Of the world's two species of orangutan, a great ape that shares 96 percent of man's genetic makeup, the Sumatran orangutan is considerably more endangered than its cousin in Borneo. Today there are believed to be fewer than 7,000 Sumatran orangutans in the wild, a consequence of the wildlife trade, hunting, and accelerating destruction of their native forest habitat by loggers, small-scale farmers, and agribusiness.
Gunung Leuser National Park in North Sumatra is one of the last strongholds for the species, serving as a refuge among paper pulp concessions and rubber and oil palm plantations. While orangutans are relatively well protected in areas around tourist centers, they are affected by poorly regulated interactions with tourists, which have increased the risk of disease and resulted in high mortality rates among infants near tourist centers like Bukit Lawang. Further, orangutans that range outside the park or live in remote areas or on its margins face conflicts with developers, including loggers, who may or may not know about the existence of the park, and plantation workers, who may kill any orangutans they encounter in the fields.
Sumatran orangutan in North Sumatra Working to improve the fate of orangutans that find their way into plantations and unprotected community areas is the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), a local NGO that collaborates with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS). Founded by Panut Hadisiswoyo, OIC runs outreach and education programs to help local people better co-exist with orangutans and the park. Its "OrangUvan," a bus equipped with a library and a mobile cinema, regularly visits villages to make children and adults aware of conservation efforts and the importance of protecting forests. OIC also operates tree nurseries and replanting programs to help restore livelihoods where unsustainable logging and environmental degradation have pushed villagers to illegally cut timber from the national park. Further, OIC is preparing the next generation of conservationists and ecotourism guides, running how-to workshops on surveying forest conditions and orangutan density, boat handling, nature photography, composting and organic farming, and responsible nature guiding (that doesn't harm orangutans or the environment). In conjunction with the Orang Utan Republik Foundation, OIC runs a scholarship program for Indonesian University students that aims to help enable them become key members of the conservation movement in Sumatra and inspire others to care for nature and their environment.
OIC Mobile Unit staff in front of one of the OIC Orang-U-Vans. Courtesy of OIC
OIC is also working to engage the palm oil industry, a challenge since oil palm expansion is both a leading driver of deforestation and an important source of jobs in the region. While many large palm oil companies are eager to shed the perception that they are a threat to orangutans, plantation developers continue to drive destruction of important orangutan habitat, especially in unprotected areas. Deforestation, as well as drainage of carbon-dense peatlands, is also a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, undermining claims that palm oil is necessarily a "green" source of fuel and vegetable oil. Indeed, palm oil produced on newly deforested lands is actually the opposite—a larger source of carbon dioxide than conventional fossil fuels. But demonizing all palm oil is neither productive nor fair. Oil palm is the world’s highest yielding oilseed, generating substantially more vegetable oil per unit of land than soy, rapeseed/canola, or corn. Further, the crop has become an important source of income in much of rural Sumatra, while serving as an inexpensive foodstuff for local people and the world.
Replanting a new generation of oil palm in a plantation in North Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
Is there a way to balance palm oil production and environmental aims? Some environment groups are advocating a ban on all palm oil, but given rising demand for edible oils, especially in China and India, this is an unlikely solution. Other groups, including SOS and OIC, are hopeful that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a multi-stakeholder body devising a certification standard that aims to improve the environmental performance of palm oil production, could be the path forward, provided the scheme is credible. But credibility is elusive when RSPO members (whom are not necessarily certified palm oil producers; they are only required to pay a membership fee to be part of RSPO) are found to be attempting to game the system, breaking rules and refusing third-party compliance monitoring. Such practices risk turning RSPO into little more than another greenwashing initiative, a concern that has already turned away some potential supporters, including a few major buyers of palm oil who are now seeking other vegetable oil options. Still, OIC believes that in the end a credible RSPO will be better for orangutans and better for business than the alternative—continued destruction of tropical forests and peatlands.
In a series of interviews conducted in Medan and Bukit Lawang (Sumatra) and via e-mail, Panut Hadisiswoyo and David Dellatore of OIC, and Helen Buckland, UK Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Society, talked about their efforts to save the world's rarest orangutan species as well as the "palm oil paradox."
(a) Protected and unprotected forests in 1990 for the main island of Sumatra and the smaller island of Siberut, including adjacent unprotected land lying within 10 km of protected area (PA) boundaries and the wider unprotected landscape, and showing the spatial distribution of the 1264 sample cells (25 km2). (b) Remaining forests in 2000, deforestation and logging trails occurring during the period 1990–2000 (UTM projection, WGS84). Protected areas (PAs) protecting mangroves or created after 2000 are not shown. MAPS available at sumatranforest.org
Q&A WITH DAVE DELLATORE
Mongabay: What lead you to take an interest in orangutans?
