04 Dec 2006 - Pontianak, Indonesia – Drastic habitat reduction, poaching and the illegal pet trade have left the world’s largest population of western Bornean orang-utans facing local extinction unless immediate protection measures are taken, a WWF survey finds.

The survey reveals that about 1,030 western Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus) — out of an estimated population of 4,800 throughout Borneo — are found in and around Indonesia's Betung Kerihun National Park.

"The western Bornean orang-utan is the most threatened of the three Bornean orang-utan subspecies to start with," said Albertus Tjiu, WWF-Indonesia's Species Officer in West Kalimantan.

"This orang-utan population at Betung needs protection now to make sure it doesn't go extinct.”

In addition, the survey reveals that a significant number of these western Bornean orang-utans are found outside the park, particularly in forests used by the local population for various purposes, making those individuals especially vulnerable to exploitation and habitat loss.

Specific actions to boost protection of this population includes the enforcement of a zero-hunting policy inside the park, increasing the size of protected forests in the Embaloh River watershed area and the creation of a transborder protected area.

In particular, WWF and its partners are calling for the establishment of a forest corridor linking the two protected populations within Betung Kerihun and the neighboring park, Danau Sentarum, as a crucial action to secure the long-term survival of this subspecies in Borneo.

These parks are located in the Heart of Borneo, a trans-boundary conservation initiative involving the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia that that aims to conserve and sustainably manage one of the most important centers of biological diversity in the world

“The Indonesian government is committed to the protection of the orang-utan population and its habitat and will work with all stakeholders to create synergy for the effectiveness of orang-utan conservation,” said Adi Susmianto, Indonesia Forestry Ministry's biodiversity conservation director.

END NOTES:

• The orang-utan survey was conducted by WWF-Indonesia, together with Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry (PHKA), local NGOs and local villagers, with the technical assistance of the Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project. The work included interviews with local villagers, map analysis, habitat assessment and a census along transects in the forest.

• The Bornean orang-utan is today recognized as a different species from its Sumatra relative. There are three subspecies of Boreneon organg-utan: Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus, P.p. morio, and P. p. wurmbii. The first two are found in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Sarawak, Malaysia, and the last one is found in East Kalimantan and Sabah.

• Located in West Kalimantan’s Kapuas Hulu district, Betung Kerihun National Park was declared a national park in 1995 and covers an area of approximately 800,000km2. The Danau Sentarum National Park, a huge wetland and swamp forest area, 60km south of Betung Kerihun, is home to a significant number of orang-utans, but the general population appears to be highly fragmented and the forest are in very bad condition due to fires, agricultural development and illegal logging.