Send Pongky back home to the forest

Petition by 

Orangutan Information Centre (OIC)

 

Sepuluh Orang Utan Dilepaskan di Hutan Kalimantan

Seekor Orangutan (pongo pygmaeus) jantan bergelantungan di pohon saat hendak menyelamatkan diri dari upaya warga yang ingin menangkapnya, di Desa Parit Wak Dongkak, Wajok Hulu, Kab. Pontianak, Kalbar, Minggu (26/8). ANTARA/Jessica Helena Wuysang

TEMPO.CO, Seruyan - Sepuluh orang utan dilepaskan ke hutan di Tanjung Hanau, Kabupaten Seruyan, Kalimantan Tengah pada Jumat, 21 Juni 2013. Hutan baru diperlukan untuk habitat orang utan hasil perawatan.

Orang utan yang dilepasliarkan terdiri dari 8 betina dan 2 jantan. Kera-kera ini dikurung di dalam lima kotak besi. Puluhan tamu undangan, termasuk Ketua Mahkamah Konstitusi Akil Mochtar dan Bupati Kotawaringin Barat Ujag Iskandar, menyaksikan Menteri Kehutanan Zulkifli Hasan membuka satu per satu kotak tersebut. Lima ekor orang utan yang dilepaskan beberapa waktu sebelumnya turut menonton dari puncak pohon.

"Sekarang mereka merdeka, hidup bebas di alam," ujar Menteri Zulkifli dalam sambutannya.

Setiap orang utan yang dilepas segera memanjat pohon setelah pintu kotak dibuka. Sebagian bercengkrama dengan penghuni lama, sementara sebagian lainnya memilih berpindah dari satu pohon ke pohon lain. Setiap individu yang dilepas dahulunya merupakan bayi orang utan yang disita dari warga. 

Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) merawat bayi-bayi ini hingga beranjak remaja. Melalui Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine di Desa Pasir Panjang dekat Kota Pangkalan Bun, setiap individu disiapkan agar bisa kembali ke alam. 

Hutan di Tanjung Hanau ditetapkan melalui Keputusan Menteri Kehutanan Nomor P.53/Menhut-IV/2007 sebagai lokasi pelepasliaran orang utan. Selang 2011 dan 2012, OFI melepaskan 22 orang utan. Pelepasliaran kali ini membuat jumlah orang utan yang telah dilepas ke alam menjadi 32 individu. Delapan individu akan dilepas dalam waktu dekat.

Presiden OFI Birute Mary Galdikas mengatakan, saat ini terdapat 320 orang utan di pusat perawatan Pasir Panjang. Jumlah ini dianggap terlalu banyak sehingga sebagian populasi harus dikembalikan ke hutan. Sayangnya hutan penyangga di Tanjung Hanau tak sanggup menampung lebih dari 40 individu.

"Harus dicarikan lokasi pelepasliaran baru bagi orang utan," kata dia. Kementerian Kehutanan sendiri belum menetapkan hutan untuk pelepasliaran berikutnya. Menteri Zulkifli baru menyorongkan kawasan Rimba Raya Conservation. Hutan ini merupakan kawasan yang sempat diizinkan menjadi lahan sawit.

ANTON WILLIAM

Perusahaan Malaysia Bantai Orangutan Kalimantan

Jumat, 30 September 2011 07:37 WIB

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Keberadaan orangutan di Kalimantan Timur terancam. Mereka terus dibantai, sebagai dampak dari pembabatan hutan untuk membuka perkebunan kelapa sawit.

Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam (BKSDA Kaltim) dan Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) telah mengevakuasi sedikitnya empat orangutan dari Muara Kaman, di sekitaran kawasan konsesi PT Khaleda, anak perusahaan Metro Kajang Holdings Berhad Malaysia dan PT Anugerah?Urea Sakti.

Juru kampanye COP Hardi Baktiantoro, mengatakan puluhan ekor orangutan Kalimantan (Pongo Pygmaeus) tewas mengenaskan di area perkebunan kelapa sawit di sekitaran Kutai Kartanegara. Hardi menuding, meski para pemburu bayaran itu mengaku telah membunuh banyak induk orangutan dan para pekerja mengakui perbuatan menyebarkan pisang yang sudah disemprot furadan untuk meracuni orangutan.

