Orangutans Are Fighting for Their Lives

“Presently, orangutans are threatened because their forest home is being destroyed by logging, forest conversion to oil palm plantations and other crops, forest fires, the international pet trade and bushmeat. ”

(Source: Greenpeace.com)

Orangutans are now only found in Indonesia, with a dwindling population that Greenpeace estimate to be between 15,000 and 25,000. In 2007, a UN Environment Program report suggested that 98% of Indonesia’s natural rainforest may be destroyed by 2022. As these forests fall so do the orangutan populations.

Orangutans are amazing creatures. They spend much of their life in the canopy of the forest; roaming great distances, sleeping in nests, feeding on fruit, insects and bark and moving with ease through dense habitats. They rarely come down to the forest floor. These majestic beings play a critical role in the forest, dispersing seed that allows a forest to rejuvenate itself and maintain its diversity.

The Human Ape 1of10

The destruction of orangutan habitat is their greatest threat. This destruction is through fragmentation and degradation by logging, agricultural conversion such as for palm oil, infrastructure development, settlement expansion, forest fires, mining and invasive species.  Additionally, the threat of extinction from hunting looms ever pervasive over the heads of the orangutan.

UN Environment Program report suggested that 98% of Indonesia’s natural rainforest may be destroyed by 2022

(Source: Greenpeace.com)

As an endangered species orangutans are protected, but their habitat is not. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), saving orangutans is about conserving forest habitat and reducing the main threats to those forests. We can all do things to help protect the orangutan, including:

Adopt an orangutan through a program such as the one run by the World Wildlife Fund.

Support the efforts to decrease consumption of tropical hardwoods and palm oil.

Purchase products created from certified and sustainable forests.

Plant trees in your garden, volunteer with a local tree-planting group or support a national program for reforestation, such as that run by the American Forests.

Please learn more about global warming, and the decline of the forests. Teach your children and others about the importance of reducing waste, pollution and greenhouse gases.

Thank you for taking the time to read about Orangutans.

Lucy Brake: Writer & Editor

Sharon Haddox: Writer, Editor & Designer
SeaGreenNews.com
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