Sumatran orangutan rescued by forest rangers after being kept as an illegal pet in the town of Kutacane, in Indonesia’s Aceh province
NGOs affiliated with the Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL)
Rescue Coalition have urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to take immediate
action to stop widespread illegal logging and forest conversion in the national
park.
Coalition spokesman Panut Hadisiswoyo told
the Jakarta Post and other media that widespread forest conversion in
the park, in Aceh province, Indonesia, is being carried out to make way for
plantations and settlements.
“The most severely deforested area is in Langkat regency
where around 20 per cent of the national park area has been converted into plantations
and settlements,” Panut said on Monday.
Panut, who is also director of the Orangutan Information
Center, said the extensive forest conversion threatened the habitats of rare
wildlife species in the park. He said 50 orangutans died each year due to the
impacts of rampant illegal logging in TNGL.
Besides orangutans, he said, the Sumatran elephant is
seriously threatened as only 500 remain in the park, 40 of which
are in Langkat.
Analysis
by Acehnese NGO HAkA has shown that the Leuser Ecosystem, which
encompasses the TNGL and a broader landscape, lost 4,097 hectares of forest
cover in the first six months of 2016.
