International Orangutan Day on 19 August is a chance to raise awareness of the need to protect the orangutan and its rapidly disappearing tropical forest habitat.
Orangutans are the only Asian great apes. They are found on just two islands – Sumatra in Indonesia, and Borneo, which is divided between Indonesia (73 per cent), Malaysia and Brunei.
Orangutans spend almost 100 per cent of their time in the treetops, making deforestation particularly devastating for them.
From 1992-2000, the population of the Sumatran orangutan is believed to have declined by more than 50 per cent. The Bornean orangutan population has fallen by 25 per cent during the last decade.
The main drivers of the orangutan’s decline are deforestation and, to a lesser extent, hunting: Orangutans can be hunted for food, killed by locals where there is competition for food, or killed in self-defense when they enter gardens or plantations.
A large part of the deforestation threatening the orangutan is due to the palm oil industry. It’s estimated there are 10,000 Bornean orangutans living in oil palm concessions, where the forest is yet to be converted into plantation land.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest palm oil producers. Palm oil in these countries has a strategic value in supporting national development. Oil palm plantations are the prime movers of agribusiness development, create thousands of jobs and generate critical national revenue.
The oil is used in a wide range of products, from margarine and chocolate to ice cream, soaps, cosmetics, and as fuel for cars and power plants.
Demand for palm oil has increased in recent decades and palm oil plantations have expanded rapidly to meet global demand. In 2013, Indonesian palm oil production was 27 million tons. The government aims to increase this to 40 million tons by 2020.
Given the industry’s trajectory in Southeast Asia, it is clear that the palm oil industry is here to stay. UN Environment understands this, and recognizes that a middle path is needed to balance the needs of both industry and the environment.
“It is imperative that the conservation community and the oil palm industry find common ground on which to collaborate, and work towards the development of a global sustainable palm oil strategy for the benefit of humankind and biodiversity,” says UN Environment’s 2016 study Palm oil paradox: Sustainable solutions to save the great apes (available here).
Orangutan Rehab Centre, Sumatra © Dave59
Oil palm plantation management and great ape conservation objectives can be reconciled to some extent through best-management practices.
Land-use planning must avoid high-priority orangutan habitats if the species is to survive. Avoiding forest areas and peatlands that contain viable populations is the best way to protect these great apes.
Orangutans also require well-managed forests within the oil palm matrix to survive. Corridors of natural forest within plantations are essential to allow apes to move throughout the landscape.
Positive initiatives
In February 2015 Indonesia kicked off a UN Development Programme-supported nationwide certification process to help smallholder farmers – who produce about 40 per cent of the country’s palm oil – increase their productivity in a sustainable, environmentally responsible and legal manner.
Initiatives such as the UN Environment-supported Tropical Landscape Finance Facility aim to increase oil palm productivity on land already licensed for production, and on already degraded land. This avoids the need to expand into intact forests.
The Sustainable Trade Initiative’s palm oil programme supports the production of traceable and sustainable palm oil at scale.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to transform markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm.
The Forest Peoples Programme has been challenging the palm oil industry to stop grabbing people’s land without their consent and resolve the huge number of existing land conflicts.
In September 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature called for an Oil Palm Task Force to analyse the nexus of palm oil and biodiversity conservation issues with the aim of achieving better land use planning for palm oil. The Task Force’s first meeting was held in June 2017 in Cambridge, UK.
For further information: Johannes.Refisch[at]unep.org
