save the orangutan

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Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

BOS UK is working tirelessly to bring awareness to the

issue of conversion of orangutan habitat to oil palm

plantation. Orangutan conservationists agree that this

industry represents the single greatest threat to the

survival of the orangutan in the wild. Almost daily

the BOS rescue teams are out trying to save any

orangutans they can. The stories from the field are

harrowing.

I attach below a description of a rescue from Lone

Droscher Nielsen, manager of the Nyaru Menteng

Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Borneo.

Please be warned: the description that follows is

graphic and disturbing. Those of a sensitive nature

who feel unable to read this, please just understand

that our team is working very hard in the most

distressing of circumstances.

On behalf of the BOS Palm Oil Committee,

Michelle Desilets, BOS UK

 

“Dear Michelle,

The tropical lowland forests of Indonesia, the

orangutans preferred habitat, are being destroyed by

the big consortiums of palm-oil producers. Thousands

of orangutans have met their end, by the shot of a

gun, a hack from a machete or simply by starvation.

Looking into the eyes of a traumatized infant whose

mother just a week ago lay slain beside him/her, you

see so much pain, so much terror, and so much

confusion. It is agonizing seeing a small orphaned

orangutan coming to terms with all this pain. We cry

for and with them, we share their pain. But somehow,

seeing a starving wild adult orangutan staggering

around, with her half dead infant slung over her

shoulder, in the open fields of a palm oil plantation,

or an adult male seemingly having lost his dignity and

majestic powers, his once big, fat cheek-pads

collapsed to skin-flaps because of starvation, or an

orangutan being buried alive after having been beaten

half to death Â…just somehow, it touches somewhere so

much deeper. It brings pain, anger,

frustration, and disbelief that so many people do not

really give a damn.

 

We often receive phone calls from palm oil plantation

managers to come and remove orangutans from their

plantations. Often we receive the message to hurry as

they have already themselves caught the orangutan. We

know this means trouble. In order to catch a wild

adult orangutan and tie it down successfully, you

would have to beat it unconscious first. Most

orangutans having been caught by plantation workers

die from concussions or internal bleeding. But nothing

had really prepared us for the day when we were called

by a plantation manager in Pundu, some 80 km from the

project. Despite having been told several times not to

catch the orangutans themselves, they continue to

ignore our recommendations.

 

When the team arrived, they saw an adult female lying

on the ground not far from a newly cut down tree. As

they approached, they noticed that she was not tied

and concluded she must have been beaten unconscious by

the workers. Nothing ever really prepares you for

either blood or for death. This hardened rescue team

who have seen newly burned corpses, 5 day old

decomposed bodies, orangutans having been beaten to

death or buried alive, had to step back from what lay

in front of them. The female was still alive but only

barely. She was covered in blood from several deep

slashes from sharp machetes. One of her hands had

almost been cut off, and was only held on by a little

muscle and skin on the side. The other was likewise

almost cut off but at the wrist. The machete had cut

through skin, tendons and bone in one swift cut. Now

the female was lying there in front of their eyes

slowly bleeding to death.

 

It was almost too much for some of the rescue workers

and one of them almost attacked the nearest plantation

worker with a machete in his hand.

Love,

Lone”

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

 

a blinding flash

hotter than the sun

dead bodies lie across the path

the radiation colors the air

finishing one by one