BORNEO ORANGUTANS: Road to Extinction!

"Shhh! Sam said, and both kept quiet. Aaron and Sam kept their eyes fixed. A furry red mammal slowly came out from the undergrowth. It kept itself partially hidden. Sam snatched a bunch of ripe bananas from the backseat, opened his car window, and threw it towards the creature... Sam nodded. "Yep! A female orangutan. She knew the timing of my arrival. The jungle was supposed to be protected. But some tycoon jerk played golf with the authority, gave them a lot of Christmas presents, and the orangutan is now homeless."                       THE EURASIANS Chapter 37 Page 151

In my previous blog posts, I wrote about Borneo: How do we save our environment? and also Borneo: Rape of the environment. In my novel THE EURASIANS, Aaron and Sam was talking about the plight of the orangutans way back in the 1980's. Now we are decades in the new millennium but things haven't change; in fact it's becoming worse!

Oil palm plantation in Borneo

I came across an article, MONGABAY news, quoting a study made by Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, published in February 2018; according to their study, the most disturbing news is that the island of Borneo lost nearly 150,000 orangutans (pango pygmaeus) between 1999-2015! They also warns that another 45,000 orangutans are doomed by 2050! The main culprits are land clearing for logging and palm oil plantations. Even in intact forests, orangutans are disappearing due to being killed.

And here comes the interesting suggestion; the researchers have called for more effective partnership between the government, industries and local communities to ensure the Borneo orangutans survival! What a joke! Hoping for the governments and the industries? There is a famous Malay proverb that say; like giving a beautiful flower to a monkey!

There is no other way; only the international communities can put pressure on the Borneo governments to stop the environmental destruction. As I said before; the planet earth is like a small room. Eventually everyone inside this room will suffer when one person smoke cigar!

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