Yahoo News 16 Jul 10;
JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia said it will reserve thousands of hectares of forest in Borneo island for some 200 captive orangutans which will be released in a conservation drive, an official said Friday.
"A foundation has asked for a permit on about 86,000 hectares of forests in Kutai area in East Kalimantan (Borneo) to be used for orangutan conservation," forestry ministry secretary general Boen Purnama said.
Conservationists have been looking for large areas to release the endangered great apes as vast tracts of Indonesian jungle have been cleared for plantations and logging.
Purnama said the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) had asked for the space in the forests, which were formerly used for logging and need to be restored before being used for conservation.
"We expect to release about 190 out of 226 orangutans, which are being held in captivity in East Kalimantan, in the forests," BOSF spokesman Nico Hermanu said.
"Our hope is to release all orangutans in rehabilitation before 2015 to reach the government's target," Hermanu said.
The government also announced its pledge to an international meeting on orangutan conservation in Bali on Thursday.
"Conservation of orangutan habitat is a ?triple-win? scenario," USAID Director for Indonesia Walter North said in a statement.
"It preserves endangered great apes, protects forest biodiversity, and sequesters large amounts of carbon to combat climate change," he said.
Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.
Indonesia Agrees to Close Lethal Loophole to Save Orangutans
Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 16 Jul 10;
Sanur, Bali. The Indonesian government has pledged to amend existing regulations to support orangutan conservation efforts as part of a declaration drawn up at the conclusion of the International Workshop on Orangutan Conservation in Bali.
The meeting, which ended on Friday, called for a revision of the 1990 Natural Resources Conservation Law and a 1999 government regulation on plants and animal preservation, which conservationists and critics have called insufficient in helping end the illegal trade in the ape species.
The government has also said the hearings on the revisions would be open to the public.
Officials said the revisions should address at least one glaring gaffe in the 1999 regulation, which provides protection for endangered species, but does not recognize the Sumatran orangutan, one of two subspecies endemic to Indonesia, as being in that category.
However, the Sumatran orangutan is categorized as critically endangered in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s famous Red List of threatened species.
The Bornean orangutan, meanwhile, is categorized by the IUCN as endangered.
Both subspecies are also listed in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which lists species threatened with extinction and affected by trade.
“For years those caught trading in or possessing Sumatran orangutans could never be charged because the animal isn’t considered a protected species,” said Abu Bakar Chekmat, head of the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA).
“All that we’ve been able to do is call on people, from local administration officials to private citizens, to stop poaching orangutans because they’re a protected species, which is effectively a public lie because the legislation doesn’t back that reasoning.”
Abu added that poachers had long exploited this loophole to sustain their trade, resulting in diminished numbers of Sumatran orangutans in the wild.
There are an estimated 7,500 of the subspecies left, compared with 45,000 Bornean orangutans.
The largest wild population of Sumatran orangutans is in Aceh’s Leuser National Park.
Samedi, a member of the National Forestry Council, welcomed the government’s commitment to address the shortcomings in the regulations.
“The government must amend the stipulated punishment for trading in protected and unprotected species,” he said.
Herry Djoko Susilo, chairman of the Indonesian Orangutan Forum (Forina), said the government’s commitment was just one part of the conservation effort, which also included NGOs, experts and the private sector.
“We appreciate the commitments made by the various stakeholders, and we call on them to carry them out consistently.”
He added that Forina’s role in the conservation effort was to monitor the roles played by all of the stakeholders.
Companies Vow to Help Preserve Natural Habitat
Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 16 Jul 10;
Oil palm, pulp and paper companies, often blamed for the devastation of forests that are home to orangutans, have committed to the conservation effort by pledging not to log in the animal’s habitat.
The announcement was made on Friday at the close of the International Workshop on Orangutan Conservation held in Sanur, Bali.
“It’s one of several commitments reached during the workshop by the companies,” said Herry Djoko Susilo, chairman of the Indonesian Orangutan Forum (Forina).
