SOS
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2004
1
38
50
Trip End
Nov 27, 2004
Medan,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Arriving back the airport in Medan, I know of nowhere else to go other than the Russian satellite. To get there, I catch a death-trap becak from some random vegetable market. Inside a small box room on the second floor I am scratching my hairy arse while in thought. The Spoutnik is a very good place to hang out and quite soon, I find myself agreeing to take a little detour up to place they call Bukit Lawang. To an Orang Utan sanctuary. I shall be joining Sarah, who works there as a researcher, and a local girl, Susan who has nothing better to do.
The Sumatran orang-utan has been classified as "Critically Endangered" by the World Conservation Union. Current estimates suggest that they could become extinct in the wild in less than 10 years. The Sumatran Orang-utan Society (SOS) was originally set up in 1997 by a group of volunteers. Now a registered charity, it performs dedicated voluntary work in the face of the following hostile trends :
Habitat Loss ; Indonesia has one of the highest tropical forest loss rates in the world. The rate of deforestation is showing no sign of slowing down. It is estimated that up to 2 million hectares of jungle is cleared every year through either legal or illegal logging. This is to facilitate plantations for Palm Oil production and general infrastructure development. Palm oil is in strong global demand as a bio-fuel. As a result, lethal conflict is now a frequent occurrence in these plantations, as orang-utans are forced out of degraded forest fragments in search of enough food for survival. Perceived as a threat to the plantations profits, these animals are considered to be agricultural pests and killed.
The illegal pet trade : There is a huge local, national, and international demand for infant orang-utans to be kept as pets. Young orang-utans are highly dependent on their mothers for survival and development, and in order to obtain an infant for the pet trade it is necessary to kill the mother. It has been estimated that for every infant that survives the process of capture and transport, at least 3 others will have been lost, and each of these infants also represents the death of an adult female orang-utan.
SOS responds to this programs including ;
The teaching of local community members in the need and benefits of reforestation. The establishment of self sufficient forestry centres in which the replanting of trees and free distribution of seedlings is managed to help to regenerate deforested areas. Conservation schooling ; Introduced in schools for young Sumatrans.
Information development. A dedicated magazine is produced in Indonesian and distributed free to schools, and to communities. Circulating environmental news and views on a regular basis and raise awareness of relevant local issues.
Personally, I applaud them in all their heroic efforts. The lives of Sarah and her team are dedicated to the cause anyway. But unfortunately my brief visit shows that Indonesia bleeds corruption from every festering pore. If there's money to be made from something, it will prevail until the demand stops for such exports as Indonesian Palm Oil or exotic pets. Until then, it may well be the conservationists themselves that finish up becoming an agricultural pest and finally, extinct.
Next ; Welcome to the jungle
