Tiger skins, orangutans and rare caged primates openly sold at markets in the heart of Indonesia’s capital are the most brazen and visible aspect of a thriving illegal wildlife trade.

Indonesia is struggling to take on a multi-million-dollar industry that is stripping the archipelago nation’s vast forests of endangered species for enormous profit by selling them to buyers around the world.

With corruption rife and authorities overwhelmed, conservationists say police and forestry officials have barely made a dent.

Activists and the government estimate Indonesia loses at least 80 million dollars a year through the illegal trade, with rare animals — dead and alive — being sold at huge mark-ups once they get to overseas markets.

“What’s interesting is that an orangutan caught in Kalimantan (on Borneo island) costs no more than three million rupiah (327 dollars) and is sold in Jakarta for five million rupiah,” said Asep Purnama from the non-government organisation ProFauna.

“Once they get to Taiwan they will sell for around 100 million rupiah and in Europe they’ll sell for 400 million,” he said, adding that an estimated 100 orangutans are taken every year from Kalimantan’s forests alone.
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