Posted on September, 06 2005

Kalimantan, Indonesia – Hundreds of orang-utans are either killed or captured every year in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. 

A new TRAFFIC report, launched today to coincide with the Inter-governmental conference of UNESCO’s Great Apes Survival Project in Kinshasa (DRC), warns that such a trend will further the species’ decline towards extinction. 
 
Based on data collected over a two-year period from wildlife markets and private owners, zoological gardens, wildlife rescue centres, reintroduction programmes, and the Indonesian Department of Forestry, the report shows that between 200 and 500 Bornean orang-utans originating from Kalimantan, are traded each year on Kalimantan, Java, and Bali alone.

The vast majority are very young individuals, captured as pets.

For the majority of orang-utans observed in trade, the report highlights that at least one other has died (usually its mother) — which means that the total numbers killed or captured each year are likely to be far higher. 
 
With a total population of orang-utans on Kalimantan estimated to be as low as 40,000, the annual removal of such a high number of orang-utans from the wild could be a death sentence for the population. 
 
According to the report, the trade in orang-utans on Kalimantan has not decreased in the past 15 years. It also finds that although many orang-utans and gibbons have been confiscated by authorities during the last decade in Kalimantan, not a single offender has been prosecuted to date.

The average price for an orang-utan on sale in Java is US$400, 2-3 times the original price paid to hunters in Kalimantan. 
 
"This is an alarming finding," said James Compton, Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. "It clearly shows that there is a large discrepancy between what national conservation laws aim to achieve and what happens on the ground." 
 
TRAFFIC and WWF are calling on the Indonesian government for stricter implementation of the legislation on protection of threatened species.

Under this law, orang-utans and gibbons are classified as “protected”, which forbids capturing, killing, possessing, and trading these species. 
 
"People who have been found in possession of protected wildlife, such as orang-utans should be prosecuted to give a clear signal to other offenders," said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global Species Programme.
 
"We call on Indonesian authorities to take urgent action, and to do more to make enforcement officers and the public aware that keeping or buying protected animals is a crime, and will not be left unpunished." 
 
Besides hunting and trade to satisfy the persistent demand for pets, orang-utans and gibbons in Kalimantan also suffer from the loss of their forest habitat to logging, agriculture, and forest fires. 
 
NOTES: 
  
• There are two species of orang-utan: Bornean and Sumatran. Bornean orang-utans are distributed patchily throughout the Indonesian state of Kalimantan and the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, on the island of Borneo. Today, they number around 55,000. Sumatran orang-utans were once found throughout the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Today, this Critically Endangered species numbers about 7,500 individuals.

• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF, the conservation organization, and IUCN – The World Conservation Union. 
 
For further information:
James Compton, Regional Director
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia 
Tel: + 60 12 316 6904
Email: james.compton@po.jaring.my  
 
Maija Sirola, Communications Coordinator
TRAFFIC International 
Tel: +44 1223 277427
Email: maija.sirola@trafficint.org 
 
Joanna Benn, Communications Manager
WWF Global Species Programme 
Tel: +41 22 364 9093
Email: jbenn@wwfint.org 
 
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer
WWF International
Tel: +41 22 364 9554
Email: ovanbogaert@wwfint.org