Dave Dellatore, Kelvin Davies from Rainforest Rescue Australia, and Panut Hadisiswoyo in the OIC Besitang forest restoration program area of the GLNP.
Dellatore presenting at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh last year. Courtesy of OIC. Dave Dellatore: My first 'experience' or memory of orangutans was on a family trip we took to the San Diego Zoo when I was ten or so. We came upon the orangutan enclosure, and I still remember staring at the big male that was there at the time. Since then I'd maintained an unhealthy obsession with apes, starting with enjoying all sorts of terrible films and greeting cards depicting them in unlikely situations. With age and some further research though I came to know how in order to get apes and monkeys to 'act', they're beaten to all hell and deprived of basic needs. So I grew up a bit and started to see them as amazing as they are, living wild in the forest.
I signed up to university as an engineering major, but then on my first day of orientation switched to biology – realizing that I really liked orangutans, so why not work with them for the rest of your life? That was eleven years ago in Pennsylvania, USA; I'm writing this now in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, where I've been for the past two years now and where I'll continue to be. And that's that.
Mongabay: How did you first start working with orangutans?
Dave Dellatore: I nearly failed out of university my first two years. I wasn't inspired and it just didn't feel right, so I got to contacting a series of people in the orangutan sector online. I got to talking quite a bit with Dr. Gary Shapiro, then vice-president of the Orangutan Foundation International (and now Founding Director of the Orang Utan Republik Foundation), and after a few months of conversing he recommended I go out to Indonesia to see the orangutans in the wild. So I quit university, took a full-time job to save up, and eventually off I went to Central Kalimantan for six weeks.
I ended up staying for two years, volunteering at their Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine, helping to take care of the orphaned orangutans and setting up environmental enrichment for the holding cages, eventually graduated to working with the more difficult orangutans that were 'half-wild' and required more attention/persistence, and then finally moved to conducting dawn-dusk follows of newly released orangutans in the OF release site.
Entrance to the Gunung Leuser National Park at Bukit Lawang. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
After those two years with much hesitation to leave, decided it would be best for me to have a degree of some sort, so I went back to the US and completed my first degree – doing much, much better than before I'd gone abroad and actually done what I wanted to do.
Then I went on almost immediately to earn a Masters of Science in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University in the UK (which is an excellent program with incredible course leaders). For that I conducted research in Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, on the behavioral health of the population of released orangutans there. And from that, and seeing the negative effects the tourism operation in place there was having on the orangutans, suggested to the Sumatran Orangutan Society / Orangutan Information Centre that they get more involved and start a program there.
From that I was eventually brought on, and now two years later am still here with them and doing all that's possible to help save the orangutan.
PALM OIL
Mongabay: Do you see engagement with or opposition to palm oil companies as the best approach?
Dave Dellatore: We have taken what we see to be the more pragmatic approach – engage with those companies that are looking to better their environmental policies.
Much of what I think personally I've already said as comments to a recent Mongabay article. The Orangutan Information Centre currently works with two oil palm plantation management groups. In this case what that means is they supply funds towards our Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) Restoration program. Every last Indonesian rupiah they have contributed goes into this program, so it is not as if they've bought us out or our support. But rather that they have given funds for us to restore over 150 hectares of national park that was formerly cleared and made into palm oil plantation by two unrelated palm oil groups.
Oil palm plantation and forest in North Sumatra
Below is an excerpt from an article we were asked to write by one of our partners, as a contribution to the RSPO newsletter. I was very surprised that our partner didn't have an issue with what was written, as the excerpt as you can see is critical of the industry - however, since what I wrote was objective and verifiable by peer reviewed sources, there's no arguing with it. They're not trying to hide the fact that palm oil isn't perfect, however, they are working with us and trying to adopt better practices.
Our GLNP Restoration program is very unique in that not only are we working within the national park, but we are engaging with all relevant stakeholders in implementation:1. GLNP officials work closely with us in planning and implementing the replanting program. They have provided their expertise and lent their support to ensure that optimal ecosystem restoration takes place.
