We just received our “adoption papers” for baby Sen. But unlike with a human baby, we’re not going to be taking him home! This is a baby Orangutan and its place is in the wild, so our adoption is to help him grow up in a sanctuary and adapt to living among his kind before being released to the wild.

Apart from having more hair, baby Sen looks a lot like a human baby. And like human orphans, this baby has lived a tragic life. Sen’s mother was killed by workers in a palm-oil plantation which had encroached into the Orangutans’ natural habitat (which is tropical rainforest), and if Sen hadn’t been rescued by the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary (which we visited) in Sandakan, Borneo, he most likely would have suffered the same cruel fate.

Every week, 50 Orangutans are cruelly murdered by loggers and palm oil plantation workers. They are shot, knifed, or burnt to death in most cases. There are now only 7,300 Orangutans left in Sumatra and around 45,000 in Borneo, and while this may seem like a lot, at this rate of slaughter, there will be none left by 2026.

Palm oil plantations and illegal logging are largely to blame for this genocide. Many government designated national parks are being encroached upon by illegal loggers, and due to corruption and lack of resources in much of Indonesia, little is being done to stop it!

In Sandakan, (Malaysian part of Borneo), we were told that there was no more logging going on. But if that is the case, why are these barges, which we caught on camera, leaving the port full of logs?

Both palm oil and wood are essentials and it would be ridiculous to want to stop them altogether, but what is needed is sustainable approach! Wildlife friendly palm-oil plantations that don’t encroach into the rainforest (see www.rspo.org), and sustainable logging where trees are replanted and none of the rainforest is cut down!

The world is being destroyed in front of our very eyes, and those that could do something about it, are too busy with power games and the pursuit of further wealth to do much. The only way that we can save our planet is by doing what we can as individuals.

There are many ways you can help! You can adopt an Orangutan for around US$50 (it’s only as much as what a decent meal at a restaurant would cost) at: www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk, you can write to super-market chains like Walmart, Tesco, and others and ask them to only sell environmentally friendly palm-oil products, or you could even blog about this on your own blog or forward this to a friend by email (use “Email This Post” button below)!

If you do post a blog about this and link to our site, or if you forward this to a friend, you will stand a chance to win a Sony Photo Printer!

Whatever you do, it’s better than doing nothing!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Front Page, Interesting, Environment, Borneo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.