tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/orangutan-8953/articlesOrangutan – The Conversation2023-04-11T16:12:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2018002023-04-11T16:12:13Z2023-04-11T16:12:13ZGreat apes like to spin themselves dizzy, a lot like children do, research shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519625/original/file-20230405-18-3jddjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C22%2C3015%2C1990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/orangutan-portrait-young-monkeys-1975040408">Evgeniyqw/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children love to spin. Whether it is by whirling around on their feet, whipping around on a tyre swing, or tumbling down a grassy hill, they revel in the drunken effects of dizziness that follow. As humans mature, they might outgrow spinning on the playground, but find other ways to alter their senses - dancing, skating, roller coasters, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3202501/">and for some of them, psychoactive drugs</a>. </p>
<p>It turns out humans are not the only primate with a desire to spin ourselves and stimulate our senses. In a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-023-01056-x">recent study</a>, my co-author Adriano Lameira and I found some other primates like to do this too. The great apes – which include chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans, in addition to humans – <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/humans-are-apes-great-apes/">have a more complex brain than other primates</a> and share a similar neurophysiology. Our findings suggest that they also share our desire to induce altered states of perception. This may even have played a role in the evolution of the human mind.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNKyG4C2VlA">2011</a>, and then again in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfS5kBGBh00">2016</a>, a captive gorilla named Zola went viral for his flair for “breakdancing” – the spinning, playful displays that he liked to perform while splashing around in water. These videos made me wonder about the spinning behaviour of apes more generally. </p>
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<p>Spinning has been documented as a part of great apes’ repertoire of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-017-1096-4">communicative gestures</a>, in previous research. But Zola’s behaviour appeared to be as much about fun as it was about communication. </p>
<p>I scoured YouTube for videos of spinning primates and found <a href="https://evolang.org/jcole2022/proceedings/jcole2022_proceedings.pdf#page=606">hundreds of examples</a> of great apes and other primates spinning themselves around in different ways, from pirouettes to backflips. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young chimpanzee swinging in tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519626/original/file-20230405-1625-49lngr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The apes in the study got dizzy for the fun of it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-chimpanzee-swinging-tree-264035690">Abeselom Zerit/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In our study, my team focused on 40 videos which showed great apes spinning themselves on ropes and vines. We thought ropes might enable the apes to spin at faster speeds and for more rotations than they could with just their bodies. </p>
<p>Our intuition proved right: they often reached and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19RDBMAOKU">sometimes exceeded speeds</a> of two to three rotations per second. That’s as fast as human spinning experts we compared, which included ballet dancers, circus performers, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/congress-on-research-in-dance/article/abs/ukrainian-hopak-from-dance-for-entertainment-to-martial-art/11FE9632C947D1663532123655CFEBBA">Ukrainian hopak dancers</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/heres-what-you-should-know-before-attending-a-whirling-dervish-ceremony-in-turkey/2019/04/11/1af4bbac-57af-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html">Sufi whirling dervishes</a>. </p>
<h2>Apes still get dizzy</h2>
<p>These professionals train themselves to be <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/25/2/554/305011">immune to the sensory effects</a> of extreme spinning. But – as I can attest, having recently tried this in my office (for science) – spinning around at even one rotation per second will make most people dizzy. </p>
<p>The spinning apes in our study appeared to fare no differently. They would often spin for multiple bouts. Three on average, with each bout lasting for about five-and-a-half rotations. Between bouts, the apes would sometimes let go of the rope and stumble around, often falling clumsily to the ground, before jumping back up to do it again. </p>
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<p>Many of the apes we observed were in captivity, and in these cases, rope spinning may have helped them overcome boredom. But we also found several instances of young mountain gorillas in the wild spinning on jungle vines during playful social interactions, sometimes even taking turns. They too would spin, stumble around, fall, and get back up to do it again. </p>
<p>Given the close evolutionary relationship between great apes and humans, it is likely the motivation to spin stems from a shared tendency to seek and delight in experiences that stimulate and alter our senses. </p>
<h2>Humans turn to drugs</h2>
<p>Of course, humans sometimes go far beyond spinning to achieve this. The deliberate use of psychotropic drugs, from alcohol and tobacco, to marijuana and LSD, is widespread in cultures across the world. </p>
<p>It often plays an important role in many <a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.177">social rituals and spiritual ceremonies</a>. For example, in some indigenous cultures of South America, the use of the <em>ayahuasca</em> (a hallucinogenic brew made from local plants) is used by shamans (and others) to connect with ancestors thought to exist in other realms. </p>
<p>Evidence of similar rituals can be <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1902174116#">traced back for millennia</a>. Some scientists have <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729425">argued that psychedelics</a> might have been crucial to the evolution of modern human cognition and culture, enhancing our creativity and helping us to forge deeper social connections.</p>
