Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is extremely distressed and appalled to learn from news reports of Malaysian palm oil companies who were responsible for genocide against Indonesia’s endangered orangutans.
All over Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) Malaysian-owned companies were reported to be destroying what little is left of Indonesia’s rainforests and orangutans.
Not only do they destroy the last vestige of land that is home to the endangered primates but paid plantation workers to kill at least 20 orangutans and proboscis monkeys as a means of pest control since 2008.
The manner in which these primates were eradicated were horrific as they were chased by dogs, then shot, stabbed or hacked to death with machetes.
This shows that palm oil companies have failed to honor their commitment to gain the sustainable label which must meet several criteria like refraining from clearance of virgin forests and to adhere to fair land acquisition policies.
There is absolutely no regard for law and the gruesome manner in which the orangutans were killed by unlawful means is a serious issue since it is irresponsible of oil palm companies to seize land inhabited by the orangutans resulting in the unceremonious eviction of the defenceless animals.
Even villagers were not spared from the onslaught as land belonging to them were also taken away for the oil palm industry.
Apart from orangutan habitats the expansion of plantations are also destroying habitats of other endangered species like tigers and elephants.
Expansion of plantations narrows species’ habitat, forcing them to leave their territory, and as they approach neighbouring areas comprising villages, people consider them as threat and so they are often killed.
This situation will indirectly facilitate illegal hunting and trading, especially of tigers and elephants.
The killing of orangutans by plantation workers or by farmers who see them as pests, is a serious issue.
More often there is fragmentation of forests created by oil palm companies which prevent movement of wildlife from one isolated forest patch to another, leading to inbreeding and eventual population decline.
The plantation companies should be held accountable for their actions. If they are truly sincere in orangutan conservation today, they would not have hired men to carry out such cruel and immoral acts through eradication of the primates.
The plantation companies should instead create and run the appropriate protection system of conservation in their concession areas, and also assist in the arrest of their workers convicted for killing the orangutans.
They can improve situation by replanting and planning for actual wildlife corridors to support movement between protected or forested areas.
In order to prevent orangutans and other wildlife population from being stamped out by profit-hungry palm oil plantation companies, SAM urges the Indonesian Natural Resource Conservation Agency/ Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam (BKSDA) of the Ministry of Forestry and the police to act firmly by enforcing the full extent of the law on plantation owners and the workers who had been convicted for killing orangutans.
Likewise, the Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment should take a serious view of the offences committed in Indonesia and act against the oil palm plantation companies in accordance to the seriousness of the crime under the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Given the rapid ravages of the land by the plantations companies, the question to ponder: is there any space left for our apes?
SM MOHD IDRIS is president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)
