Two different primate species have recently shown us just how
fragile [area] ecosystems are. Reports from TreeHugger
and Plenty Magazine came flowing in about the newly-endangered status
of orangutans in Indonesia. The cause: rainforest habitat destruction
due to palm oil harvests for EU biofuels, at the rate of 300 football fields per hour, to feed an 88% demand increase that is still growing. Never mind that Indonesia’s amount of CO2 emissions at this
deforestation rate amounts to 400 mega-tons annually.
As if that wasn’t enough, the same sources reported here and here that a fledgling Tanzanian primate genus, known as the kipunji, is now threatened
due to the same effect, but for illegal logging.
Now only 1,117 in number, the kipunji was discovered 3 years ago,
and its two populations are described in science journal Oryx’s July interviews with experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Environmental Sciences Research Centre as “[not] viable” and “degraded”. Their recommendation for the genus’ status listing was as ‘Critically Endangered’.
In these situations, there is no time for obvious questions.
Instead, we need answers to important ones, such as,
Why are there no protections against Indonesian deforestation
for the orangutans? And, how has the kipunji population been allowed
to deteriorate, leaving its numbers as fragmented as they are?
Moreover, who in Tanzania is getting away with illegal logging?
There are no easy answers to such stark observations.
The Indonesian government must either allow amendments, or the orangutans will inevitably be left at the gentle hands of wildlife rescuers.
But it shouldn’t come to that.
And any loophole that allows for Tanzanian illegal logging needs to be
investigated and prevented–at the risk of losing one of our planet’s newest and most unique creatures.
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