<p>Mushrooms containing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin">psilocybin</a> might have played an especially important role, as they would have been prevalent in many of the habitats of our hominid ancestors. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young chimpanzee swinging and jumping from a tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519628/original/file-20230405-14-g42aaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Hard to deny this young chimpanzee is enjoying twirling around.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-chimpanzee-swinging-jumping-tree-200203994">Abeselom Zerit/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Compared to twirling induced dizziness, chemical substances offer a more intense way to alter your state of consciousness. And it may seem a long way from spinning yourself dizzy to having a spiritual epiphany on a psychedelic trip. </p>
<p>Yet, spiritual practices such as those performed by the Sufi dervishes, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFIQMM8bZQk">who whirl themselves into a meditative trance</a>, demonstrate the potential for spinning to induce a profoundly altered state of mind. Perhaps even gentle spinning helps us to see the world from a different perspective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Perlman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees seem to enjoy the buzz of getting dizzy.Marcus Perlman, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1926152022-12-02T01:44:42Z2022-12-02T01:44:42ZA China-backed dam in Indonesia threatens a rare great ape – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498412/original/file-20221201-18-oka9d4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4272%2C2845&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> James Askew/SOCP handout</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, scientists <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31245-9">described</a> a new species of great apes – the Tapanuli orangutan. The species, found in the Batang Toru ecosystem of North Sumatara, Indonesia was listed as <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/the-worlds-newest-great-ape-revealed-a-month-ago-is-already-nearly-extinct-iucn/">critically endangered</a> soon after.</p>
<p>The population of the species has declined by <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/the-worlds-newest-great-ape-revealed-a-month-ago-is-already-nearly-extinct-iucn/">83% over the past 75 years</a>, largely due to hunting and habitat loss. Just 800 Tapanuli orangutans remain – and their last known habitat is <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/new-species-of-orangutan-threatened-from-moment-of-its-discovery/">threatened</a> by a slew of infrastructure projects. </p>
<p>Chief among them is the Chinese-funded Batang Toru hydropower dam, which threatens to fragment and submerge a large chunk of the orangutan’s habitat. The project is just one of a staggering 49 hydropower dams China is funding: mostly across Southeast Asia, but also in Africa and Latin America.</p>
<p>In new <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2590332222004328">research</a>, my colleagues and I show the substantial risk to biodiversity posed by the sheer number of Chinese-funded dams. And yet, environmental regulation of these projects has serious flaws. </p>
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<img alt="A river in mountain landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498416/original/file-20221201-20-2c0qx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">China is funding 49 overseas hydropower dams, including on Pakistan’s Indus River, pictured.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.diamerbhasha.com</span></span>
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<h2>Big dams, big risks</h2>
<p>Hydropower is expected to be an important part of the global renewable energy transition. But the technology brings environmental risks. Dams disrupt the flow of rivers, altering species’ habitat. And dam reservoirs inundate and fragment habitats on land.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aimspress.com/article/10.3934/GF.2020009">Traditionally</a>, financing of hydropower projects in low-income countries was the preserve of Western-backed multilateral development banks. China has now emerged as the biggest international financier of hydropower under its overseas infrastructure investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative. </p>
<p>Yet little is known about the scale of China’s hydropower financing or the biodiversity risks it brings. Whether adequate safeguards are applied to the projects by Chinese and host country regulators is also poorly understood. Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2590332222004328">research</a> attempted to remedy this. </p>
<p>We found China is funding 49 hydropower dams in 18 countries including Myanmar, Laos and Pakistan.</p>
<p>The dams are likely to impede the flow of 14 free-flowing rivers, imperilling the species they harbour. The first dam on a free-flowing river is akin to the proverbial “first cut” of a road into an intact forest ecosystem, causing disproportionate harms to biodiversity. </p>
<p>We also found Chinese-funded dams overlap with the geographic ranges of 12 critically endangered freshwater fish species, including the iconic Mekong Giant Catfish and the world’s largest carp species, the Giant Barb. The dams exacerbate the threats to these species and may push them closer to extinction. </p>
<p>Almost 135 square kilometres of critical habitat on land is also likely to be inundated and fragmented by the dams and their reservoirs. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-hydropower-industry-is-talking-the-talk-but-fine-words-wont-save-our-last-wild-rivers-168252">The hydropower industry is talking the talk. But fine words won't save our last wild rivers</a>
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<img alt="man looks at giant catfish" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498418/original/file-20221201-16-nwhp8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chinese-funded dams overlap with the geographic ranges of the critically endangered Mekong Giant Catfish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zeb Hogan/EPA</span></span>