Sayangnya hingga hari ini, polisi tidak juga menetapkan seorang pun jadi tersangka dan tidak ada yang dipenjara. "Ini mengecewakan dan membahayakan bagi kelangsungan hidup orangutan," ujar Hardi dalam siaran pers yang diterima Republika.

Situasi yang sama terjadi di Kecamatan Muara Wahau, Kutai Timur. Pada 26 Juli 2011, BKSDA dan COP terpaksa mengevakuasi dua orangutan. Satu induk orangutan diidentifikasikan dibunuh para pekerja sawit Makin Group. Dikatakan Hardi, ketika kuburannya orangutan dibongkar untuk mengetahui penyebab kematiannya.

Hasil identifikasi menyatakan, mayat orangutan tersebut babak belur seperti terkena pukulan yang dilakukan berulangkali, kedua pergelangan tangannya luka dan jarinya putus.

Adapun di Kalimantan Tengah, COP mengidentifikasi satu tengkorak orangutan di sekitaran areal konsesi PT TASK dan mengevakuasi tiga anak orangutan yang ditangkap pekerja setempat. "COP juga menemukan empat tengkorak orangutan di areal konsesi Wilmar Group pada 20 Agustus 2011."

Hardi menilai kematian puluhan orangutan bukan terjadi karena konflik manusia dengan jenis binatang primata tersebut, melainkan upaya genocide (pembunuhan massal) kelompok tertentu yang rakus untuk meraih keuntungan pribadi. Pihaknya menyentil pemerintah yang harusnya berani melihat kenyataan bahwa polisi tidak membuat kemajuan apapun untuk mencegah kepunahan orangutan di Kalimantan.

Redaktur: Siwi Tri Puji B

Reporter: Erik Purnama Putra

New strategies for conserving tropical forest

Shift in the reasons of deforestation due to poverty to excuse the company has important implications for conservation.
Within just 1-2 decades, the nature of the destruction of tropical forests has changed. No longer dominated by rural farmers, deforestation now is substantially driven by major industrial and economic globalization, through the collection timber, oil mining, oil and gas development, bear-scale agriculture, and plantations of exotic trees that became the most frequent causes of forest loss . Although instigating serious challenges, such changes are also creating new opportunities that are important to forest conservation. In our opinion, to direct more public campaigns targeted at corporations and trade groups with a strategic, conservation interests could have a stronger influence on the fate of tropical forests.
Preliminary
Tropical forests, biologically, is the richest ecosystems on earth and plays an important role in regional hydrology, carbon storage, and global climate [1,2]. However, tropical forest destruction continues apace, with around 13 million hectares of forest razed each year [3]. Although this number has not changed significantly in recent decades, the foundation of the drivers of deforestation is shifting - from the most deforestation is driven by the necessities of life in the 1960s to 1980s, to more deforestation driven by the industry in recent [4-6]. This trend, we assert, has key implications for forest conservation.
From the 1960s to 1980s, tropical deforestation was widespread by the government policies for rural development, including agricultural loans, tax incentives and road construction, along with rapid population growth in many developing countries [4-6]. These initiatives, especially noticeable in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia, prompted a dramatic influx of population to the border and often lead to rapid deforestation. The notion that small-scale farmers and cultivators who moved responsible for most forest loss [7] leads to a conservation approaches such as Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDP), which attempted to link nature conservation with sustainable rural development [8]. However, today many believe that ICDP has often failed due to weaknesses in the planning and implementation, and because local people used to use ICDP funds to increase their income, not to replace the profits they have earned from exploiting nature [9-23].



