Kicking Your Head to Get Rid of a Headache: Palm Oil and the Imminent Extinction of the Orangutan

[The2ndWheel]

http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2525

Borneo~Homeless, semi-paralyzed and blind in one eye, Montana faces an uncertain future. Even if his friends find somewhere for him to live, the 15-year-old has been weakened by years in assisted care. The lethal dangers of readjustment in his natural home include men like those who shot him out of a tree when he was a baby. But for the source of the greatest threat to Montana’s existence, say his supporters, look no further than your food cupboard.

The orangutan, the largest tree-living mammal on the planet, is in crisis. Once a mighty orange army of 300,000 that swung through the dense forests of South East Asia, conservationists say the population has dwindled to fewer than 25,000 concentrated on the two Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. There, they cling precariously to existence on government-protected nature reserves under siege by developers of one of the world’s most lucrative commodities: palm oil.

Illegal logging, fires and clearances have decimated the tropical rainforest that is the exclusive home of the primates. A care centre near Pangkalan Bun in Central Borneo is crowded with over 320 homeless, orphaned and sick or injured orangutans, a number that grows by 20 percent a year, say the workers there. Montana peers unhappily from his cage; unlike 250 of his predecessors who have been relocated to the jungle upriver from here since this centre was set up in 1998, he is unlikely to ever leave.

[GliderGuider]

1. Here's a PDF that goes into the problem in more depth.

http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/BOSPalm_Oil_Reportfinal.pdf (Warning - PDF contains disturbing photos)

The barbarity that is being visited on these creatures in the process of extinguishing their species is frankly beyond belief.
Anyone who is using biodiesel made from palm oil is complicit in these atrocities.