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<h2>Lax environmental rules</h2>
<p>Despite the biodiversity risks, we found serious gaps in the environmental rules applied to Chinese-funded dams.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0528-3">previous analysis</a> found six Chinese state-owned banks – which together contribute most financing for Belt and Road projects – had no safeguard standards to limit biodiversity damage. </p>
<p>Complementing this analysis, our investigation found Chinese regulators also did not require hydropower projects to mitigate environmental damage. Some regulator policies, however, contained non-binding guidelines.</p>
<p>A number of Chinese government policies defer to host country laws on environmental protection. But our investigation found in most countries where the dams are being built, regulation to limit environmental harms was absent or still developing. </p>
<p>This poor governance leaves species and ecosystems in these countries vulnerable to environmental damage from dams.</p>
<h2>A spotlight on Sumatra</h2>
<p>The Batang Toru dam aims to bolster North Sumatra’s energy supplies. Its proponents say the dam uses environmentally-friendly technology that requires only a small area to be flooded.</p>
<p>Two multilateral development banks, however, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/batang-toru-hydropower-dam-tapanuli-orangutan-delay-nshe/">distanced themselves</a> from the project after concerns were raised about potential impact on the Tapanuli orangutan. The Chinese state-owned Bank of China also <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/dam-threatening-world-s-rarest-great-ape-faces-delays">withdrew</a> its finance offer after international protests. Chinese financier SDIC Power Holdings then <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b15d75ea-cced-4204-8540-912f9e693a5e">stepped in</a> to fund it.</p>
<p>Habitat destruction has confined the few remaining Tapanuli orangutans to a fragmented 1,400 square kilometre tract of rainforest in North Sumatra. Scientists say the Batang Toru dam further threatens this habitat.</p>
<p>Constructing the dam <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/new-great-ape-species-found-sparking-fears-its-survival?adobe_mc=MCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1669850712&_ga=2.265727115.508268207.1669850712-1483009232.1669850712">requires digging</a> a tunnel in an area where most Tapanuli orangutans live. Experts also <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/dam-threatening-world-s-rarest-great-ape-faces-delays">say</a> the project will permanently isolate sub-populations of the species, increasing the risk of extinction. </p>
<p>The case illustrates the potential destruction hydropower projects can cause in the absence of appropriate planning and safeguards.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/orangutans-could-half-earth-conservation-save-the-red-ape-192529">Orangutans: could 'half-Earth' conservation save the red ape?</a>
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<img alt="small house on riverbank at night" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498421/original/file-20221201-18-7vak8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Batang Toru dam aims to bolster North Sumatra’s energy supplies. Pictured: a house on a riverbank near the project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/DEDI SINUHAJI</span></span>
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<h2>Need for holistic planning</h2>
<p>The sheer number of Chinese-funded dams presents significant biodiversity risks. It also presents an opportunity. </p>
<p>China is funding several hydropower projects in single river basins. This puts it in an advantageous position to carry out “basin-scale planning”. </p>
<p>This involves making decisions about dams not based solely on an individual project, but by considering it in the context of other projects within the basin, as well as in the broader context of communities and the environment.</p>
<p>This type of planning also means dams can be configured to have the least impact on critically endangered species, and other irreplaceable and vulnerable biodiversity elements.</p>
<p>Such “system scale” planning is a key recommendation of international initiatives such as the World Commission on Dams and the European Union’s Water Framework Directive. </p>
<p>It also involves determining whether a proposed dam is the best way to meet energy needs, or if alternatives – such as wind or solar – could do so with lower environmental risks. </p>
<p>In the case of the Batang Toru dam, a 2020 <a href="https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/Batang_Toru_Analysis_English-final.pdf">report</a> by a leading international consulting firm found the dam would not “materially improve access to nor the regularity of power supply” in North Sumatra, which in fact had a power surplus. </p>
<p>Given the huge damage dams can cause to biodiversity, it is crucial that only those dams that are really needed get built – and any associated damage is minimised.</p>
<p>The many Chinese-funded dams on the horizon must undergo rigorous vetting if serious biodiversity damage is to be averted. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservation-areas-are-not-living-up-to-their-potential-in-indonesia-130463">Why conservation areas are not living up to their potential in Indonesia</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Divya Narain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sheer number of Chinese-funded dams pose a substantial risk to biodiversity. And yet, environmental regulation of these projects has serious flaws.Divya Narain, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925292022-10-24T14:09:35Z2022-10-24T14:09:35ZOrangutans: could ‘half-Earth’ conservation save the red ape?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491071/original/file-20221021-16-stieow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5039%2C3356&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">lukaszemanphoto / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Half-Earth is a proposal by the late naturalist and “father of biodiversity”, <a href="https://theconversation.com/e-o-wilsons-lifelong-passion-for-ants-helped-him-teach-humans-about-how-to-live-sustainably-with-nature-150045">EO Wilson</a>. In its original context, it proposes that half of the Earth’s surface should be designated a human-free nature reserve to preserve biodiversity.</p>
