Orang Utan Population Close to Extinction !!

Orangutan is one of the man's closest relatives and most enigmatic cousins in the animal kingdom, sharing 96.4 % of our DNA. Orangutan could be virtually extinct within several years after it was discovered that the animal's rain forest habitat is being destroyed even more rapidly than had been predicted. Orangutan mean person of the forest. If the forest are gone, then the orangutans will be gone too...as the forest are their habitat.
The Borneo OrangUtan Survival Foundation UK, a charity which works to rescue, rehabilitate and release the animals into protected forest, warned that at the current rate of deforestation by some industry, orangutans in the wild could be close to extinction by 2010.

According to data from the Forestry Ministry's Natural Resources Conservation Center, forest have been declining annually between 1 and 1.5% in Sumatra and between 1.5 and 2% in Kalimantan.

The forests decline was partly due to the implementation of regional autonomy in 2001, which has given regencies authority to issue any regulation they consider necessary for their respective regencies to attract new investments.
With such authority, many regencies have seen their forests decrease rapidly, bringing catastrophe to many species, including the orangutan.

The rapid conversion of forests, combined with weak enforcement of environmental laws, has also increased the human-orangutan conflicts as many orangutans start seeking food outside of their habitat.

According to Center for Orangutan Protection(COP), politicians and state officials were to blame for letting and even supporting the constant illegal deforestation in the national park.

Construction of the road destroyed the habitat of orangutans and leads to wide scale deforestation. Between 22,000 and 70,000 people have contributed to the deforestation of 23,712 acres of Kutai National Park. The park was turning into a city, with an airport, gas station, and red light district.

The COP has urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to enforce the law in order to preserve endangered orangutans in the Kutai National Forest.

The best solution is to seize and put the corrupt politicians and officials to jail. This will make their supporters leave the forests and stop all illegal activites.

Compile from: Any resources.
Picture : The Jakarta Post/JP