2. Local communities have been involved in the entire process, from planning, implementation, and eventually complete independent management and self-growth, all according to guidelines established for effective commons governance. This is extremely important as it has been shown that negative results often emerge when local people are excluded from conservation matters affecting their existence
3. We are also working with plantation management companies (unrelated to the offending agents that previously cleared the land within the protected area) interested in supporting such land rehabilitation projects.
One of the four OIC tree nurseries in the Besitang area of the Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra. Courtesy of OIC
We recognize the significant environmental impacts of the oil palm industry, with particular reference to the conversion of high conservation value forests, including orangutan habitat, to monoculture plantations. The islands of Borneo and Sumatra are the last places where orangutans exist in the wild. Over the last twenty years, more than 80% of orangutan habitat has been lost or degraded (WWF 2004). Forest cover in Sumatra alone was reduced by 61% from 1985-1997 due to logging, infrastructure development, internal migration, and plantation development (McConkey 2005), with the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) population showing a decrease of 86% over the past 100 years (Robertson and Van Schaik 2001). A United Nations report released in 2007 stated "the rapid increase in [oil palm] acreage is one of the greatest threats to orangutans and the forests on which they depend" (Nelleman et al 2007). However, we do not advocate a boycott of products containing palm oil, or companies using palm oil in their products, as this will harm the Indonesian economy, with the most impact felt by small communities dependent on these crops. Further, boycotting palm oil will only result in exporting the problem of mass deforestation to other areas such as South America. We instead call on the international community to only support companies operating oil-palm concessions that are not granted in currently forested areas, and for local retailers and consumer goods manufacturers to only source their palm oil from plantations and companies operating under international standards for sustainability such as those being developed and fostered by the RSPO.
Oil palm fresh fruit bunch. Photo by Rhet A. Butler
We support any palm oil company with a genuine commitment to sustainable palm oil production, and it is our firm belief that through working together with more responsible companies, practices can be improved and more conservation-friendly policies formed and instituted.
There is an increasing amount of literature being published that suggests such cooperation between social/environmental NGOs and plantation companies to work together and help provide a road map of sorts for companies to operate more sustainably. This we wholeheartedly agree with, as the alternative, shunning all oil palm companies, regardless of the few trying to better their practices and work more sustainably, will result in nothing but a quicker demise for the orangutans and their forest home.
The future of the forests thus lies with 1. the governments that are granting plantation concessions on high conservation value land, 2. the companies that choose to develop this land, and 3. the worldwide consumer demand that is fueling the rapid expansion of the industry. It is therefore extremely worrying the recent news of a ruling made by the Indonesian government which opens up biodiversity AND carbon-sink rich peatland forest to plantation development (Peraturan Menteri Pertanian Nomor:14/Permentan/PL.110/2/2009). It is incompressible that in the face of solid, objective data illustrating the very high negative impacts of developing oil palm plantations on peat land and other HCVF land; the national authority has opted to allow for such development to occur.
Sumatra, 2009.
Therefore unless the Indonesian government overturns this recent decision (something that we should all campaign for), the responsibility to do the right thing falls on the palm oil industry as well as the international consumer market. Environmental and Social NGOs will do their part in encouraging consumers to shop wisely and choose sustainable products from responsible companies. The RSPO can then function in continuing to encourage companies to pledge to work more sustainably, with the end goal being to create a brand that consumers trust and want to buy, thus shaping the way the industry as a whole operates and develops on the ground. It is important to note that not developing on forested lands does not mean a seizure of growth and profits. There are an estimated 15-20 million hectares of degraded lands in Indonesia, concentrated in Borneo and Sumatra, ready for development. It is the goal of projects such as the World Resources Institute's POTICO (http://www.wri.org/project/potico) to steer future plantation developments onto these lands in order to put a halt to any further degradation of Indonesia's forests for oil palm. Again the industry is not perfect and we're not in their pockets, but there are certain companies that are cooperating with us, trying to do the right thing and helping our conservation efforts. Of course they are still first and foremost after profits - but, so is everyone just trying to live. And if we aren't as much, it's because we are comfortable enough that we have the time and energy to bring up these environmental claims.
Oil palm seed. Palm oil is used widely in processed foods. By virtue of its high yield, palm oil is a cheaper substitute than other vegetable oils. In an effort to reduce costs, some candy-makers are even using palm oil in place of cocoa butter in their milk chocolate products. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
We can choose not to eat chocolate bars or whatnot, but it's in so many products I think that we have no idea how much it is used.
