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As COP21 Gets Under Way, Rescuers Release New Images of Their Work Saving Orangutans From Fires in Indonesia and Call for Urgent Action to Prevent a Repeat of This 'Ecological Disaster'
Indonesia's National Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN) reports that more than 2 million hectares of land in Indonesia have been burnt in the past few months. It is still not known what devastating and perhaps irreparable damage these recent fires have had on Indonesia's tropical rainforests and already rapidly declining orang-utan populations.
IAR's Human Orangutan Conflict (HOC) team is monitoring orang-utans stranded in burnt areas. The animals are suffering from starvation and malnutrition after the fires have destroyed everything around them, leaving a landscape with few trees and no food sources. The HOC team tracks down, captures and translocates orangutans that stand no chance of survival without human intervention and is assisted by local people who raise the alarm when an orang-utan is spotted in the area.
says Gail Campbell-Smith , Programme Manager of IAR Indonesia. " ."
While IAR's team is working round the clock to save these animals and their forest, COP21 , the United Nations Climate Change Conference, launches in Paris on 30 November. Governments from all around the world will gather to discuss an agreement to reduce carbon emissions and slow down the effects of climate change.
The fires that have spread out of control in Indonesia this year have been exacerbated by the extended dry season, caused by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. These forest fires are responsible for massive carbon emissions, severely aggravating the effects of climate change, and have a devastating effect on human health. Similar fires in 1997 emitted between 0.81 and 2.57 gig tonnes of carbon (Page 2002) and resulted in an estimated 20 million people suffering respiratory problems, with 19,800 - 48,100 premature deaths (Harrison 2009).
The Indonesian Institute for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) has predicted another severe drought for next year, as the effects of this year's El Nino continue in to the spring of 2016. While the belated monsoon has given a break to the forest fires, the risk that this will happen again next year is of profound concern. says Bangun.
Karmele Llano Sanchez, Programme Director of IAR Indonesia, adds:
The graphic photos and footage released by IAR show the devastating effects of the fires on the orang-utans. The images convey the helplessness of animals left stranded in the debris of forests burnt to the ground by the fires. Most poignant among those rescued are mothers with their tiny babies clinging to them. Only weeks ago the heartbreaking photo of Mama Anti and her baby shocked and moved people across the globe. The images of Mama Novia and baby Noval, who were among the latest series of rescues, are equally heart breaking. says Sanchez.
Just a week ago the IAR team celebrated the release of six of the rescued orang-utans in Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan . This release operation involved 15 members of IAR's team and 25 local people carrying the transport cages on foot to the release site - a trek that lasted four hours - and has been one of the few happy moments in the last few months. says Campbell-Smith. The National Park authority, The Agency of Natural Resources Conservation (BKSDA) of Gunung Palung, granted permission to IAR to conduct these releases in the National Park.
Sanchez adds:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x0chm6zm9acxp6y/AADbTKbUW3QptNmJOikpUs-Za?dl=0
References:
Harrison, M. E., Page, S.E. & Limin, S.H. (2009). The global impact of Indonesian forest fires.
Page, S.E., Siegert, F., Rieley, J.O., V. Boehm, H.D., Jaya. A. & Limin. S. (2002). The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997.