The Indonesian rainforest is quickly disappearing.
Indonesia has lost over 2.5 million acres of rainforest to deforestation—only about half of the original forest remains. And because humans have destroyed so much of the rainforest, orangutans are struggling to survive. Many orangutans are losing their homes and their food sources, resulting in starvation.
International Animal Rescue (IAR) captured a dramatic video that shows just how devastating this loss is to the rainforest’s native orangutans.
The video shows a lone orangutan attempting to fight off an evacuator that’s in the process of destroying his home. The poor orangutan fights with all he has against these powerful machines.
“This desperate orangutan is frantically seeking refuge from the destructive power of the bulldozer; a machine that has already decimated everything else around him,” International Animal Rescue wrote on Facebook.
IAR also says that, sadly, scenes like this one are becoming more and more common:
“Unfortunately, scenes like this are becoming more and more frequent in Indonesia. Deforestation has caused the orangutan population to plummet; habitats are destroyed and orangutans are left to starve and die.”
IAR was able to rescue the orangutan in the video and relocate him to a remote, untouched part of the forest. But the orangutan can never go back to his real home again—it no longer exists.
For years, animal rescue groups like IAR and Greenpeace have been fighting deforestation in Borneo’s rainforest, one of the last homes left for wild orangutans.
Greenpeace recently uncovered a major illegal logging operation in Borneo. They found six illegal logging settlements. The loggers usually work at night to avoid detection from the government, and they even log in places where orangutan nests have been found.
Orangutans and humans frequently get into conflicts when the humans encroach on their territory. This sadly often had deadly consequences for the orangutans.
“Habitat destruction forces orangutans to enter neighboring plantations and farms looking for food and this frequently leads to conflict with humans,” Karmele Llano Sanchez, program director of IAR in Indonesia, said in a statement. “Sungai Putri is home to one of the largest populations in the world and we are at a critical point for the Bornean orangutan. Without forests like this, they can’t survive.”
This situation is tragic, but there is still hope. One of the main reasons why the rainforest is being destroyed is to build palm oil plantations. Groups like International Animal Rescue are working with farmers to help them create more sustainable farms. IAR is also working with companies and training them in orangutan monitoring methods.
Videos like the one below show why it’s so important to stop deforestation before it’s too late. If you’d like to help IAR in their mission to save the orangutans, consider donating to their organization.
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