Also boycotting the oil is not an answer, it won't work as it's in too much, and also so many peoples' lives depend on it now that it'd be disastrous if ever a complete boycott went through. People would lose their daily livelihoods, but then thinking ahead a bit further - what would they do with all the land already covered with palm oil? In our GLNP restoration project in an area called Besitang, North Sumatra, there is still 110 hectares of palm oil trees left in the park that we are trying to get funding to get removed - and the budget we have worked out just to kill the trees so that later we can replant with indigenous trees is $16,121. So, even if the detractors who claim palm oil kills win and palm oil stops (a highly unlikely scenario, and not necessarily a desirable one), the local communities working these lands now will still need to have a livelihood. But, were palm oil to be 'stopped', before they could begin to earn a living in some other way, they would have to expend a massive amount of money, time, energy, petrol, etc., just to be able to clear the oil-palm planted land first, before they could use it again.
Mustaqim, head of the OIC Conservation and Forest Restoration Division, planting a tree in Sumatra.
I think it is the only way things are going to get better - if we and other conservation bodies engage these companies and try to work towards some compromise. It's not going to work out as best as we want it to - land is going to be lost. Palm oil (let's not forget other plantations, such as rubber etc.) is a lucrative business, and it supports many many thousands of people who depend on it, so it's not just going to go away or stop. But, if we are involved with the companies and can help in forming policy that is more in line with the natural environment, we can help ensure that the least amount is lost, and try for the least amount of potential damage. And, again, with these companies' help we are undoing some of the damage done and gaining forest cover back. The alternative would be for them to ignore us, not give us anything for replanting, and not care at all about trying to work sustainably. It may sound like I've given up, but I haven't - am just trying to take a realistic approach to the situation. Participating in protests, sticker campaigns and advocating immediate boycotting and the like I know must feel good and like direct action, but I don't think it's very productive in the end (as is evidenced by freighter ships blocked from moving for a day or two carrying on as usual, just a day or two later).
A local Besitang community member with a tree replanted in the GLNP. Photos courtesy of OIC
What we should be using our time and energy on is yes educating people on the problems of palm oil, but then also explaining to people what they can try and do about it. The best thing for people to do on the matter is read up and review the peer-reviewed literature about oil palm so that we are all working with the same reputable facts. We've got to be more focused on what the actual problems are - rather than just saying 'palm oil is bad'. In thinking about it for a minute, I think these two questions are a good exercise that makes me think about the issues more clearly: 1. Why is oil palm bad? 2. Are there better/more sustainable policies that companies could follow to lessen their damage?
The issue is never as simple as damning one company out of the hundreds out there, and at least in my understanding - is especially ineffective in Indonesia. This sort of journalism/release is very polarizing, and also it doesn't suggest any alternatives or further information. And, similar to oil palm - how are people supposed to boycott this product/company (again - we do not advocate a boycott!)? I don't know anyone who knows who produces the pulp that makes their paper, and am too lazy to go and see if that sort of information is on a packet of it. But even if it was there, like coffee surely you can never be totally sure where every last bean was sourced.
Mongabay: Do you have a policy on palm oil?
Dave Dellatore: The Orangutan Information Centre recognizes the significant environmental and social impacts of the oil palm industry, with particular reference to the conversion of high conservation value forests, including orangutan habitat, to monoculture plantations.
Healthy forest and deforested area in neighboring Borneo.
However, the OIC does not advocate a boycott of products containing palm oil, or companies using palm oil in their products. The international community must instead demand that oil-palm concessions are not granted in currently forested areas, and that local retailers and consumer goods manufacturers only source their palm oil from plantations and companies operating under international standards of oil-palm sustainability.
We support any palm oil company with a genuine commitment to sustainable palm oil production, and welcome investment in our field projects to assist companies in meeting this shared goal. It is our firm belief that through working together with such companies, practices can be improved and more conservation-friendly policies formed and instituted. The alternative, shunning all oil palm companies, regardless of the few trying to better their practices and work more sustainably, will result in nothing but a quicker demise for the orangutans and their forest home.
Mongabay: You've at times been vocal in responding to questionable claims made by the oil palm industry. What's the message you are trying to convey?
Dave Dellatore: The head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council has posted some comments on his blog which really undermine the industry's credibility. My adviceYou would be helping the industry, your country, all of the forests and the species within, and the world so much - through simply coming out and saying that oil palm is a great, versatile, and profitable crop; and that although there are negative sides to it, namely environmental in nature, we will try and work to make it as least damaging as possible so that we too can prosper.
Open yourself up to constructive criticism and assistance - the environmental groups are willing to compromise.
