Environmentalists Campaign to Save Endangered Orangutans
8/24/99
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Title: Environmentalists Campaign to Save Endangered Orangutans
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 24, 1999
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- (AP) -- Environmental groups launched a major
campaign Tuesday to stop illegal logging in national parks that
provide havens for orangutans, one of Indonesia's most endangered
species.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak
Indonesia launched the campaign after a yearlong probe into illegal
logging in two of Indonesia's flagship national parks -- Tanjung
Puting in Kalimantan and Gunung Leuser on Sumatra island.
``The environmental fallout is causing an incalculable loss in terms
of priceless biodiversity and pushing the orangutans of Indonesia
even closer to extinction,'' EIA's director Dave Currey said.
Currey said Tanjung Puting has 2,000 of the primates and Gunung
Leuser has 2,500, though the numbers could be reduced following
forest fires two years ago.
Tanjung Puting was ravaged by massive forest fires in 1997, thanks in
part to a long dry spell. But environmental groups claim plantations
and timber firms were responsible for most of the blazes.
Currey said environmentalists would urge the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund, European Union and individual countries
to pressure Indonesia to stop illegal logging.
In a report, EIA and Telapak said that in Tanjung Puting, 500 miles
northeast of Jakarta, ``illegal logging is carried out in full view
of the local authorities in an atmosphere of endemic corruption among
park rangers, police and the military.''
In Gunung Leuser, in the mountainous south of Aceh province, 1,100
miles northwest of Jakarta, the report said illegal logging had
degraded swamp areas where orangutans live.
``The importance of these swamps to orangutan conservation cannot be
underestimated. If the logging is allowed to continue the orangutan
population will disappear rapidly,'' said the report.
Indonesia, home to about 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical
forests, has been under constant criticism for excessive logging. But
officials argue that timber is a major source of revenue and supports
millions of people.
Other endangered species in Indonesian forests include rhino, clouded
leopard, sun bear, Sumatran tiger and the proboscis monkey.