Indonesian authorities and conservation workers moved eight orangutans from fire-damaged forest in Borneo after wildfires destroyed their homes. The government and wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) said relocating them to Batu Nyambu protected forest “is expected to give the eight orangutans a chance to return to living naturally.” Their habitat burned first.
Three mother-child pairs and two adolescent male orangutans were among those rescued from several locations between August and September, the government and YIARI said in a statement. Their relocation shows the urgent work needed when fires drive endangered animals from the places they live.
A rescue measured in hours
The journey to the protected forest took six hours by car, one hour by boat and two more hours on foot. Workers carried the orangutans in cages on bamboo poles. Before the move, YIARI conservationists checked their health.
Since August, the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency and YIARI have rescued 46 orangutans affected by fires, agency head Murlan Dameria Pane said. The eight moved to Batu Nyambu form part of that larger effort, which depends on conservation workers reaching animals in several locations and carrying them out by road, boat and on foot.
This is urgent, physical work. But fire had already taken habitat from the animals. Indonesia is battling its most intense wildfires in 11 years, mainly on Sumatra and Borneo, and the government has warned the blazes could continue until November. The article said the El Niño weather pattern has aggravated the fires.
The cost spreads beyond the forest
Fires burned around 202,000 hectares in Indonesia from January to July this year. Officials haven't released data for later months. Non-governmental organisations estimate that fires have burned at least 600,000 hectares more since then.
That gap matters. The government hasn't issued official figures for the later period, leaving NGOs to estimate the scale of destruction. The reported totals describe burned land; the rescues describe some of the living beings forced out of it.
Haze from the fires has caused 175,000 cases of respiratory illness in Indonesia and affected neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. Many schools in Singapore and Malaysia closed on Friday as air quality deteriorated. The damage doesn't stop at the forest boundary.
Endangered lives in a burning habitat
Orangutans are critically endangered great apes found in the wild only on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Indonesia is home to all three recognised species, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Their populations have declined because of deforestation, wildfires and poaching.
The statement says the relocation is expected to give the eight animals a chance to live naturally again. But the account also records the conditions behind that promise: burned homes, fires that may continue until November, and hundreds of thousands of hectares estimated to have burned since official data stopped. Conservation workers can carry animals to safety. The eight orangutans were moved to Batu Nyambu protected forest.