“It’s a welcome move given that 70 percent of orangutans live outside designated conservation areas, which leaves them vulnerable to habitat loss.”
Herry added that the companies would fulfill their pledge by adopting sustainable forestry practices and other similar steps, adding that Forina would provide assistance.
“We’ll also guide them on the issue of expanding their plantations into existing forests,” he said, adding that the companies’ presence at the workshop was a positive sign of their commitment to the conservation effort.
Officials from four pulp and paper companies and an oil palm association were in attendance at the two-day meet.
Edi Suhardi, from the promotions bureau of the Association of Indonesian Palm Oil Producers (Gapki), admitted that most producers were having a hard time fulfilling their existing forest stewardship commitments because of the negative reputation and mistrust of corporate loggers.
“We’ve actually made lots of improvement by adopting the standards set in place by the RSPO [Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil], especially with respect to opening up new land and conducting social impact assessments and conservation value assessments,” he said.
“Those standards include protection for the orangutan, so if our assessments come up short, we’ll call off the expansion.”
Edi added that the companies were regularly accused of “greenwashing” their environmental credentials and of only paying lip service to orangutan conservation efforts.
“We want to help the conservationists, but we need to tread carefully, given how we’ve all been painted with the same brush,” he said.
“What we need now is guidance on how we can contribute to the effort.”
Edi said part of the problem related to perception.
“Businesses usually operate with only one thing in mind: the bottom line,” he said.
“What we need is a way to see the long-term benefits of saving the orangutan, otherwise it all just appears to us as yet another expense on the balance sheet.”
Hundreds of orangutans to be returned to original habitats in Indonesia
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 16 Jul 10;
Orangutans held in captivity for years will likely make a return to their original habitats soon as government pledges to issue a new permit to convert production forests to save the great ape.
This will be the first permit for orangutan habitats issued in the last eight years.
The permit will cover some 86,000 hectares forest in Kutai, East Kalimantan, that could accommodate 127 orangutans.
“The permit will be issued by Forestry Minister [Zulkifli Hasan] this month,” Forestry Ministry secretary-general Boen Purnama told an international workshop on orangutan protection here on Thursday.
He said the government would convert former production forests into restoration projects for the orangutan to meet the country’s target of releasing all rehabilitated orangutans to their habitats by 2015.
The target was set out in national action plans on orangutan protection launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a climate change conference in Bali in 2007.
“The total area of forests allotted to orangutans will depend on demand from project developers who are serious about protecting the species,” Boen said.
There are now 1,200 orangutans held in rehabilitation centers both in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Experts say 100 hectares of forest is needed for every three orangutans.
The first permit will be granted to PT Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF).
BOSF advisory board chairman Bungaran Saragih said 80 percent of the planned area was still virgin forest and the remaining was degraded land.
Bungaran, a former minister for forestry and agriculture, said the foundation needed at least 200,000 hectares for 850 orangutans currently being treated at rehabilitation centers in Kalimantan.
“We didn’t release any single orangutan in the last eight years due to difficulty finding suitable forest area,” he said.
BOSF plans to release healthy orangutans in November.
Bungaran warned that the longer orangutans were held in captivity, they more prone they were to diseases such as hepatitis and tuberculosis that could affect other individuals.
Conservationists are still required to pay US$1.5 million to obtain orangutan habitat restoration permits for an area of 100,000 hectares for 60 years.
Bungaran said logging and plantation companies, government and locals should understand the need to preserve forests for orangutan habitat. He admitted, however, that he had himself issued several forest conversion permits for plantations during his term as agriculture minister between 2000 and 2004.
BOSF chairman Togu Manurung said only 25 percent of allocated areas was suitable for orangutans due to topography problems since orangutans populate lowland areas.
University of Zurich orangutan expert Carel van Schaik said releasing orangutans into the wild “requires careful preparation and monitoring,” he said.
