Threats to The Orangutans and the Ecosystem

The Orangutans and their home within Sundaland all face the same threats, habitat loss and deforestation being the largest. Other then deforestation the ever growing human populations within Sundaland bring disease, habitat infringement, poaching for trophies or pets and hunting for meat which all contribute to Orangutan and tropical rainforest loss. The biggest deforestation is du to logging and slash and burn methods of removing forrest and all vegetation to make space for palm oil tree plantations, which is a major source of income for the islands.

The edge of a large portion of the rainforest recently having been taken by the Slash and Burn Method

This Slash and Burn method leads to obvious mass habitat loss, uncontrollable forrest fires and the burning of orangutans and other slow moving species directly. These Harmful methods along with the building of roads and logging operations are threatening but often encouraged by the people that inhabit these islands. The overall populations of Orangutans on both main islands has dropped over 50% in the past 40 years which is highly unsustainable and threatening.

All of this said there are many conservation efforts in place for Sundaland and the Orangutan populations. The biggest being Protected lands or National parks being placed where the remaining forrest and endangered species are living. Along with this many organizations and governing bodies are petitioning and supporting bans being placed on excessive logging of these forrest, some countries even pledging money to the governments within Sundaland if they reduce emissions and logging permits. There are also many conservation programs working to repopulate these endangered species by protecting the existing habitats and breeding some species in captivity before reintroducing them into the wild and rescuing orangutans Orphaned by Habitat loss, poaching and pet captivity.

Some know organizations are, The Nature Conservancy, WWF or World Wide Fund, Natural Resource Defense Council, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, Orangutan Outreach, Orangutan Conservancy.