Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo is using a tiny symbol of hope to highlight a large-scale, increasingly dire situation.

Zoo officials introduced a newborn female Borean orangutan, a highly endangered species, to the public. Born Oct. 6 at Brookfield and weighing about 5 pounds, the little orangutan, who so far is unnamed, is only the second birth of an orangutan expected in a North American zoo this year. The new orangutan is on exhibit in the zoo’s Tropic World.

On October 23, she clung to her mother’s side, looking healthy and contented. The outlook for the species is far more foreboding.
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In the rush to feed the world’s growing appetite for climate-friendly fuel and cooking oil that doesn’t clog arteries, the Bornean orangutan could get plowed over.

Several plantation owners are eyeing Tanjung Puting park, a sanctuary for 6,000 of the endangered animals. It is the world’s second-largest population of a primate that experts warn could be extinct in less than two decades if a massive assault on its forest habitat is not stopped.

The orangutans’ biggest enemy, the United Nations says, is no longer poachers or loggers. It’s the palm oil industry.

On the receding borders of this 1,600-square-mile lush reserve, a road paved with good intentions runs smack into a swamp of alleged corruption and government bungling. It’s one of the mounting costs few bargained for in the global craze to “go green.”

The park clings to the southern tip of the island of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia and Malaysia, the top producers of palm oil. Exporters market it as an alternative to both petroleum and cooking oils containing trans fats.

“That’s only a slogan, you know,” said Ichlas Al Zaqie, the local project manager for Los Angeles-based Orangutan Foundation International. “They change the forest, and say it’s for energy sustainability, but they’re killing other creatures.”
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The international community should enable rainforest countries to halve deforestation by 2020 and make the global forest sector ‘carbon neutral’ by 2030, according to an independent report issued to the British Prime Minister today.

The Eliasch Review, ‘Climate Change: Financing Global Forests’, is an independent report commissioned by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led by Johan Eliasch, Special Representative on Deforestation. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the financing and mechanisms needed to support sustainable management of forests and reduce emissions associated with deforestation.

Indonesia, which is home to virtually all of the remaining wild populations of orangutans, suffers one of the worst deforestation rates in the world. It is estimated that a rainforest area the size of 300 soccer field is cut down every hour, and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda embraced the report.

“As the world acknowledged last year in Bali, we cannot win the battle against climate change unless tropical forests are fully integrated within a post-2012 agreement,” Wirajuda said. “The necessary methodologies and technologies exist. What remains is capacity building and the mobilization of the necessary international resources. We look forward to working with the Government of the United Kingdom on the important issues of tropical forestry and climate change.”
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The Orangutan Conservancy, which raises funds and awareness on behalf of orangutan projects in Southeast Asia, today directed $12,000 in support from the Saint Louis Zoo to the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP) in the northern Borneo region of Sabah.

The funds will be used to conduct studies of habituated orangutans in Sabah, support KOCP wildlife surveys in the region, and contribute to awareness and capacity-building events organized by KOCP.

“The Orangutan Conservancy is pleased to partner with the Saint Louis Zoo to support this valuable work in Borneo,” said Norm Rosen, president of the Orangutan Conservancy. “We believe the work of KOCP is of vital importance to the future of orangutans in Sabah, and the Saint Louis Zoo support will go a long way towards making that effort successful.”

The announcement was made at the 2008 SSP Orangutan Husbandry Workshop, which is being held October 12-14 at the Saint Louis Zoo.

The Saint Louis Zoo funds are comprised of a $10,000 grant from the zoo’s WildCare Institute and $2,000 donated by the zoo’s primate keepers, who raised the money through activities conducted as part of Primate Awareness Week activities in 2007 and 2008. The keepers sold artwork painted by the zoo’s great apes, in addition to staging informational talks and educational activities on behalf of primate conservation.
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