The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[josh.greenman AT gmail.com]

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.

Benoît 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.