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Sumatra Rainforest Trek Page

The Orangutan of Northern Sumatra

Indonesia has more than 186 million citizens of many cultures and languages. They share 17,000 islands with an incredible variety of wild plant and animal species. These species inhabit 10 per cent of the world's diminishing rainforests.

Sumatra is Indonesia's second largest island. It is still more than 43 per cent forested and is peopled by extremely diverse and exotic civilizations. It is a rich island and is home to one of the few remaining populations of orangutans, the "old men of the forest".

The orangutans live in northern Sumatra, in the Mt. Leuser national Park, "the place where animals go to die" according to the indigenous people. A special orangutan rehabilitation center has been established at Bohorok, Bukit Lawang, for orphaned orangutans, where orangs are taught how to return to the wild again. The only other place orangutans can be found is in Borneo. Recent estimates of the orangutan population in Sumatra are 9,200 as of 1993, and 20,571 individuals in Borneo.

The orangutan faces its greatest threats to survival from human impacts.

Poaching is one example of human exploitation that has been going on for decades. Females are often killed in order to collect the young orangs for zoos, circuses, and pets. Many orangs were hunted for food and for head-hunting rites as recently as early in this century. Poaching continues as a problem today. Habitat destruction and disruption poses the greatest threat to the species. Rainforest is rapidly being logged and cleared for agricultural development and mining.

Roads disrupt the habitat and daily patterns of orangutans and encourage further settling by transmigrants from other overpopulated regions of Indonesia. New migrants often employ destructive farming practices and raise cattle that overgraze and harm the soil.

Oranutans are very sensitive to human intrusions and, as a consequence, suffer from a further reduction in an already low rate of reproduction.

There are efforts being made to alleviate some of the problems brought about by human impact on the environment.

Several protected reserves have been designated in Sumatra and Borneo. Government studies are underway on how to reverse some of the damage to habitat that has already occurred through forest and human resource management. A project to translocate orangutans from forest being cleared to permanent forest areas is currently under study.

Special orangutan rehabilitation centers have been established to care for orphaned orangs and to train them for reintroduction into the wild. Education programs have been introduced in local Sumatran schools in order to foster a sense of environmental responsibility.

Ecotourism is being promoted in order to bring tourist revenue to areas as an alternative to destructive rainforest policies. Some countries have introduced captive breeding programs in an attempt to preserve the genetic diversity of this species whose numbers are declining in the wild.

Finally, local efforts by environmental groups in many countries, like Aramco's S.A.V.E. and Dhahran School, work to raise awareness among local constituencies of the problems facing endangered species, like the orangutan, as well as its habitat, the tropical rainforest.

Your support adds to the chances for success in finding positive solutions for the many problems we face.

Ma'a salama from Arabia.

Bill

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PLEASE NOTE:

To participate in this project you need to do two things :-

1. Contact Bill Cason to tell him you are joining.
2. Register with Patti Weeg at Kidlink so that you can join.

In order to take part in any KIDLINK activity, students have to
answer the four KIDLINK QUESTIONS
and send the answers to: RESPONSE@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU

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It is estimated that

an acre of rainforest is destroyed every second!

We hope you will join us to find out why!

The contact for this project is Bill Cason, Dhahran School, Saudi Arabia.

There are also many schools studying Trees and Forests during 1996 and 1997 and you can link to their progress reports or join their project by looking at :

The International Trees and Forests Project

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HTML Coder for this page : Judith Bennett, Sydney, Australia

This page was last modified 3rd Dec, 1996