ORANGUTAN RELEASE IS JUST A STEP AWAY

The government of the Republic of Indonesia as the rightful owner of orangutan and its habitat was expected to immediately provide forest areas to release orangutans now being rehabilitated in centers at Central and East Kalimantan. The number of rehabilitated orangutans have reached thousands and most of them have been under rehabilitation for too long. The government has recognised the issue and through Boen Purnama, the General Secretary of Ministry of Forestry, promised to accelerate the process in granting permits for ex-production forest to be restored and used as the orangutan release area. This is in line with the national Strategy on Orangutan Conservation which established that in the year of 2015, all rehabilitated orangutans must be released back to their natural habitat.

The good news for orangutan conservationists was revealed during the International Workshop on Orangutan Conservation which held by Forina and OCSP at Sanur, Bali, on 15-16 July 2010. The international workshop was participated by no less than 20 institutions representing all the stakeholders in conservation of orangutan and its habitat. Besides the government and non-govermental organisations, representatives from the communities and private sectors were also present. One of the biggest palm oil company in Indonesia even took part of the exhibition session which was a part of the 2 days international workshop.

In his opening speech, Profesor Bungaran Saragih emphasized the importance of accelerating orangutan release, considering the decreasing number of primary forest ideal for orangutan habitat. BOS Foundation this year tried to obtain definitive permit of managing a 86,450-hectare forest area in East Kalimantan as release site for rehabilitated orangutans. This effort certainly needs full support from every parties involved, considering the facts that only part of that huge area is ideal for orangutan habitat. Several important elements establish whether a certain area could become ideal habitat for orangutan, such as altitude, vegetation diversity, and availability of natural diet.

Currently there are around 1,200 orangutan are in rehabilitation centers at Sumatera and Kalimantan. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), an organisation responsible of determining wildlife status around the world, stated that ex-rehabilitated orangutans are not to be released in to an area with wild orangutan population, for it would create unexpected competition.

In the other hand, however, numbers of orangutan experts warned about the importance of having a long-term-post-release monitoring. All this time, due to lack of mid and long-term monitoring, the conditions of the released orangutans are not fully understood, whereas this is an important parameter for a succesful orangutan release. To find the right method for mid and long-term monitoring is the most important task to finish before we release too many orangutans back to the wild.

(NH)