Your stubbornness is only making the industry look foolish, what with your ridiculous comments that orangutans benefit from eating palm oil and it is good for their coats.
I cannot speak for everyone, but for the NGO I work with we are not against development. What can be reached though is a compromise, if only you were ready to listen. Mongabay: What are your thoughts on RSPO? What needs to be done to make it a more credible certification standard?
Dave Dellatore: RSPO is not perfect no, but it is a step in the right direction.
The blanket approach 'palm oil is bad' will not work, just as 'Smoking kills' does not. However, unlike smoking which has its addictive properties, palm oil does not carry those same properties and the industry is not marketing a product that clearly is deadly. The industry can be shifted to become more sustainable. But for that to happen we have to provide a roadmap of sorts and pull them along the right way. Coming out guns blazing or whatever will just put them on the defensive (if they even feel it at all - think about how far away the stores in the west are both physically and also market wise from the plantations) and to label all environmental groups as tree huggers, which is very easy for people to shrug off and not take seriously.
ORANGUTANS
Mongabay: How is nature tourism affecting orangutans?
Mother orangutan and baby at Bukit Lawang. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
Dave Dellatore: Ecotourism should not be confused with wildlife or nature tourism, which is based solely on interactions with wildlife such as viewing/photographing, direct contact and feeding. True ecotourism has the potential to contribute both to Sumatran orangutan conservation as well as development goals through its self-generating administrative revenue, and can thus be posited as a sustainable livelihood opportunity that local communities living near protected areas can embrace. However, it must be managed responsibly in order to be a sustainable enterprise.
Although popular sites, such as Bukit Lawang, is currently known as an orangutan viewing centre, Sumatran orangutans are still a critically endangered species living within the confines of the Gunung Leuser National Park, part of the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Although it is forbidden to touch, feed, or disturb the orangutans, such practices still do occur for the enjoyment of visitors. Large groups of visitors in Bukit Lawang are often brought within close proximity to, and in actual physical contact with the orangutans. This is a major cause for concern in terms of both zoonotic and also anthropozoonotic disease transfer due to the close phylogenetic relationship between humans and orangutans. Accompanying this is unauthorized food provisioning, which in addition to potential disease transfer also serves to discourage the semi-wild population from reducing any dependence on humans and becoming free-living in the wild. Through some research conducted in the past I've also encountered aberrant behaviors never before seen in any other great ape population – mother orangutans cannibalizing the remains of their own dead infants. Although we can't say definitively that 'x happened because of y', it can certainly be argued (the arguments are laid out in the journal article in Primates ) that with the illegal feedings and interactions that take place in BL, and that such behavior never before being seen in 40+ years of orangutan research – that this is certainly not normal and that it would be best to reduce as much as possible any stressors and/or artificial relationships and interactions with these apes. It's not to say that tourism is bad and should be stopped – but that it has to be conducted responsibly.
With so few free-ranging populations remaining, every number counts and must be protected. It is completely unsustainable for the tourism industry in Bukit Lawang to continue to allow practices which significantly alter the behavior, and potentially threaten the health, of these orangutans. There is no reason that tourism in Bukit Lawang cannot be made sustainable, as it does not necessarily carry any of the five main limits of ecotourism: lack of infrastructure, difficulties in access, political instability, ineffective marketing, or an absence of flagship species (Wells, 1992). What then must happen is an overhaul of the tourism system in place, and what is most needed is a major education program targeting local people, forest guides and tourist visitors.
Gunung Leuser National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
For these reasons the OIC has been running the Sumatran Orangutan Ecotourism Development program in BL (which with support from UNESCO was also expanded to include the nearby tourism site of Tangkahan, most well-known for its ex-captive elephant trekking) in late 2008. With this we have implemented measures to intervene and raise tourism standards, including setting new visitation guidelines that best protect the orangutans and other wildlife, as well as the local community and visitors.
Effective guiding creates more support for conservation efforts and results in less support for practices which are detrimental to the forests and orangutan conservation, such as using unsustainable, 'non-certified' timber products. Further, on a more indirect level, once government partners see the benefits of a financially-rewarding, high conservation value, low-impact program, they could then replicate these practices in other areas hosting tourism programs.
Mongabay: What are some of the challenges facing orangutan rehabilitation programs?
