The last Orangutans

Displaced by Palm Oil: Indonesia`s last Orangutans

Indonesia supplies half the world’s palm oil, used in hundreds of foods and cosmetic products produced as well as biofuel. Palm oil plantations are replacing four-fifths of the rain forest in Indonesia and they are still expanding. In April 2014 I documented the disappearing Sumatran rain forest and life affected by this rapid deforestation in Indonesia.

Orangutans are one of many victims of massive deforestation. They live in the wild in only two places, Sumatra and Borneo. Both species are now endangered, the Sumatran orangutan with only 6,600 left in the wild, fewer than 54,000 left in Borneo. Especially the unchecked burning of rain forests to clear land for palm oil plantations is driving orangutans to the brink of extinction in Indonesia.

A crucial component of my trip was spending time with rescued orangutans at a quarantine center of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program. In the center I got to know Angelo, a 14 years old orangutan, and Siboy, one year. Angelo was found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body. He was shot by workers when he ventured to a palm oil plantation looking for food. Siboy was found for sale on a market in Aceh before he was rescued. Baby orangutans are coveted as pets, although their sale is illegal and obtaining one usually entails killing its mother. Staff of the SOCP center takes care for rescued orangutans, rehabilitates them and prepares them for reintroduction back to a life in the wild.

Free-roaming orangutan in Bukit Lawang, an orangutan sanctuary within the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra.
Penghijau, an Orang Rimba, lives a nomadic life between tradition and modernity in a palm oil plantation near the Bukit Tiga Puluh National Park in Jambi, Sumatra.
Military firefighters during a break in acacia plantage, Riau Province.
Scarred forest in the wake of deliberately set fires in the Riau province, Sumatra Island.
Free-roaming orangutans in Bukit Lawang, an orangutan sanctuary within the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra.
Suryati stands in her burnt-down rubber tree plantation in the province of Riau.
A boat carries trucks with acacia wood. Acacia wood is popular for paper producers because the trees grow fast.
Lorries are carrying acacia wood.
Penghijau wants to wash himself in the river of the forest. Approximately 3500 Orang Rimba still live as hunter-gatherers in the forests of Sumatra. But their habitat is threatened by illegal fires and deforestation.
Military firefighters are preparing an operation against a forest fire.
A team of forest fire fighters supported by military personnel in the process of controlling a forest spot fire in the Riau Province.
A member of a military fire fighting team surveys a burnt area on Sumatra Island.
Workers loading oil palm fruit onto a truck in Langkat, North Sumatra.
Monoculture oil palm plantation in Indonesia.
A free-roaming orangutan in Bukit Lawang, an orangutan sanctuary within the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra.
Angelo, a 14-year-old male orangutan, is waiting for medical examinations in the center of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program in North Sumatra. He has got anesthetic and slept with open eyes. He was found in a palm oil plantation with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body.
Staff members at the center of the SOCP examine Angelo
A staff member at the SOCP examines a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun pellets embedded in his body, in Sibolangit district, northern Sumatra Island.
A staff member is looks at an x-ray of Angelo at the center of the SOCP.
A baby male orangutan named Siboy at the SOCP. Siboy was found for sale on a market in Aceh before he was rescued. Some people keep baby orangutans as pets.
Orangutans reach out and hold the hand of a member of the staff at the SOCP.
A team of forest fire fighters supported by military personnel in the process of controlling a forest spot fire in the Riau Province.
Burned forest in the wake of deliberately set fires in the Riau province.
A military firefighter pour water to douse the flames of forest spot fires in Riau Province.
Burned forest in the wake of deliberately set fires in the Riau province.
© Sandra Hoyn