Telegraph article-Orangutans

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

 

For those of you who did not get a chance to see the

Telegraph article on Saturday about orangutans and BOS

UK, I have the draft text below, which is more or

less as it appeared in the magazine.

 

Michelle

 

Isles of Sanctuary

 

> Jarwo, the one-armed orang-utan, climbs from his box

and surveys the pristine rainforest around him. The

five-year-old has not seen a world like this for

years: he was snatched from the wild as a baby and

sold as a pet. But without hesitation he makes for the

nearest tree, climbs nearly to the top and within a

few minutes is canopy-high.

> The humans watching from below sigh as he disappears

from sight > -> we have just experienced the most

poignant moment in the rehabilitation of once-captive

orang-utans. For me, witnessing Jarwo> '> s return to

the forest is the emotional peak of a week in which I

have seen desecrated rainforest, searched for lost and

starving orang-utans and joined the dramatic rescue of

an illegal pet.

> I return to the UK and communicate in the pages of

this magazine my new conviction that the orang-utan

must be saved.

> A few days after that article was published five

years ago, Telegraph readers started sending money.

Soon the astonished > -> and fledgling > -> UK

branch of the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation

had received £20,000. That money has now been used for

every purpose from saving individual orang-utans to

acquiring rainforest as future habitat. Perhaps the

most exciting project has only now come to fruition >

-> the acquisition of an uninhabited rainforest

island. Its 39 hectares

> lie in the Gohong River, near the village of Sungai

Gohong in Central Kalimantan. It has just received its

first batch of inhabitants > -> former pet

orang-utans who have been rescued, re-taught the art

of wild living at rehabilitation school, and are ready

to test the realities of forest life. BOSF spent

another portion of readers> '> money on new land for

wild orang-utans who have abruptly lost their homes to

forest clearance. Because they have never been caged,

wild orang-utans have a high chance of surviving if

good forest can be found for them.

> At the other end of the spectrum, BOSF spent £1,000

on saving a single orang-utan baby > -> Bali > ->

who needed an operation after being found with a

bullet lodged close to his heart.

> '> We are very grateful to Telegraph readers,> '>

says Michelle Desilets, who runs BOSF UK. Despite the

purchase of the Gohong haven, however, the orang-utan

is threatened as never before. A new report by

Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network,

reveals that a factor sending orang-utans swinging

towards extinction is inadequate enforcement of the

laws protecting the species. That means poachers

escaping jail.

> There are thought to be just 40-45,000 orang-utans

left in the wild, a drop of 15,000 in the past two

years alone. The pet trade grows and is responsible

for the loss of about 5,000 a year.

> Willie Smits, the head of BOSF Indonesia, says, > '>

Last year we confiscated so many it is hard to count.>

'> Among many campaigns, the foundation is trying to

extradite up to 100 orang-utans languishing in a

private Bangkok zoo. Meanwhile, it is raising money to

rescue and relocate 600 fleeing the legal logging of

rainforest near Palangka Raya, central Borneo.

> At the heart of the problem is rainforest clearance,

not just for the wood but to clear space for oil palm

plantations. Orang-utans fleeing from the chainsaws

are generally killed or taken for the pet trade. The

world> '> s dependence on palm oil, used for a

multitude of everyday products, is what will drive the

orang-utan to extinction.

> BOSF is working to effect legislative change in

Indonesia and internationally, calling for corporate

responsibility in palm oil production. The charity has

invested in technology that can turn satellite data

into images of trucks in the act of illegal logging >

-> images so detailed that the faces of drivers can

be recognised. SarVision, a firm majority-owned by

BOSF, can identify which palm oil producers are acting

ethically and which are razing forest. This is the

first step towards a Sustainable Palm Oil certificate,

which campaigners hope will sway investors and

consumers.>

> Rehabilitation of former captives remains at the

core of BOSF Indonesia> '> s activities. Orang-utans

are so human-like that there is an ethical and

emotional imperative to heal them and find them an

appropriate home. Yet it can be hard to believe that

there is much future for these damaged, confiscated

creatures, who forfeit seven years of maternal forest

education for a life behind bars eating noodles. > '>

It> '> s extremely difficult to monitor orang-utans in

the forest over the long periods of time necessary to

make this sort of evaluation,> '> says Anne Russon,

associate professor of psychology at Glendon College,

York University, Toronto, and an orang-utan

specialist. > '> They just disappear, and one doesn>

'> t know if that> '> s disappear good > -> doing

fine and can> '> t be bothered with humans; or

disappear bad > -> end of the line.> '>

> But some new data is suggesting that well over half

of released orang-utans are still coping more than two

years later. On the neighbouring island of Sumatra >

-> the only other remaining home for the orang-utan >

-> the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Project has

since January 2003 been monitoring the animals it has

released. Of 49 releases, four have died and eight

have disappeared, leaving a conservative estimated

survival rate of 70 per cent. But that figure will

decrease as time goes on. There are great hopes that

new, bounded sites like the Gohong River island will

prove a protected environment where orang-utans can

learn for themselves but be rescued if they suffer

serious problems.

> '> The past five years have been bittersweet,> '>

says Desilets. > '> The situation is desperate. But

BOSF is making such enormous steps that no other

conservation agency has done that I feel ambitious and

motivated to keep plugging away.> '> If you meet an

orang-utan, you can understand such dedication. They

are disturbingly human-like, sophisticated; they

deepen our understanding of ourselves. Their

continued, undisturbed existence is our gain. My own

belief is that destroying them will rank as one of the

barbarous acts of humankind.

> As for Jarwo: they spotted him on and off for about

a year after his release. Then he disappeared. We may

never know the ending to Jarwo> '> s story and so, for

me, he remains the symbol of the fight to save the

orang-utan.

> Donations can be made by direct debit or by sending

a cheque to: Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation UK

(to which cheques can be made out), 68 Aston Abbotts

Road, Weedon, Aylesbury, Bucks HP22 4NH

(savetheorangutan.org.uk)

>

>

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Michelle Desilets

 

 

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK

 

www.savetheorangutan.info

 

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

 

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please help rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in

Thailand by signing our petition:

 

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

 

_________

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