Orangutan Diplomacy a Great Idea for Conservation But May Face Local Protests
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Update June 01, 2024
AOL report on Busch Gardens Tampa Bay orangutans leads to disinformation
A netizen in Sabah is protesting an AOL report on Bornean orangutans. Ronald K. Asuncion, a tour guide in Sabah posted his protests in a Facebook group, Kinabatangan River, Borneo.
AOL report on Busch Gardens Tampa Bay orangutans leads to disinformation
A netizen in Sabah is protesting an AOL report on Bornean orangutans. Ronald K. Asuncion, a tour guide in Sabah posted his protests in a Facebook group, Kinabatangan River, Borneo.
What ticked Ronald off, was the AOL claim that
"Since new mom and baby are critically endangered orangutans, this is a huge win for orangutan conservation efforts. World Wildlife Fund explains that a hundred years ago there were probably more than 230,000 orangutans in total, but sadly, those numbers have declined rapidly and now Stella and her parents are three of just over 1,000 Bornean orangutans left in the world."
The claim is so outrageous that Ronald posted screenshots from the IUCN website showing true data on Bornean orangutans
"Since new mom and baby are critically endangered orangutans, this is a huge win for orangutan conservation efforts. World Wildlife Fund explains that a hundred years ago there were probably more than 230,000 orangutans in total, but sadly, those numbers have declined rapidly and now Stella and her parents are three of just over 1,000 Bornean orangutans left in the world."
The claim is so outrageous that Ronald posted screenshots from the IUCN website showing true data on Bornean orangutans
Was AOL so poorly informed or did it miss a couple of zeros for the population of Bornean orangutans? It might have been a simple typo on the part of reporter Natalie Hoage but the editor at AOL should have caught it.
Until AOL corrects the error, this report on orangutans at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a great example of media can distort the facts whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Until AOL corrects the error, this report on orangutans at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a great example of media can distort the facts whether intentionally or unintentionally.
May 15, 2024
CSPO Watch: Malaysia’s outspoken Minister of Plantations and Commodities, Johari Ghani, touched off a firestorm on palm oil and orangutans in a series of tweets on X. The Minister’s tweets have been priceless in bringing attention to Malaysia’s efforts in saving orangutans.
MALAYSIA INTENDS TO INTRODUCE "UTAN DIPLOMACY" TO PALM TRADING COUNTRIES
Inaugurating the Biodiversity Forum of the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF) at Resorts World Awana.
Many of the world's trading partners are increasingly concerned about the impact of agricultural commodities on the climate, Malaysia can prove to the global community that we always maintain a balance between meeting food security needs while protecting the environment.
Therefore, Malaysia intends to create 'orangutan diplomacy' like China which has succeeded in creating various 'panda diplomacy' to countries in the world.
It is a diplomatic strategy, where we will make it a gift to trading partners and foreign relations, especially in major importing countries such as the European Union, India and China.
By introducing 'orangutan diplomacy', it directly proves to the world community that Malaysia is always committed to biodiversity conservation.
Malaysia cannot take a defensive approach to the issue of palm oil, instead we need to show the countries of the world that Malaysia is a sustainable oil palm producer and is committed to protecting forests and environmental sustainability.
Therefore, I welcome the large oil palm companies to collaborate with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to care for, preserve and raise awareness for our global partners while also providing technical expertise on iconic wildlife species in Malaysia.
This will be a manifestation of how Malaysia conserves wildlife species and maintains the sustainability of our forests especially in the oil palm plantation landscape.
As Malaysia rebrands its national certification scheme to the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) scheme, Malaysia has to pay more attention to how media twists facts to their narrative.
The tweets were correctly reported by local media The Star as 'Orang Utan Diplomacy' to showcase country's care for biodiversity, says Johari’
Major news agencies like AFP reported on the Minister’s tweets that:
Beijing has long used panda diplomacy as a form of soft power.
It only loans pandas to foreign zoos, which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country's breeding programme.
Reuters added that No further details of the plan were immediately available.
Media Twists on Orangutan Diplomacy
Despite the absence of details, reporters like Rozanna Latiff from Malaysia published a report on Times LiveZA to conclude that the Minister planned to “gift” orangutans to countries that buy Malaysian palm oil.
