IN SEARCH OF THE RED APE - BORNEO

This week long assignment was spent searching for wild orangoutangs and documenting the effects mass ‘Eco Tourism’ was having on Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo.

In 1971 an orangutan rehabilitation and release program was established at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park. It’s aim was to reintroduce captive orangutans and educate the local population of their plight. Unfortunately, the ongoing massive deforestation in Indonesia, primarily due to the expansion of palm oil cultivation, is bringing orangutans to the brink of extinction. Not only are individual orangutans killed as agricultural pests but also local populations of wild orangutans are being extirpated as forests disappear leaving wildlife displaced and increasingly, in close proximity to humans.

Eco tourism was seen as a vital tool to the orangutang’s survival. It brought sustainable money into the economy & encouraged the local community to respect the wildlife in the rainforest and move them away from palm oil cultivation. In recent years the number of tourist at the designated feeding stations for the rehabilitated orangutang has exploded and the growth of river boats operators along Sekonyer River is now having a detrimental effect on the park.

‘We share 97% of their DNA, yet have destroyed 80% of their habitat.’