Indonesia: Orangutan hunting still continuing in E Kalimantan

Antara 18 Feb 12;

Samarinda, East Kalimnatan (ANTARA News) - The Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) said orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus moria) continue to be targeted by hunters in East Kalimantan.

Arfiana Khairunnisa COP manager for Kalimantan, said here Saturday the discovery of a wounded orangutan in East Kutai district recently, was proof that the near-extinct and protected mammal was still being hunted and slaughtered.

"The finding of an orangutan with a bullet embedded in its head and a slash wound on its arm is proof the animals are still being hunted." Arfiana said.

COP deeply regretted that conflicts between orangutans and humans still occur, especially in forest areas that are the animal's habitat.

"We ask the law enforcing agencies to investigate how the orangutan came to be injured and who was responsible," he said.

"Almost all of East Kalimantan is orangutan habitat but the forested area is continuing to shrink and therefore we ask the government to stop issuing permits for the use of the existing forest areas," he said.

Meanwhile, Asep Sugiharto, curator of the Kutai National Park, said the park was also an orangutan habitat.

According to a survey conducted in 2009 by Yaya Rayadin, a researcher with Mulawarman University in Samarinda, the orangutan population in the Kutai National Park was about 2,000. But another survey was now underway to determine the present orangutan population in the park which was 198,629 hectares wide.

(HAJM/H-YH)

Editor: Ade Marboen