Orangutans

“Orangutans are reclusive, semi-solitary, quiet, highly arboreal and red, facts that come as a surprise to some people. Their name is derived from the Malay words ‘orang hutan,’ which literally mean ‘person of the forest.’ And it is the orangutan’s profound connection to the forest that is driving it to extinction. Without forests, orangutans cannot survive... Two forests form their only habitat, and they are the tropical rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra . . . In the late 1980s, as it entered the global economy, Indonesia decided to become a major producer and exporter of palm oil, pulp and paper. Before this, the government had endorsed selective logging. Now vast areas of forest were slated for conversion to plantations to grow trees for palm oil and paper production . . . Indonesia has achieved its goal of becoming one of the two largest palm-oil producers and exporters in the world. But at what cost? At least half of the world’s wild orangutans have disappeared in the last 20 years; biologically viable populations of orangutans have been radically reduced in size and number; and 80 percent of the orangutan habitat has either been depopulated or totally destroyed.”

Mary Birute Galdikas, “The Vanishing Man of the Forest,” The New York Times, January 5, 2007.