The way she presented this made it sound like every import shipment of palm oil gets a live orangutan as a gift. The twist is how media completely ignored the Minister’s idea, based on “panda diplomacy” which would return offsprings as part of a greater conservation effort.
Pitching this media twist of giving away orangutans to countries that import palm oil raised the concerns of Malaysian conservation groups who were quoted by The GuardianUK with its sensational headline “Malaysia plans to give orangutans to countries that buy palm oil.”
Not to be outdone, CNN covered the issue a few days later with its own headline “An ape for palm oil? Why critics say Malaysia’s ‘orangutan diplomacy’ plan is problematic.”
CNN must have used the media twist to seek comments as the response from Stuart Pimm, chair of conservation ecology at Duke University, showed an astonishing ignorance unbefitting his position.
“It is obscene, repugnant and extraordinarily hypocritical to destroy rainforests where orangutans live, take them away and give them as gifts to curry favor with other nations,” Stuart Pimm, chair of conservation ecology at Duke University, told CNN. “It totally goes against how we should be protecting them and our planet.”
Pimm also noted that cuddly-animal charm offensives were normally followed by wider long-term conservation efforts.
“There is a huge difference between what Malaysia is proposing and what China has done for giant pandas,” he said. “China has state-of-the-art facilities for pandas and more importantly, has established protected areas that safeguard wild panda populations. What Malaysia’s government is proposing is hardly anything comparable.”
CNN cannot fault reporter Heather Chen for making wrong assumptions as even WWF-Malaysia issued a johnny-come-lately comment with the same assumptions. WWF should have been cognizant of the numerous conservation initiatives to protect orangutans in Malaysia, whether NGO or government led.
Malaysia’s orangutan conservation Is incomparable
Stuart is right in saying that what Malaysia is proposing is hardly comparable to what China has done for pandas. Malaysia does not have state-of-the-art facilities for a breeding program. This “cuddly-animal charm offensive” does however, have a long tradition of “wider term conservation efforts” which he seems to be unaware of or perhaps disapproves of.
Sabah state where most of the orangutans in Malaysia are found, has worked for decades to ensure their survival. Conservation groups like the French NGO HUTAN and Cardiff University's Danau Girang Field Centre works closely with the state government to address all threats to orangutans, especially on a habitat level.
In Sarawak state, the government practices a better model of conservation than “fortress conservation” or “protected areas” as Stuart Pimm calls them.
The expensive “state-of-the-art facilities” to preserve pandas in China may impress Stuart Pimm more than this raw save-the-orangutans-in-their-natural-habitats approach taken by Malaysia. Yet others may see “protection of orangutan species” with breeding efforts in the UK and the US where zoos trade their animals to produce babies, as a conservation fail.
The problem here is that in-breeding is a problem for the survival of orangutans.
Anthropologists at the University of Zurich believe that deforestation isn’t the only reason that Sumatran orangutans face extinction, according to a university report.
If 6600 orangutans Sumatran orangutans face extinction due to in-breeding, how big of a “state-of-the-art” facility would be needed to protect species survival for the P. pygmaeus morio in Sabah and the P. pygmeus pygmaeus in Sarawak?
There is no doubt that the millions of dollars pumped into saving pandas has influenced the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to change their rating of pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable.” The oddity here is that the IUCN rates pandas at 1864 animals as vulnerable yet orangutans at their estimate of 100,000 animals are rated as critically endangered simply due to “decreasing populations.”
The IUCN clearly needs to update its rating of orangutan populations in Malaysia as these populations have been reported to be stable.
To update the situation on orangutans in Malaysia, the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Fund is funding a new orangutan population survey in Sabah. This should be useful in determining whether orangutan populations in Malaysia are decreasing or not. An MSPO blog on the uncertain science of estimating orangutan populations is a great backgrounder on the difficulties in establishing orangutan populations.
Malaysian Orangutans May Not be Available as Palm Oil Diplomats
Going back to Minister Ghani's idea, there’s a couple of problems with using Malaysian orangutans as biodiversity ambassadors.
One of them is that “panda diplomacy” found massive appeal back in the day when China sold it for foreign support and funding.