Small-holder deforestation to Suriname (top) and Borneo (bottom)More recently, the direct impact of rural communities in tropical forests appear to have stabilized and even decreased in some areas. Although many tropical countries still have high population growth, urbanization trends are strong in developing countries (except in Sub-Saharan Africa) show that rural populations are growing more slowly, and in some countries began to decline (Figure 1) [14, 15 ]. Popularity of the program population movement to large-scale border has also waned in several countries [5, 16, 17]. If such trends continue, they may relieve the pressure on the forests of small-scale agricultural activities, hunting, and gathering firewood [18].
At the same time, globalized financial markets and a worldwide commodity creates a very attractive environment for private sector [5, 6]. As a result, industrial logging, mining, oil and gas development, and especially large-scale agriculture increasingly emerging as the dominant cause of the destruction of tropical forests [6, 19-22]. In Brazilian Amazonia, for example, large-scale farming has exploded, with the number of cattle increased by more than 3-fold (from 22 to 74 million head) since 1990 [23], while industrial logging and soybean farming has also grown dramatically [ 24, 25]. Surging demand for grain and edible oil, driven by world demand for biofuels and rising standards of living in developing countries, helping to spur this trend [19, 26, 27].
Although we and others concerned with the rise of industrial-scale deforestation (figure 2), we argue that it also signals the emergence of opportunities for forest protection and management. Rather than trying to affect hundreds of millions of forest in the tropics - a daunting challenge, at best - supporting conservation can now focus their attention on the number of corporations exploiting a much smaller source. Many of them are multinationals or domestic companies seeking access to international markets [6, 19-22], which encourages them to show some sensitivity to the environmental concerns of growing global consumers and shareholders. When they err, such corporations can be vulnerable to attacks on their public image.
Against Corporations
Currently, few corporations can easily ignore the environment. Conservation groups must also learn to target companies that violate, mobilizing support through consumer boycotts and public awareness campaigns. For example, following an intense public, Greenpeace has recently hit the largest soy crushers in Amazonia to implement a moratorium on soybean processing process, delaying the development of a tracking mechanism to ensure their crop is coming from producers who are responsible on the environment [28]. Previous boycott by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) prompted several major U.S. retail chains, including Home Depot and Lowe's, to change their buying policies to support the wood products that are more supportive [29]. Under the threat of negative publicity, RAN has even convinced some of the largest financial firms in the world, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, to modify the practices of lending and financing for forestry projects [30] .



The trend these days to make the conservation groups are easier to master the industries exploiting natural resources. Thanks to economies of scale, multinational corporations often find it more efficient to concentrate their activities in some large countries, thereby reducing the number of geographic areas that actively monitor conservation groups. Moreover, many industries, motivated by fear of negative publicity, establishing coalitions that claim to promote environmental sustainability among their members. Examples of these industry groups include Aliança da Terra ° A for the farmers in Amazonia [31], the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Southeast Asia, and the Forest Stewardship Council for the global timber industry. Hence, rather than targeting hundreds of different corporations, conservationists can have a big impact by striking just a few industrial pressure points.
The corporation is also controlled by the carrot and stick. Companies that buy into sustainability enjoy growing consumer preferences and premium prices for their environmentally friendly products. According to industry sources [32], for example, wood products 'green' - produced by environmentally friendly way - recorded sales of $ 7.4 billion in the United States in 2005, and is expected to grow to $ 38 billion in 2010. Such rewards may have a greater influence on multinational corporations, which must attempt to keep consumers and their international shareholders happy, rather than on local companies who work alone in developing countries [33].
New challenges
The increasing impact of forest penggundul company also has a weak side. Industrialization can accelerate the destruction of forests, the forests that once were directly by small-scale farmers now being quickly overrun by the bulldozers. Moreover, industrial activities such as logging, mining, oil and gas development promote deforestation, not only directly but also indirectly, by creating thrust a very strong economy for the forest-road construction. Once awakened, these streets can release a variety of forest invasion that is not controlled by the residents, hunters, and land brokers [20, 21, 24].
Another major problem is that not all markets respond to environmental priorities. In many developing countries, environmental concerns were buried by the growing demand from the growing middle class. For example, Asian consumers have so far shown little interest in wood products that are certified environment [34], unlike consumers in North America and particularly Europe. Moreover, as prices for raw materials soar, a scramble for natural resources could occur, making environmental sustainability a mere afterthought to the growing demand.
Finally, even an abundance of eco-conscious consumers can not guarantee good behavior from a company (see Box 1). Many corporations have been accused of 'greenwashing' - pretending to produce green products that actually have a small advantage for the environment. In the tropical timber industry, for example, several dubious groups, sponsored by the industry, have tried to compete with the certification bodies legal environment such as the Forest Stewardship Council [35]. Keep track products from forest to final consumers - through a chain of middlemen, manufacturers and retailers - can be very difficult. For example, Greenpeace [36] recently revealed that food giants like Nestle, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever's use of palm oil grown on lands that are just bare, though there is no guarantee the opposite of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The complexity of such a reward to those who cheat and eliminate benefits for corporations who make good efforts to support the sustainability of these.
Future



