Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (BGA) has cleared Borneo’s rainforest for miles, with total disregard for the well-being of the orangutans and other primates living there.

International Animal Rescue Indonesia (IAR) staff has found a few traumatized and starving orangutans remaining in the ruins, one clinging to what’s left of a tree and others wandering among the stumps. Others, they say, are trapped there and starving as well.

Starving orangutans are being rescued from a forest after bulldozers destroyed their home. Among those saved from the brink of death were a pregnant female and a mother and baby who refused to let go of each other during the horrific ordeal. The orangutans were found clinging to the last few remaining trees when the Indonesian forest they were living in was bulldozed to make way for an palm oil plantation.

Picture: Caters News Agency

Sumatran orangutan photo gallery by Craig Jones

Click through for larger images and captions.

Saving a baby Orangutan, Part 2 - Orangutan Diary - BBC

(Source: youtube.com)

Gabon’s war on illegal wildlife crime - in pictures

Gabon, in western central Africa, is home to some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. A relatively wealthy and stable nation, the government has created a network of 13 national parks placing nearly 11% of the country under protection, invested in wildlife enforcement personnel and declared a zero-tolerance policy on wildlife crime. But national conservation initiatives are being challenged by ivory poachers, loggers and the rural poor who are using wild animals as a source of food.

Green desert - Film HD

An average European has never been so responsible for the devastation of tropical rainforests as he is today. What is the cause and how can we prevent it?

The answer provides a documentary movie by Michal Galik, which takes us to the other end of the planet, on the tropical island of Borneo. The film reveals startling secrets that lie behind a widely spread and daily used ingredient - palm oil. 

Please watch and share.

(Source: youtube.com)

Leuser, the Sumatran orangutan shot 62 times – in pictures

A moving story of an orangutan who was rescued from being sold as a gift, reintroduced to the wild only to be captured again by villagers who shot him repeatedly for fun

Leuser, a blind Sumatran orangutan has survived poachers, air rifles, and deforestation during his 13 years of life. Leuser has been saved twice by theSumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP), but now resides in captivity at their quarantine centre in Medan, Sumatra, after being shot 62 times by villagers seeking entertainment

Leuser was first brought to the Medan quarantine centre in February 2004 after being intercepted by an SCOP team en route to Jakarta, where he was going to be taken as a gift. After several months of reintroduction training at a release site on the edge of Jambi’s Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, Central Sumatra, he returned to the wild in December 2004

Orangutans like Leuser are under threat in Indonesia, where their habitat has been cleared for illegal palm oil plantations. The Tripa peat swamp forests support the highest density of Sumatran orangutans in the world, but numbers may be down to 6,000 because of illegal activities

Two years later Leuser was captured by villagers near Jambi’s Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in central Sumatra. He was found by a SOCP veterinary team in a very bad condition, with a 40cm cut on his right leg and 62 air rifle pellets in his body, including in both eyes, rendering him blind

Leuser was found by the SCOP to be an excellent nest builder and forger during his reintroduction training in 2004, now he will never able to return to the wild

Leuser was sent back to Medan where the SCOP team managed to remove 14 of the 62 pellets in his body. The villagers told SCOP they wanted to capture the orangutan to sell it, but the ground team suspected they shot Leuser for fun. Five villagers were prosecuted and sentenced to six months’ jail

There was a small silver lining in captivity. In June 2010, Leuser was introduced to another blind orangutan, Gober, who had lost her sight from cataracts. In July, after they were separated, Gober was showing signs pregnancy

On the 21 January 2011, Gober gave birth to twins, one male and one female

Leuser’s legacy continues: on 24 April NGO’s from all over the world met in Jakarta, the countries capital, to discuss the future of the Tripa peat swamp forests. Sumatran orangutans could be lost for ever if laws are not enforced to protect Tripa’s remaining forests immediately  

Because of trapping, hunting, and deforestation, wild orangutan populations have fallen 70 percent over the last 60 years.

When I found Max, he couldn’t walk. He was disorientated and terrified, and the burns to his feet and body were severe. He was one of several hundred orangutans displaced by forest clearing outside Indonesia’s Tanjung Puting National Park in 2006. He had become separated from his family after plantation workers cruelly herded escaping orangutans back to the burning jungle—and away from precious plantation land.

No more than one year old, Max had fought successfully against the trapping, hunting and forest clearing industries that endangered his short life. But with one last breath, he finally lost his battle, becoming one of several thousand orangutans killed annually by a barbaric agricultural farming process, and becoming a victim of a different kind of oil spill: the trade in palm oil.

Palm oil monoculture is “palming” off orangutans in giant numbers, pushing the once abundant species closer than ever to extinction. Today, less than 60,000 orangutans exist in the wild and scientists and biologists conclude that the species’ numbers have disappeared by more than 70 percent over the last 60 years as a combined result of trapping, hunting, and deforestation.

Read whole article here

Leuser, a blind Sumatran orangutan has survived poachers, air rifles and deforestation during its 13 years. The animal has been saved twice by the Sumatran orangutan conservation programme. It now resides in captivity at their quarantine centre in Medan after being shot 62 times by villagers seeking entertainment.

Photograph: Paul Hilton

Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation.

This film is an emotional journey with Green’s final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations. 

“I wanted to make people feel the pain and the sense of guilt” - Patrick Rouxel who produced silent film Green

Green the film has been show a lot in the media recently, so I thought I’d post a link again for those who haven’t yet seen it.

On March 28th, join us for an exciting online collaborative learning event! We will take you deep into the heart the Borneo jungle to connect with orangutans, hear from Dr. Willie Smits and the Eco Warriors about the work they are doing with the Masarang Foundation, and speak with other schools around the world taking action to stop deforestation. 

DeforestACTION is a global movement of youth and schools taking action to stop deforestation and create a permanent habitat for orangutans and other species that depend on forest ecosystems. We empower youtharound the world to understand and act on one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

Dr Willie Smits shown in picture above.

ruineshumaines:

Wildlife conservation charity Born Free has launched a campaign to highlight the fact that thousands of endangered animals are being forced away from their homes every month by deforestation, human expansion and poaching. The ads feature images of animals sleeping rough on urban streets. [via]

(via adrienneisilluminated)

Bats rest on a tree trunk in Pantanal, Mato Grosso state, western Brazil. The Pantanal area, a sanctuary of biodiversity, is presently at risk because of the intensive culture of soybean and resulting deforestation, scientists say

Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

(Source: Guardian)

vegan-dreams:

BOS Australia

“Last week, our Tiger’s Eye Tour activists heard that the infamous “deforester”, APP, was holding a media tour in Indonesia. The aim of the tour was to show journalists just how green and forest-friendly APP is, which we all know isn’t really the case. But fear not – our activists showed up to tell the journalists the truth about deforestation in Indonesia: http://act.gp/qm1elF”

Greenpeace International.