In the decades since the introduction of panda diplomacy, a biodiversity crisis has happened which is affecting wildlife species the world over.
“The world now faces an unprecedented and accelerating crisis of biodiversity loss, with more than 1 million species at risk of extinction. Forests are quieter. The oceans are emptier.” @BenjiSJones for VOX
Orangutan diplomacy may still work to get into lists like “Ten animals we have saved from extinction” where foreign zoos send their captive orangutans back to Indonesia and Malaysia to live out their days in their origin countries. The return of zoo kept elephants from the UK to Africa shows empathy that elder zoo kept orangutans should be afforded.
The bigger problem for orangutan diplomacy is that there may not be captive orangutans in Malaysia to return to foreign zoos for breeding or diplomatic reasons. The thing is, the Malaysian state governments are highly protective of their orangutans. Both the Sepilok Orangutan Rehab in Sabah and Matang Wildlife Centre in Sarawak have been adamant about saving orangutans in their natural habitats.
CSPO Watch
CSPO Watch: Malaysia’s outspoken Minister of Plantations and Commodities, Johari Ghani, touched off a firestorm on palm oil and orangutans in a series of tweets on X. The Minister’s tweets have been priceless in bringing attention to Malaysia’s efforts in saving orangutans.
MALAYSIA INTENDS TO INTRODUCE "UTAN DIPLOMACY" TO PALM TRADING COUNTRIES
Inaugurating the Biodiversity Forum of the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF) at Resorts World Awana.
Many of the world's trading partners are increasingly concerned about the impact of agricultural commodities on the climate, Malaysia can prove to the global community that we always maintain a balance between meeting food security needs while protecting the environment.
Therefore, Malaysia intends to create 'orangutan diplomacy' like China which has succeeded in creating various 'panda diplomacy' to countries in the world.
It is a diplomatic strategy, where we will make it a gift to trading partners and foreign relations, especially in major importing countries such as the European Union, India and China.
By introducing 'orangutan diplomacy', it directly proves to the world community that Malaysia is always committed to biodiversity conservation.
Malaysia cannot take a defensive approach to the issue of palm oil, instead we need to show the countries of the world that Malaysia is a sustainable oil palm producer and is committed to protecting forests and environmental sustainability.
Therefore, I welcome the large oil palm companies to collaborate with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to care for, preserve and raise awareness for our global partners while also providing technical expertise on iconic wildlife species in Malaysia.
This will be a manifestation of how Malaysia conserves wildlife species and maintains the sustainability of our forests especially in the oil palm plantation landscape.
As Malaysia rebrands its national certification scheme to the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) scheme, Malaysia has to pay more attention to how media twists facts to their narrative.
The tweets were correctly reported by local media The Star as 'Orang Utan Diplomacy' to showcase country's care for biodiversity, says Johari’
Major news agencies like AFP reported on the Minister’s tweets that:
Beijing has long used panda diplomacy as a form of soft power.
It only loans pandas to foreign zoos, which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country's breeding programme.
Reuters added that No further details of the plan were immediately available.
Media Twists on Orangutan Diplomacy
Despite the absence of details, reporters like Rozanna Latiff from Malaysia published a report on Times LiveZA to conclude that the Minister planned to “gift” orangutans to countries that buy Malaysian palm oil.
The way she presented this made it sound like every import shipment of palm oil gets a live orangutan as a gift. The twist is how media completely ignored the Minister’s idea, based on “panda diplomacy” which would return offsprings as part of a greater conservation effort.
Pitching this media twist of giving away orangutans to countries that import palm oil raised the concerns of Malaysian conservation groups who were quoted by The GuardianUK with its sensational headline “Malaysia plans to give orangutans to countries that buy palm oil.”
Not to be outdone, CNN covered the issue a few days later with its own headline “An ape for palm oil? Why critics say Malaysia’s ‘orangutan diplomacy’ plan is problematic.”
CNN must have used the media twist to seek comments as the response from Stuart Pimm, chair of conservation ecology at Duke University, showed an astonishing ignorance unbefitting his position.
“It is obscene, repugnant and extraordinarily hypocritical to destroy rainforests where orangutans live, take them away and give them as gifts to curry favor with other nations,” Stuart Pimm, chair of conservation ecology at Duke University, told CNN. “It totally goes against how we should be protecting them and our planet.”
