EIA's Campaign to protect Indonesia's Orangutans and Forests

Indonesia is a vast country, spanning 13000 islands and stretching almost 5000 kilometres. It is host to a wealth of natural riches and contains 10% of the world's remaining tropical forests. It includes regions with unique ecosystems and is one of the most species rich or biodiverse countries on the planet.

Over 20,000 plant species or 10% of the planet's total; 12% of the world's mammal species and 17% of bird species are found there and many of these are found nowhere else on earth. Indonesia is clearly critical to their survival.

Just to give you some idea of what this biodiversity means 25 acres of Borneo's rainforest were found to contain 700 tree species, equal to the total number of species for the whole of North America.

But Indonesia's biodiversity is under considerable threat. No other country on earth has as many mammal species, but 29% are endangered as a result of deforestation and other habitat degradation and a massive (legal and illegal) wildlife trade.

Indonesia is now the holder of the world's longest list of species threatened with extinction.

This list includes 128 mammal species including the Sumatran and Javan rhino, Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant, clouded leopard, proboscis monkey, gibbons and sun bear.

Click here to see a special CNN report and video on EIA's work in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Orangutans

Unlike their African cousins, the gorillas and chimpanzees, orangutans are highly dependent upon trees for their food, nests and for moving throught the forest (orangutans rarely leave the forest canopy).

Even before last year's devastating fires took hold, there were thought to be fewer than 25,000 wild orangutans left in the world, confined to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and to Borneo (shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei). In the past ten years alone, the orangutan population has declined by as much as 50% as a result of forest loss, poaching for bush meat and the pet trade.

An area of Indonesia's forests six times the size of Greater London is lost every year. Illegal logging, illegal fire starting and the conversion of forests to timber and oil palm plantations have resulted in a loss of over 80% of orangutan habitat over the past two decades.

In February 1998, a team from EIA travelled to Indonesia to meet with local environmental campaigners who are at the forefront of the fight for the forests and wildlife. We travelled across Borneo and witnessed forest fires, saw timber and oil palm plantations. The result of this trip was the publication of a report, The Politics of Extinction and a new campaign to save Indonesia's forests and wildlife.