Orangutans are in a state of emergency – facing an extinction dilemma that has never been more threatening or potentially devastating. The United Nations Environment Program issued an international warning and a cry for help, stressing the alarming degree to which the world’s Orangutans are in deep crisis.  

Once ranging throughout South-East Asia, the Orangutan now occupies only small pockets of habitat on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The wild population has decreased 95% in the last 100 years, with most of that decline occurring in the last 20 years.  If we do nothing, the Orangutan will be the first great ape species to become extinct.

Infant Orangutans are sought after as prestigious pets by wealthy Indonesians and are also smuggled into Malaysia and Taiwan where they sell for tens of thousands of dollars each. Not only does this horrific trade deplete the next generation by removing the young but it usually involves killing the mother in order to secure the infant as they will not surrender their babies without a fight. The females are hacked or burnt to death, and if it survives, the baby is cruelly wrenched away. Unfortunately the loss of forest habitat is forcing the Orangutans into closer proximity to humans thereby making the killing and poaching much easier.

As unbelievable as it is to us, there is a thriving trade in Orangutan skulls as trophies. Many of these are from the mothers they kill when they are poaching the babies for the pet trade. The main market for the skulls appears to be foreign tourists but despite confiscations and arrests the trade continues to thrive. Trade in Orangutans is prohibited under Indonesian law; however the trade is displayed openly.  It is not done in dark alleys during the night. Law enforcement is almost lacking and people who hunt and trade in Orangutans are rarely punished.
Image copyright Adam Oswell

The Orangutan’s need, now more that ever, generous and committed supporters to come to their aid with financial support.

Working with our Indonesian partners, HSI has made an enormous effort over the last eight years, seeking to protect remaining Orangutan populations and helping injured mothers and orphaned babies, We have been successful in helping conserve critical Orangutan populations in Sumatra and Kalimantan, and gaining a global commitment from the world’s nations at the Bali Climate Change Meeting in December 2007, to find ways of protecting tropical rainforests in Indonesia, the home of the last wild Orangutan populations.

Our aim is to continue our current Orangutan conservation programs in Sumatra and Kalimantan, where we are studying Orangutan and human conflict issues and helping local peoples to take up alternate work to illegal logging– and step up anti-poaching activities.

We will also pursue, with extra special international effort, the protection of all Indonesia’s remaining Orangutan rainforest homes.  With the increasing demand for palm oil and timber, the fight is on to protect the remaining habitats vital to Orangutan survival.

We cannot abandon the Orangutan in its hour of need.  
Please help us secure their future.

 Click here for more information on HSI's orangutan protection activities.