Indonesian Conservation Media Center

Orangutan and Global Warming

(22 Juni 2010)

There are four taxa of great apes in the world, those are, gorillas, chimpanzees, banobos and orangutans. Orangutans are the only great apes living in Asia, while the other three are living in Africa. There are two kinds of orangutans, Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), which dispersion is limited in northern Sumatera and Borneo orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), which are still found in several areas that are pockets of habitat in Sabah and Sarawak, especially in peat swamp forest area and also lowland Dipterocarpaceae forest in the southwest of Kalimantan between Kapuas and Barito rivers (West and Central Kalimantan), and also the east of Mahakam river to the north (East Kalimantan Province and Sabah).

Habitat loss, poaching and trading are still the main threats to the survival of orangutan in Indonesia. The population of orangutan continues to decline and is listed in the IUCN Red List as critically endangered. Without any real effort and action to save the survival of orangutan, their extinction from Sumatra and Kalimantan is just a matter of time.

One of the efforts that has been done by the government is to build a partnership with national and international institutions in running orangutan conservation programs. However, in the middle of the existing threats, there is one more problem which doesn’t only threaten the survival of orangutans, but also other creatures on earth. Global warming as a result of pollutions, produced by human activities, have significantly changed climate patterns and natural phenomena.

Climate changes cause the decline in the orangutan’s food sources in the forest. Unpredictable climate and seasonal patterns cause disruptions in the flowering and germination system of vegetation that become the animals’ food and shelter. As a result, the survival level is getting smaller because their source of living is running out. Other than that, climate changes cause La Nina and El Nino phenomena to occur more frequently, resulting in damages of the orangutans habitat. As an example is the El Nino that hit Indonesia in 1997/1998, which causes great fires in Indonesian tropical forests. A large number of orangutan became the victims and eventually, it caused a further decline in the population of orangutan and their natural habitat was lost because of the forest fires.

 

Kehilangan orang utan di habitat alaminya merupakan suatu kerugian besar karena keberadaannya menjadi salah satu pengisi mata rantai kehidupan hutan tropis Sumatra dan Kalimantan. Orang utan berperan penting dalam penyebaran biji berbagai jenis vegetasi yang menjadi pakannya. Selain itu, nilai keanekaragam hayati yang ada tidak dapat tergantikan oleh satwa lainnya di dunia ini.

The diminishing of orangutans in their natural habitat is one great loss because their existence has become one of the links in the life chain in Sumatra and Kalimantan tropical forests. Orangutans play an important role in the seed dispersals of many kinds of vegetation that become their diet. Besides that, the value of biodiversity of orangutans cannot be replaced by other wildlife in this world.

  
Source:
http://www.wwf.or.id/berita_fakta/reports/?10300/Dampak-Perubahan-Iklim-

Terhadap-Habitat-Orangutan. Tanggal 14 Juni 2010.