Between 1990-2005 we have lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7 million hectares of virgin forest. Since later 1990s, deforestation rates of primary forest have reached 26%. Today just under half of Indonesia is forested, and those forests are among the most threatened in the world.
There are approximately 27.000 orangutans; 20.000 in Borneo and 7.000 in Sumatra. Orangutans in Sumatra are classified as critically endangered species while those in Borneo are classified as endangered.
Orangutan is an umbrella species. Meaning their condition reflects the condition of their habitat, in orangutan's case, it is the tropical rain-forest. If orangutans are in good shape that means the forests are also in decent condition. Thus the plummeting population of orangutan is heavily related to deforestation in Indonesia.
This condition is also an alert to climate change. The risen of the temperature caused by layers of gases (such as CO2 and methane) surrounding the earth. Those heavy layers trap heat from the sun inside, just like glasses trapping the heat in the glass house.
Forests have a significant role to overcome climate change. The trees alone have the ability to convert CO2 from human and industry, providing oxygen for living creatures and averting further doing of climate change.
The endangered status of orangutans means the forests are in critical condition. And without its lung, the living creatures on earth will not survive.
Protecting orangutans is not about giving them shelter or breeding them. It is about preserving the habitat, the forests which in return giving us life and sustainability.