Thomaz W. Mendoza-HarrellAlthough there is such a hassle, conservationists must learn to deal with companies with drivers of tropical deforestation is more effective and powerful. Mover-mover like this in the future will surely rise as global industrial activity is forecast to grow to 300-600% in 2050, with many developing countries [37]. For them, an increasing number of corporations are realizing that environmental sustainability is simply good business. Of such trends, we see much need for dialogue and debate among industry, scientific and conservation in the tropics. Apart from the influence of environmental groups, the strong influence of the industry will also be mediated by government policies and international agreements, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. For example, government subsidies on a large scale for the current corn ethanol creates market distortions that promote deforestation in the Amazon [23], which is actually an international carbon trading could eventually slow the destruction of forests in certain countries [38, 39]. Because of policies like that can change quickly and have a broad impact, conservationists ignore them at their own risk.
Change is upon us. On the one hand, globalization and rapid industrial farming, logging, mining and manufacture of biofuels emerged as the dominant drivers of deforestation. On the other hand, growing public concerns about environmental sustainability are creating new opportunities that are important for forest protection. By targeting strategic industries with a consumer-education campaigns, conservation interests could gain a powerful new weapon in the battle to slow the destruction of forests.
Acknowledgements
We give thanks to Thomas Rudel, Robert Ewers, Susan Laurance, Katja Bargum and three anonymous referee for his comments very helpful.
The challenge for eco-certification
In the tropics, as in other regions, eco-certification scheme faces some high hurdles. Even when customers choose environmentally friendly products, eco-certification can be hampered by corruption and weak governance, ineffective measures to ensure environmental sustainability and the leaking of non-certified products to market.
For example, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), often viewed as the gold standard for certification of wood products, get massive criticism from some environmental groups [40]. Critics said that the FSC certification of products from 'mixed sources', such as furniture that derived only partly from certified wood, damaging its credibility. Timber certification scheme in some dubious, such as monoculture plantations on former forest lands, also damage labels [40]. Last year, an investigation of the Wall Street Journal forced the FSC to effectively revoke certification from Asia Pulp and Paper Company based in Singapore for carrying out activities which damage the environment on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia [41].
Corruption and fraud are also concerns. In collaboration with corrupt officials, could make some companies to falsely certify their products, where a company can claim to have certification when they did not have it. A recent report on illegal logging in Southeast Asia, for instance, revealed that at least two large furniture companies market their products eco-certified when they do not have a label [42].
Another challenge is to evaluate properly the various activities of the international timber company. Eco has been accused of focusing too narrowly on logging operations in the central conservation area and overlook the destruction in other areas of operation [40]. In addition, timber companies often buy wood from various sources and sub-contracts to other companies, and it can be very difficult to determine whether the branches and their colleagues are related to destructive logging [36].
In the end, some critics argue that the eco-certified timber operations rarely have a sustained impact on the long period of time. Repeated logging in old growth forests could reduce carbon stocks and reduce habitat for forest specialties, thereby threatening biodiversity [1]. Furthermore, logged forests is much easier to dry, burned, and bare in comparison with areas not cleared [24, 43].

