Pongo pygmaeus English: A Bornean orangutan at Fort Worth Zoo, Texas, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Orangutan (Photo credit: mizmak)

Orangutan (Photo credit: GreenWhiteOrange)

Orangutans

The lowland forest habitats of Asia's only great ape are quickly disappearing. The are being cut down for timber or burned to make way for oil palm plantations and other agricultural developments.

How you can help

Key facts

Species
Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Location
Sumatra (Indonesia), Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesia)
Status
Endangered to Critically Endangered

Species news

Gabon to destroy its ivory stockpile
As a symbol of its commitment to tackling illegal wildlife trade, Gabon will burn its entire ivory stockpile in the coming months, at a date to be ...

05 Apr 20120 comments

Victims of logging and fire

Orangutans share a preference with humans for fertile alluvial plains and lowland valleys – a habitat once rich in tropical forests but now being replaced with logging and agricultural concessions.

Each of the two orangutan species is found only on the island from which it derives its name: Sumatra or Borneo. With numbers having fallen drastically over the past century and human pressures increasing, orangutans may be lost from the wild forever within a few decades.

Palm Oil is a threat to the Orangutang's future. Legal rhetoric is a deliberate obstacle to any government policy. Public boycotts of company products using palm oil can be effective. It was successful in New Zealand a couple of years ago.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/indonesian-court-backs-palm-oil-company-over-orangutans-and-carbon-storage-20120403-1wau2.html

http://www.orangutan.org.au/palm-oil

http://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/ourprojects/orangutan-v-palmoil.html