Introduction
Many have profited from the auspicious time created by globalization, however globalization has had the opposite effect on orangutans. This endangered species once thrived throughout South East Asia but is now confined to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Companies producing palm oil, have repeatedly placed economical expansion before the well being of non-human elements such as the orangutan. These companies have expanded onto the rainforests in hopes of economic growth. The Orangutan Foundation International, started by the most prestigious primatologist studying orangutans, Birutė Galdikas, warns due to palm oil plantations, “an area of forest equal to 300 soccer fields is being destroyed every hour” (“Why is the Orangutan in Danger”). At this rate, the Indonesian rain forests will be virtually destroyed in twenty years. Additionally, globalization has broadened the market of illegal pet trade to surrounding countries, and increased the demand for orangutans. The destruction of the rainforests and increase of illegal pet trade has been especially devastating to the orangutans. The two main causes of their nearing extinction that will be explored in this paper are, first, conversion of their natural habitat into palm oil plantations and, second, the effects of human-orangutan conflict (HOC). In order to restore their population it is essential for people to be educated on the issue, the rain forests to be restored, and the production of unsustainable palm oil minimized.
The Issue
The Orangutan population has been dwindling for years, however within the past decade alone, the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list suggests the orangutan population has decreased by fifty percent (“Pongo Abeli...
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Orangutans are only can be found in two places on Earth, the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Unfortunately, both of these regions now are being decimated by the palm oil industry. Orangutan Foundation International 2016 estimates that the orangutan population has decreased by 50 percent in the last 10 years alone. Based on the results of the orangutan Population and Habitat Viability Analysis 2016, there are currently only about 71 thousand individual orangutans left on Sumatra and Borneo islands. More than half of the baby orangutans don't make it to adults, it’s too tragic.
There exist in certain areas of rainforest in Indonesia timber barons who employ what are commonly referred to as logging gangsters. The victims of this social problem are not only the rare species that inhabit the rainforests, such as the Sumatran Tiger and Orangutan, but also those people who wish to do something to stop this depletion. Environmental activists and journalists attempting to document or protest the atrocities are often killed or severely beaten by the criminals. Like all illegal trafficking, the illegal rainforest wood trade exists only because there is an outside force demanding it. In this case, the force is that of high-income countries.
Many companies have turned to sustainable palm oil, palm oil that is produced on plantations that reuse the land for their agricultural purposes, thus supplying more palm oil without the destruction of natural forests. Some choose to boycott palm oil entirely, but this alternative will not significantly change the demand for palm oil. Vegetable oil is used abundantly and oil palm trees are the quickest producing oil crops, concluding them necessary to satisfy the demand for edible oils. Not only is palm oil versatile for its uses and quick to produce, but it is a major component to the economy in Indonesia and Malaysia. Many people living in these countries struggle with poverty, and agriculture of sustainable palm oil is how a great deal of people support themselves and their families. If the boycott of palm oil were successful, a considerable population of people would be unemployed and
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" Oil is the life blood of our modern industrial society. It fuels the machines and lubricates the wheels of the world’s production. But when that vital resource is out of control, it can destroy marine life and devastate the environment and economy of an entire region…. The plain facts are that the technology of oil-- its extraction, its transport, its refinery and use-- has outpaced laws to control that technology and prevent oil from polluting the environment…" (Max, 1969). Oil in its many forms has become one of the necessities of modern industrial life. Under control, and serving its intended purpose, oil is efficient, versatile, and productive. On the other hand, when oil becomes out of control, it can be one of the most devastating substances in the environment. When spilled in water, it spreads for miles around leaving a black memory behind (Stanley, 1969).
Introduction Palm oil is considered an essential ingredient for the production of foods and other products in which human use. The Orangutan Project (2015) states that ‘palm oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree’, and the ‘palm oil plantations are the main driver for deforestation in Indonesia’. The harvest of the palm trees for the production of palm oil affects the ecosystem as it can affect the environment. This investigation highlights the advantages of the palm fruit providing nutrients, it is essential for the production of products, and this production being that palm oil can reduce poverty. The negatives of how the production of palm oil negatively affects the environment, the habitat of the animals, and social consequences such as the loss of income.
Once occupying most of South and Southeast Asia, orangutans today are only found in fragmented dipterocarp and peat swamp forests (Groves 1971) on the islands of Borneo, Malaysia and Sumatra, Indonesia (Buij et al. 2002; Sharma et al. 2012). The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is more severely threatened than the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with surviving populations numbering 12,500 in northern Sumatra (Buij et al. 2002). Experts have estimated that the orangutan species’ have declined 10-fold within the last 100 years (Goosens et al. 2004). Studies have documented four primary causes for this drastic decline, stemming from anthropogenic influences (Sharma et al. 2012). The influences that caused this decline include changing
Great Apes are at the brink of extinction due to deforestation, hunting, and bushmeat trade. Our closest cousins are now viewed as economic commodities rather than valuable agents to the environment and humanity. In order to explore this issue, there must be an examinitation of why primate populations are dwindling, if these populations can replenish themselves, and what measures the international community is taking to alleviate the problem.
Although subsistence activities have dominated agriculture-driven deforestation in the tropics to date, large-scale commercial activities are playing an increasingly significant role. In the Amazon, industrial-scale cattle ranching and soybean production for world markets are increasingly important causes of deforestation, and in Indonesia, the conversion of tropical forest to commercial palm tree plantations to produce bio-fuels for export is a major cause of deforestation on Borneo and Sumatra.