Five years to save the orang utan - Observer

Five years to save the orang utan

A shocking UN report details how the booming palm
oil industry is wiping out one of man's closest
relatives as its forest habitat disappears. David
Smith asks if it's too late to save them

Sunday March 25, 2007
The Observer

The Orang Utan, one of man's closest and most enigmatic
cousins, could be virtually extinct within five years after it
was discovered that the animal's rainforest habitat is being
destroyed even more rapidly than had been predicted.

A United Nations report has found that illegal logging and fires
have been overtaken as the primary cause of deforestation by
a huge expansion of oil palm plantations, which are racing to
meet soaring demand from Western food manufacturers and
the European Union's zeal for biofuels.

Palm oil is seen by critics as a cautionary tale about good
intentions. As a vegetable oil it can enhance a healthy diet,
and as a biofuel it can reduce carbon emissions which
contribute to climate change. Yet it transpires that humans'
pursuit of an ethical lifestyle could inadvertently mean a
death sentence for one of the great apes.

-snip-

The UN's environment programme report, 'The Last Stand of
the Orang Utan: State of Emergency', says natural rainforests
of Indonesia and Malaysia are being cleared so rapidly that up
to 98 per cent may be destroyed by 2022, and the lowland
forest strongholds of orang utans much sooner, unless urgent
action is taken. This is a full decade earlier than the previous
report estimated when it was published five years ago. Overall
the loss of orang utan habitat is happening 30 per cent more
rapidly than had previously been thought.

-snip-