Steep Fall in Orangutan Populations Shows Need For Landscape Planning
A new report on the status of orangutans indicated a shocking decline in their populations. Published on Current Biology, the report titled “Global Demand for Natural Resources Eliminated More Than 100,000 Bornean Orangutans” shows an urgent need for better resource planning in the orangutan’s home ranges in Malaysia and Indonesia.
“… field survey data, predictive density distribution modeling, and remote sensing to investigate the impact of resource use and land-use changes on the density distribution of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Our models indicate that between 1999 and 2015, half of the orangutan population was affected by logging, deforestation, or industrialized plantations”
This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has monitored the development of Malaysia and Indonesia in the last two decades. Developed countries have already shown that the price of development is biodiversity. As the predicted needs of more humans for vegetable oils, in particular palm oil, grows, can this crop be grown sustainably?
Comprehensive Land Use Plans Needed for Sustainable future
This report in using the orangutans as the icons of conservation in Southeast Asia comes at a good time when major consumers of palm oil including the European Union( EU ) are considering a ban on palm oil based biofuels due to deforestation and species extinction. A few things should be noted from this report which identifies the killing of orangutans by local communities as a main cause of their population drop.
This should not be compared to the culling of predatory species like the wolf in other countries. As licenses are issued to industrialized plantations including timber and palm oil, the reduced habitats of wildlife is leading to increased human/wildlife conflicts across Malaysia and Indonesia. Local farmers whose livelihoods depend on the crops they grow have little choice but to defend their crops against invasive wildlife even if these are orangutans. The solution according to the report suggests:
“... Practical solutions to prevent future orangutan decline can only be realized by addressing its complex causes in a holistic manner across political and societal sectors, such as in land-use planning, resource exploitation, infrastructure development, and education, and by increasing long-term sustainability”
This opinion is echoed by the Center for International Forest Research( CIFOR ) in their article “Taking a Landscape Approach to the World’s Biggest Challenges” Quoting from it:
“…a mixed system with the state creating an enabling environment and a local community having rights to some of the resources and being able to exercise their rights is the best combination.”
Achieving the balance between the need for development and conservation will be a difficult challenge indeed but Sabah state in Malaysia has shown it is possible as it continues a pioneering effort to create a sustainable land use plan. In defense of its wildlife management, the Sabah Wildlife Department issued a strong rebuttal against the claims in the orangutan report which was supported by two of the authors from the original report on orangutans.
In light of all the knowledge on the importance of landscape planning to find a sustainable balance and the fact that Sabah has a working model, the remaining jurisdictions that are home to the orangutans must develop their own land use plans if they do not want their natural resource products to be tainted with orangutan extinction.
“… field survey data, predictive density distribution modeling, and remote sensing to investigate the impact of resource use and land-use changes on the density distribution of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Our models indicate that between 1999 and 2015, half of the orangutan population was affected by logging, deforestation, or industrialized plantations”
This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has monitored the development of Malaysia and Indonesia in the last two decades. Developed countries have already shown that the price of development is biodiversity. As the predicted needs of more humans for vegetable oils, in particular palm oil, grows, can this crop be grown sustainably?
Comprehensive Land Use Plans Needed for Sustainable future
This report in using the orangutans as the icons of conservation in Southeast Asia comes at a good time when major consumers of palm oil including the European Union( EU ) are considering a ban on palm oil based biofuels due to deforestation and species extinction. A few things should be noted from this report which identifies the killing of orangutans by local communities as a main cause of their population drop.
This should not be compared to the culling of predatory species like the wolf in other countries. As licenses are issued to industrialized plantations including timber and palm oil, the reduced habitats of wildlife is leading to increased human/wildlife conflicts across Malaysia and Indonesia. Local farmers whose livelihoods depend on the crops they grow have little choice but to defend their crops against invasive wildlife even if these are orangutans. The solution according to the report suggests:
“... Practical solutions to prevent future orangutan decline can only be realized by addressing its complex causes in a holistic manner across political and societal sectors, such as in land-use planning, resource exploitation, infrastructure development, and education, and by increasing long-term sustainability”
This opinion is echoed by the Center for International Forest Research( CIFOR ) in their article “Taking a Landscape Approach to the World’s Biggest Challenges” Quoting from it:
“…a mixed system with the state creating an enabling environment and a local community having rights to some of the resources and being able to exercise their rights is the best combination.”
Achieving the balance between the need for development and conservation will be a difficult challenge indeed but Sabah state in Malaysia has shown it is possible as it continues a pioneering effort to create a sustainable land use plan. In defense of its wildlife management, the Sabah Wildlife Department issued a strong rebuttal against the claims in the orangutan report which was supported by two of the authors from the original report on orangutans.
In light of all the knowledge on the importance of landscape planning to find a sustainable balance and the fact that Sabah has a working model, the remaining jurisdictions that are home to the orangutans must develop their own land use plans if they do not want their natural resource products to be tainted with orangutan extinction.