Pimm also noted that cuddly-animal charm offensives were normally followed by wider long-term conservation efforts.
“There is a huge difference between what Malaysia is proposing and what China has done for giant pandas,” he said. “China has state-of-the-art facilities for pandas and more importantly, has established protected areas that safeguard wild panda populations. What Malaysia’s government is proposing is hardly anything comparable.”
CNN cannot fault reporter Heather Chen for making wrong assumptions as even WWF-Malaysia issued a johnny-come-lately comment with the same assumptions. WWF should have been cognizant of the numerous conservation initiatives to protect orangutans in Malaysia, whether NGO or government led.
Malaysia’s orangutan conservation Is incomparable
Stuart is right in saying that what Malaysia is proposing is hardly comparable to what China has done for pandas. Malaysia does not have state-of-the-art facilities for a breeding program. This “cuddly-animal charm offensive” does however, have a long tradition of “wider term conservation efforts” which he seems to be unaware of or perhaps disapproves of.
Sabah state where most of the orangutans in Malaysia are found, has worked for decades to ensure their survival. Conservation groups like the French NGO HUTAN and Cardiff University's Danau Girang Field Centre works closely with the state government to address all threats to orangutans, especially on a habitat level.
In Sarawak state, the government practices a better model of conservation than “fortress conservation” or “protected areas” as Stuart Pimm calls them.
The expensive “state-of-the-art facilities” to preserve pandas in China may impress Stuart Pimm more than this raw save-the-orangutans-in-their-natural-habitats approach taken by Malaysia. Yet others may see “protection of orangutan species” with breeding efforts in the UK and the US where zoos trade their animals to produce babies, as a conservation fail.
The problem here is that in-breeding is a problem for the survival of orangutans.
Anthropologists at the University of Zurich believe that deforestation isn’t the only reason that Sumatran orangutans face extinction, according to a university report.
If 6600 orangutans Sumatran orangutans face extinction due to in-breeding, how big of a “state-of-the-art” facility would be needed to protect species survival for the P. pygmaeus morio in Sabah and the P. pygmeus pygmaeus in Sarawak?
There is no doubt that the millions of dollars pumped into saving pandas has influenced the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to change their rating of pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable.” The oddity here is that the IUCN rates pandas at 1864 animals as vulnerable yet orangutans at their estimate of 100,000 animals are rated as critically endangered simply due to “decreasing populations.”
The IUCN clearly needs to update its rating of orangutan populations in Malaysia as these populations have been reported to be stable.
To update the situation on orangutans in Malaysia, the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Fund is funding a new orangutan population survey in Sabah. This should be useful in determining whether orangutan populations in Malaysia are decreasing or not. An MSPO blog on the uncertain science of estimating orangutan populations is a great backgrounder on the difficulties in establishing orangutan populations.
Malaysian Orangutans May Not be Available as Palm Oil Diplomats
Going back to Minister Ghani's idea, there’s a couple of problems with using Malaysian orangutans as biodiversity ambassadors.
One of them is that “panda diplomacy” found massive appeal back in the day when China sold it for foreign support and funding.
In the decades since the introduction of panda diplomacy, a biodiversity crisis has happened which is affecting wildlife species the world over.
“The world now faces an unprecedented and accelerating crisis of biodiversity loss, with more than 1 million species at risk of extinction. Forests are quieter. The oceans are emptier.” @BenjiSJones for VOX
Orangutan diplomacy may still work to get into lists like “Ten animals we have saved from extinction” where foreign zoos send their captive orangutans back to Indonesia and Malaysia to live out their days in their origin countries. The return of zoo kept elephants from the UK to Africa shows empathy that elder zoo kept orangutans should be afforded.
The bigger problem for orangutan diplomacy is that there may not be captive orangutans in Malaysia to return to foreign zoos for breeding or diplomatic reasons. The thing is, the Malaysian state governments are highly protective of their orangutans. Both the Sepilok Orangutan Rehab in Sabah and Matang Wildlife Centre in Sarawak have been adamant about saving orangutans in their natural habitats.
CSPO Watch
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