Write letters to help save Leuser Online Petition to Save Leuser Bukit Lawang/Bohorok Flood News Orangutan Cultures Press Release: January 02, 2003 Article about Leuser, December 2002 Orangutan Cultures online articles, January 3, 2003
Press Release from Dr. Carel van Schaik, June 1999 Report on Illegal Logging in Indonesia by EIA Suggested reading regarding orangutans at Suaq Balimbing |
An ill-conceived plan to build roads through the Leuser Ecosystem now threatens to fragment and disrupt remaining orangutan habitat.
NGOs take Aceh government to court over Ladia Galaska ILLEGAL LOGGING BLAMED FOR FATAL SUMATRAN FLOOD: Dozens dead as local activists struggle to prevent further destruction from roads and illegal logging in Sumatra’s rainforests. We have over 5,400 valid signatures, on a petition to the World Bank Group (online since December 9, 2002).The Sumatran Orangutan Society is in a cash-flow crisis. Please donate what you can to help them. They are continuing to work on this issue.The campaign at the Environmental Defense Action Network has closed. Thanks to them, and to all who participated, for their efforts! Worldwide campaigns approaching 20,000 letters and petition signatures -- Latest News on Campaigns to Protect the Leuser Ecosystem The conflict in Aceh threatens people and wildlife. We can still put pressure on Indonesian government officials regarding this issue. Click here for a list of contacts. Partners in Crime: A Greenpeace Investigation of the Links between the UK and Indonesia's Timber BaronsMy StoryWhen I opened my e-mail on Monday morning, I almost started to cry. Then I got very, very angry. Then I got active. That morning (3 December 2002), I learned about plans to build roads through the Leuser Ecosystem. These roads, favored by some corrupt local officials and their buddies who make a profit from illegal logging ventures, would be a disaster for the rainforest. They are clearly intended to make it easier for the illegal loggers to plunder forests that are supposed to be protected. More illegal logging will not only destroy crucial habitat for orangutans, Sumatran tigers, sun bears and the critically endangered Sumatran rhino - it will also threaten local people, subjecting them to floods like the one that forced tens of thousands of people in western Aceh to evacuate their homes, culminating in over $11 million in damage last November. In 1999, I had studied orangutans at two field research sites in the Mount Leuser National Park: Suaq Balimbing in the lowlands, and Ketambe in the highlands. While I was there, loggers began illegally cutting trees in Suaq Balimbing. This was the only place where wild orangutans had been observed regularly using feeding tools - poking twigs into tree-holes to get honey, and extracting seeds from the tough, spined Neesia fruits. I did everything I could to get local laws enforced, but no one was willing or able to stop the loggers. Illegal logging decimated much of Suaq Balimbing, including over half of the Neesia trees in the study area and many other critical orangutan food species. So when I heard about the "Ladia Galaska" and other new road plans for Leuser, I was really upset. Then I realized that I might be able to do more from here in the US than I could while I was on Sumatra. I set up this website, started a letter-writing campaign, and initiated an online petition. With help from many others around the world, we can put pressure on international donors and the government of Indonesia. I believe that if enough of us act, and act quickly, we can stop these roads, and save what is left of Leuser. Please take a minute to sign the petition, maybe even write a letter or two, and help the rhinos, tigers, sun bears, orangutans and people threatened by these roads. Michelle Merrill I've posted an article based on Yarrow Robertson's briefing here.Find out more through the Sumatran Orangutan Society, Balikpapan Orangutan Society (click the "Urgent!" button) and International Primate Protection League.Meanwhile, here is the E-Mail
from Yarrow Robertson
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