; but without serious penalties, this illegal trade will continue and these species will continue to spiral towards extinction."

Pet rescue

The organisation surveyed orangutans, gibbons and other primates in zoos, markets and rehabilitation centres around Sumatra.

Market traders told investigators that they could procure orangutans, as well as other threatened species such as Sun bears and tigers.

But the most compelling evidence came from rehabilitation centres, which exist to help orangutans and gibbons that have been kept as pets since infancy adapt back to life in the wild.

In the period 2002-2008, centres were "rescuing" about 20 orangutans unwanted by their owners each year.

In the previous decades, it had been on average about half of that number.

Although other factors could explain the difference - a new centre opening, and perhaps new staff keener to take the former pets into their care - it could be that the number of animals being traded has risen, even as wild populations have shrunk.

About half of the animals entered the rehabilitation process when they were under four years of age, well before reaching maturity, indicating that they had been procured as babies - a process that almost always involves killing the mother.

The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is more threatened than the other species, which hails from Borneo.

In the 1990s, forest supporting about 1,000 of the apes was cleared each year. The overall population has shrunk by 80% in 75 years, largely because of deforestation, abetted by the pet trade.

Subsequently, civil hostilities in Aceh province at the northern end of Sumatra curbed the timber trade; but the 2005 peace accord and the new interest in palm oil are putting fresh pressure on the forests, and so on the orangutans.

Last year, the national government and the island's 10 provincial authorities pledged to halt the loss of forests and native species, and to make development sustainable.

Traffic is a joint initiative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which numbers many governments among its members, and the conservation charity WWF.