New Rescue Alliances provide a lifeline for trafficked orangutans

Founder of The Orangutan Project Leif Cocks said the alarming increase in illegally held orangutans is simply the visible tip of a far more sinister iceberg.

“The mass deforestation of Borneo and Sumatra has left remaining populations of Critically Endangered orangutans deeply vulnerable to poaching and the illegal wildlife trade,” Cocks said. “Displaced orangutans will often enter plantations in search of food and are then killed as agricultural pests. If they’re female, their infants are sold on as pets through the lucrative illegal wildlife trade.”

Cocks confirmed the COVID-19 pandemic has simply made a bad situation worse, plunging millions of Indonesians back into poverty. Rural people may then resort to poaching and forest crimes to survive, whilst organized crime networks are thriving.

However, there is some good news to be found in the recent spate of rescues. The Orangutan Project recently joined forces with their two Indonesian partners, the Orangutan Information Center and the Center for Orangutan Protection, to form the Sumatran Rescue Alliance (SRA) and the Bornean Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA).

These alliances have significantly increased the scope and frequency of their patrols and rescue missions and provided additional security and resourcing.

Likewise, while owning and trading orangutans is illegal in Indonesia, it has until now been usual for culprits to get away with the crime. Cocks said the confiscations themselves help to destroy the trade in orangutans because buyers will become wary of purchasing orangutans who can be confiscated at any time.

Both alliances also run rehabilitation centers, so every confiscated orangutan receives quarantine, care and jungle school for a second chance of life in the wild.

“We’re now at the point where every orangutan counts, not just because they are a highly sentient, deep-thinking species, but because we need every Critically Endangered orangutan to be living in secure populations adding to the genetic strength and diversity of their species,” Cocks said.

The Orangutan Project is urgently raising funds to resource their Rescue Alliances for the next 12 months. Tax deductible donations received before June 30 will be used to increase orangutan protection patrols, infiltrate poaching networks, conduct urgent confiscations and support orangutan rehabilitation and release.

This article was shared with Prittle Prattle News as a Press Release by PRNewswire.

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