FELLING and large-scale illegal ramin timber in Tanjung Putting National Park, Central Kalimantan, has been for the last few years. Although the government in February has promised to prioritize the handling of the case also threatens the survival of wildlife langka_orang utan_di region, the reality is actually rampant looting and destruction.
Behind the proliferation of illegal logging, the timber barons grew stronger with the collusion of government officials. Illegal logging is a well-organized that even the last few months has penetrated into the core area of ​​national parks in which there is a tourist center and the study of typical Indonesian utan_satwa protected. Commercial-scale illegal logging, continue to occur.
Telapak Indonesia (TI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) which did a lot of monitoring and research in Tanjung Putting TN states, illegal logging in Tanjung Putting TN performed openly in front of the authorities. â € œRakit-wood raft of illegal logging in hilirkan into the main river channels. In recent months, groups of illegal loggers who are neatly organized and even has penetrated the core area of ​​Tanjung Putting TN where there is a tourist center and research orangutanâ €?, Said A. Ruwindrijarto of Telapak Indonesia.
TN Tanjung Putting is one of the three protected forest which is the habitat of orangutan. Orangutans are only in Borneo and Sumatra. 1994 in TN promontory Putting tail number about 2,000 orangutans. Now, after the forest was plundered, its population was only about 500 head only. If the state is left, said Ruwindrijarto, soon disappeared from Tanjug Putting orangutans. In fact, one of the most exotic animals admired foreign tourists in Borneo is the orangutan.
August last year, IT and the EIA has actually launched a campaign â € œFinal Cutâ €? to stop the illegal logging. What happened? The campaign was ignored illegal loggers who have extensive networks.
Recent reports about illegal logging was submitted to President Abdurrahman Wahid at Bina Graha. In a meeting also attended by Minister of Forestry and Plantation (Menhutbun) Nurmahmudi Ismail, Ruwindrijarto clear, the President expressed support for the campaign being waged both non-governmental organizations, and he would ensure the cessation of operation of timber barons who benefited from illegal logging in the park . â € œPemerintah will also establish a temporary halt to exports of ramin wood from Indonesia, â €? he said.
Meanwhile, due to illegal logging in Tanjung Putting TN, places of tourism in the town of Kumai Pangkalanbun and adjacent to the park begins to break down. â € œSektor tours in the vicinity of national parks visitors has fallen sharply due to damage to forests in Tanjung Putting, â €? said Dave Currey, EIA director. Therefore, independent non-profit institutions have urged the government to fulfill its promise to immediately stop the illegal logging around the area of ​​Tanjung Putting National Park and close the timber mills (saw mill) the processing illegal timber from these locations.
(Source: Kompas and Republika 31 / 7. This paper ever published in the News Vo

tanjung puting national park

Tanjung Puting National Park is a 400,000 hectare conservation area of global importance. Within its borders are a variety of ecosystems, including tropical heath forest, peat swamp forest, and mangrove forest, and it is also the habitat of over 200 bird species, 17 reptile species and 29 mammal species. Nine of Borneo's primate species are found in the park, including about 2000 orangutans and Tanjung Puting is one of the few remaining habitats for this endangered animal. In the mid 1930s, the Dutch colonial government established two conservation areas within the park which were legally given the status of Wildlife Reserve. In 1982 the area was declared as a National Park. It is also recognised as a world Biosphere Reserve by the UN and forms the largest protected area of swamp forest in South-East Asia.


The existence of Tanjung Puting is important for the well-being of the surrounding local human population. The wetlands provide vital ecological services such as flood control, stream control regulation, erosion control, natural biological filtration system, and seasonal nurseries for fish which are the major source of local animal protein. Many of these services have an impact well beyond the local area. For instance, the waters surrounding Tanjung Puting attract fishing vessels from many different parts of Indonesia.
Despite being locally and internationally recognised as an important area for conservation, Tanjung Puting National Park is still under threat of environmental destruction. The three primary causes of forest destruction in the park are illegal logging, illegal mining and forest clearing for conversion to community plantations. The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry estimates that about 40 percent of the park has already been damaged by illegal logging and forest fires. The illegal logging is often carried out with the tacit or active support of local military, police, and forestry officials.

In April 2001 the then Minister of Forests, Marzuki Usman, took the first action necessary to curb the logging within Tanjung Puting, issuing a Ministerial decree to place a temporary moratorium on the cutting and trading of ramin. However, Dr Biruté Galdikas who works to protect Tanjung Puting, the habitat of the endangered orangutan, says the situation is worse now than 5 years ago under the former regime. The process of decentralisation and the implementation of regional autonomy have effectively allowed local communities to take power into their own hands (see her article, Revenge of the Little People).
Sources:
Environmental Investigation Agency|State of the Forest Indonesia|World Resources Institute
|Tanjung Puting National Park|Orangutan Foundation International|The Tanjung Puting National Park and Biosphere Reserve

due to human activities and natural beauty of this

akibat dari ulah orang-orang yang tidak bertanggung jawab, hutan di kalimantan semakin gundul di sebabkan penebangan liar dan pembakaran hutan dampak dari pembukaan lahan sawit, populasi orang hutan semakin menurun.