Orangutans under threat from illegal pet trade
A booming illegal pet trade in Sumatran orangutans and gibbons in Indonesia is helping to drive the apes to the brink of extinction, wildlife trafficking campaigners warn in a new report.
More orangutans and gibbons have been placed in rehabilitation centres in the southeast Asian country over the past six years than in any equivalent period since the 1970s, according to the study by the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC.
Records of apes placed in care serve as an indicator of how many of the creatures are being held illegally, TRAFFIC says, blaming a lack of adequate law enforcement in the policing of the pet trade.
Orangutans, which can weigh up to around 90 kilograms and reach 1.5 metres in length, end up in such centers after they become too old and big to be held as pets. But owners of the reddish-brown coloured apes rarely face any legal consequences.
“Confiscating these animals without prosecuting the owners is futile,” said Chris R Shepherd, Acting Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. “There is no deterrent for those committing these crimes, if they go unpunished. Indonesia has adequate laws, but without serious penalties, this illegal trade will continue, and these species will continue to spiral towards extinction.”
An estimated 2,000 orang-utans have been confiscated or turned in by private owners in Indonesia in the last three decades but no more than a handful of people have ever been successfully prosecuted.
Between 2002 and 2008, for example, the newly opened Sibolangit rehabilitation centre in Sumatra took in 142 Sumatran orangutans, while its predecessor, Bohorok rehabilitation centre accepted just 30 animals between 1995-2001 (when it closed), and 105 orang-utans between 1973-1979.
“When the first rehabilitation centres were established for orang-utans and later for gibbons it was hoped that with more apes being confiscated, levels of illegal trade would fall,” said Vincent Nijman, a TRAFFIC consultant and author of the report, based at Oxford Brookes University.
“But with hundreds of orangutans and gibbons present in such centres, and dozens added every year, it is hard to view these numbers as anything other than an indictment against Indonesia’s law enforcement efforts,” he said.
There are only estimated to be around 7,300 Sumatran orangutans surviving in the wild – and conservationists fear the apes face a battle against extinction as deforestation, logging, land conversion, encroachment and forest fires threaten their native habitat.
Learn more about orangutans at Orangutan Outreach’s website.
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