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  • From: josh.greenman AT gmail.com
  • To: "monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org" <monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [monkeywire] Controversial palm-oil plan may save the orang-utan
  • Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:23:18 +0000

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327183.700-controversial-palmoil-plan-may-save-the-orangutan.html

Controversial palm-oil plan may save the orang-utan

22 July 2009 by Priya Shetty, Sabah

THE mournful eyes of the orphaned baby orang-utans held in Borneo's
sanctuaries would tug at the stoniest of hearts. But while rehabilitating
abandoned orang-utans is admirable, it seems increasingly clear that it will
not help to conserve a species in danger of extinction through habitat loss.

Instead, orang-utan researchers and conservationists in Sabah, in Malaysian
Borneo, may have to do what had until recently been unthinkable: join forces
with the palm oil industry whose plantations have eaten into much of the
orang-utan's habitat. October this year will see an unprecedented meeting of
Malaysia's palm oil producers, conservationists and local government to
figure out how to protect the world's last orang-utans.

Such collaborations will be especially important given the poor start for the
international Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), set up in 2002,
which is supposed to address the issues of environmental damage and wildlife
conflict by encouraging producers to ensure their plantations are certified
as sustainable. This includes undertaking environmental assessments before
planting, and not planting in forests of high conservation value.

The conservation group WWF wants palm oil to be 100 per cent sustainable by
2015, but the initial results have been dispiriting. A WWF report released in
May showed that just 1 per cent of the 1.3 million tonnes of sustainable palm
oil produced since November 2008 had been sold - in part because it is more
expensive.

Many believe that if the orang-utan is to have a chance of surviving
anywhere, it will be in Sabah. Both the industry and the government say there
is virtually no suitable land left there for new plantations and there are
just about enough wild orang-utans to ensure the survival of the species. The
key now is to join up their remaining habitats.

Until recently, rehabilitating orang-utans hurt through conflicts with
plantation workers, or kept as pets, had seemed like the most obvious way to
boost the species' dwindling numbers. In practice, however, this approach is
riddled with problems. A key risk is transferring diseases such as the
malaria parasite, which orang-utans in rehabilitation are prone to, into wild
populations. Furthermore, because orang-utans learn their survival skills
from their mothers, "not all of the [rehabilitated] animals will be able to
adapt to the wild", says Marc Ancrenaz, who co-founded the Kinabatangan
Orang-utan Conservation Project near the Kinabatangan river in Sabah.

Many rehabilitation centres are becoming overcrowded, partly because some
orang-utans can never be rehabilitated but also because the release criteria
are stringent. The centres want to release animals into protected rainforest,
with no risk of poachers, loggers or plantations, but few of these areas now
exist in either Malaysia or Indonesia.

It is also impossible to know how rehabilitated animals fare after release,
as orang-utans remove electronic tracking devices. David Chivers at the
University of Cambridge argues that rehabilitated orang-utans "are becoming
an increasing proportion of the whole gene pool of the species, and
reintroducing [them] will significantly increase the prospects of the
orang-utan avoiding extinction". Ancrenaz disagrees: "Rehabilitation is a
welfare approach, not a conservation one; it's not necessary for the sake of
the species".

Sabah's 26,000-hectare Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is home to about
1000 orang-utans (see Map). The sanctuary has been heavily fragmented by oil
palm plantations, and is now an archipelago of animal "islands". For large
animals like orang-utans and pygmy elephants, these fragments are unnaturally
restricted habitats.

An offshoot of Ancrenaz's organisation, The Nature Heritage Conservancy, has
joined up with a local NGO called LEAP and the UK-based World Land Trust to
raise funds and buy up pieces of land to link the sanctuary's fragments as
wildlife corridors. So far they are negotiating to buy and maintain about 200
acres, at a total cost of over $566,000. These are tiny patches of land in
the grand scheme of things, but highly strategic in location.

BenoƮt Goossens at the Danau Girang Field Centre within the sanctuary has
undertaken research that shows why wildlife corridors are so important. He
has mapped the orang-utans' genetic diversity - important for the health of a
population - and modelled future changes in diversity. Though Sabah's
populations are fairly diverse, this will change drastically for the worse
within the next 100 years if the forest fragments are not joined up, he says.

Connecting the sanctuary's fragments will also link Sabah's central forest
reserve with the coastal mangroves, creating a more comprehensive habitat
(see map). Two other forest reserves, Kulamba and Tabin, now need to be
linked to the sanctuary, but the gaps between them are so heavily planted
with oil palms that buying small segments of land will not do. In October,
conservationists will seek a commitment from palm oil growers to create
corridors within their plantations. Part of the debate will centre on what
constitutes a viable wildlife corridor.

Corporate collaborations are also vital for the Sabah government (see
"Banking on biodiversity"). Its forests have been so heavily logged that
there is no more revenue from logging. In the long term, the government plans
to create sustainable logging reserves that can house wildlife too. Results
from a 55,000-hectare trial area called Deramakot suggest the approach is
feasible, but growing suitable forests will take decades. In the meantime,
palm oil will be vital to see the government through its economic famine,
says Sam Mannan, the head of the forestry department. Let's hope the
orang-utans see it through, too.

  • [monkeywire] Controversial palm-oil plan may save the orang-utan, josh . greenman, 07/31/2009

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