Dave Dellatore: A big challenge is securing a suitable release environment in which rehabilitated animals may survive and reproduce. There is simply not much viable forest left, especially in Sumatra which is much smaller compared to Kalimantan, so that finding a suitable region is more difficult and complicated. Further, even if a site is located and secured, it is not just a matter of releasing a random population of orangutans there, as the success of reintroduction depends a large part on the suitability of the release site and the ability of the animals to establish a viable breeding population (Woodford and Rossiter, 1994; Cheyne, 2006). Within that there are many factors to consider, such as:
Disease transmission risk
Reintroduction of a species from an outside area must not be conducted haphazardly, as "each animal is not simply a representative of a single species but rather a biological package containing a selection of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminthes and arthropods" (Nettles, 1988). Therefore a reintroduction program must be extremely careful not to jeopardize the habitat and all its original inhabitants (May, 1991; Yeager and Silver, 1999). Ex-captives are particularly susceptible to infectious disease (Woodford and Rossiter, 1994; Daszak, 2000) as they pass through care center settings that are often overcrowded, which greatly increases their chances of contracting disease. Great ape reintroduction programs require additional concern as the apes are phylogenetically close to humans and thus susceptible to human infectious diseases (Woodford et al., 2002).
Mother orangutan and baby at Bukit Lawang. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
Ex-captive populations of primates may be at an additional risk of contracting disease, due to behavioral traits learned in captivity. For example, under natural conditions, orangutans are semi-solitary and rarely congregate in groups (Rodman, 1988). Ex-captives, due to their altered upbringing, may be more social once returned to the wild (Yeager, 1997). With parasite host behavior shown to correlate with exposure to parasites (Hart, 1990; Moore, 2002; Ezenwa, 2004), these individuals, operating at a higher than normal population density have a greater chance of disease transmission. In addition the reintroduced population may be subjected to diseases and parasites that are local in distribution so that new arrivals without local ecological adaptations may quickly succumb to illness (Woodford and Rossiter, 1994; Cunningham, 1996). Habitat degradation has been linked to improved conditions for disease vectors (Woodford et al., 2002; Chapman et al., 2005; Gillespie and Chapman, 2006), so that particular care should be taken in secondary forest. Therefore particular care should be taken in post-release monitoring of individuals and the environment for any potential increased infection threats.
Post release monitoring can assist in detecting disease problems of released individuals and therein provide an early warning system of infection problems that might affect the population (Woodford and Rossiter, 1994). Unfortunately, although the IUCN lists long term post-release monitoring as one of the most important facets of a reintroduction program (Beck et al., 2007), many primate release sites are reported to have poor post-release monitoring records (Aveling and Mitchell, 1982; Woodford and Rossiter, 1994; Sarrazin and Barbault, 1996; Yeager, 1997; Cowlishaw and Dunbar, 2000; Kleiman et al., 2000; Breitenmoser et al., 2001; Goossens et al., 2002). This is I think starting to improve, but there is still surprisingly little published data available on orangutan reintroductions. So we are missing out on the opportunity to learn what has worked and hasn't worked for different sites – forcing everyone to conduct the same trial and error system over and over.
Risks associated with genetics
Orangutan conservation information materials distributed to children during a community visit in North Sumatra. Photo courtesy of OIC.
Reintroduction programs have been shown to give genetic considerations low practical priority (Goossens et al., 2002), with short term factors of greater concern than genetic processes which act on a longer time scale (Caro and Laurenson, 1994). As loss of genetic variability can be a major threat to the survival of a population, it is important to consider the genetic characteristics of the animals to be reintroduced. By studying the molecular characteristics of the population, one can develop strategies to offset the genetic threats faced by small populations (Lande and Barrowclough, 1987; Vasarhelyi and Martin, 1994; Sutherland, 1998). Selection of animals for reintroduction should be based on genetic and demographic considerations, so as to ensure that the founder population is as representative as possible of the gene pool available in captivity (Foose, 1991; Beck et al., 1994). The founder population must also be viable - large enough and with enough genetic variability so as to provide a level of protection against the stochastic problems of the environment (Foose, 1991; May, 1991; Kalinowski and Waples, 2002).
Care must be taken in reintroducing individuals into an area with a remnant wild population (something that current Indonesian law stipulates should not occur with orangutan releases – however, it has and I think does still happen), as it could result in hybridization and the 'contamination' of any local adaptations (Foose, 1991; Madsen et al., 1999; Goossens et al., 2002). Further, there is enough geographic variation in the genetic make up of Bornean orangutans - there are now four recognized subpopulations (Warren et al., 2001); so care must be taken to maintain genetic integrity across the island so as to avoid releasing subspecies from other outside areas and hybridization.
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