<p>The proposal of course raises some pretty big questions. What happens to the people that happen to live in the areas designated to become human free? Would we give up on biodiversity in the other half of Earth? And whose half should be chosen and who decides? Would richer countries continue on their current path and tell poorer nations, especially those in the tropics with relatively intact forests and marine systems, that their part of the world will from now on only be for nature? </p>
<p>Perhaps not unexpectedly, the grand idea of half-Earth has attracted a lot of criticism as being <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/halfearth-or-whole-earth-radical-ideas-for-conservation-and-their-implications/C62CCE8DA34480A048468EE39DF2BD05">unethical and infeasible</a>. It has even led to a distinct counter-proposal: whole-Earth. Sometimes known as <a href="https://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/narratives-for-the-%E2%80%9Chalf-earth%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Csharing-the-planet%E2%80%9D-scenarios">sharing the planet</a>, this proposal focuses on things like equitable land management or finance, as its advocates argue that conservation will only ever work if we change the political and economic systems that are driving today’s crises.</p>
<p>It is difficult to judge the merits of half and whole-Earth without testing what either would mean on the ground. This is what we recently set out to do by applying our interpretations of these two options to the conservation of an animal we have studied for decades – the orangutan.</p>
<h2>Expert predictions</h2>
<p>We focused on Borneo, the world’s third largest island (only Greenland is significantly larger) and home of most orangutans. The Bornean orangutan is listed as “<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/17975/123809220">critically endangered</a>” as its habitat is being destroyed and many are killed for food, for profit or simply because people fear them (direct killing remains a major problem <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">on a par with deforestation</a>). </p>
<p>We gathered a group of 33 other experts, mostly scientists with a specific track record of estimating orangutan population sizes. They were then asked (confidentially) what would happen to Bornean orangutans in the next decade under half- and whole-Earth conditions (translated as half and whole-Borneo) compared to continuing business-as-usual conservation practices. Our results are now published in the conservation journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060532200093X">Oryx</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rainforest being chopped down" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491075/original/file-20221021-3368-fanr5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation in Borneo. Somewhere between 60,000 and 127,000 orangutans live on the island, which is split between Indonesia and Malaysia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rich Carey / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The experts predicted that business-as-usual would mean the total population of orangutans on Borneo would decline by around 27% between now and 2032. That is clearly not sufficient to support the protection of the species. </p>
<p>Half-Earth was predicted to strongly reduce orangutan declines. The experts, in fact, concluded that it would be comparatively easy to achieve and would reduce population decline by at least half compared to current management.</p>
<p>However, the experts thought whole-Earth would lead to greater forest loss and ape killing and a 56% population decline within the next decade. Whole-Earth approaches are valuable but may not be workable for the short-term orangutan conservation needs, because of political and economic realities on the ground.</p>
<p>The good news is that the experts predicted that, if orangutan killing and habitat loss were stopped, populations could rebound and reach 148% of their current size by 2122.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sad looking orangutan" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491319/original/file-20221024-8249-ig161m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bornean orangutan is officially listed as ‘critically endangered’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marketa Myskova / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">100,000 orangutans lost</a> over the past two decades, the experts now see glimmers of hope. Indonesian and Malaysian <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266178">deforestation rates are down</a>, as are expansion rates of oil palm and other crops. How should orangutan conservation proceed from here? What are the best strategies?</p>
<h2>Protections – on paper</h2>
<p>Interestingly, both the Indonesian and Malaysian governments had more or less reached the objective of legally designating half of the land mass as protected in their respective states of Kalimantan and Sabah.</p>
<p>With 67.1% of Indonesian Borneo designated as state forest, Indonesia already exceeds the half-Earth goal of locking in 50%. Malaysian Sabah has also exceeded the half-Earth goal, with 65% of the state remaining forested.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two shaded maps of an island" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491068/original/file-20221021-18-y8nkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Borneo rainforest cover in 1973 and 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CIFOR</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is all on paper though, and a lot of effective conservation investment and management would be needed to ensure that these orangutan habitats would indeed remain permanently forested, and that the other key threat – killing – is effectively addressed.</p>
<p>This is where elements of the whole-Earth approach are helpful, as it might prompt a more sensitive and equitable engagement with rural communities. Communities need to be given responsibility for coexisting with orangutans and there must be incentives to protect orangutans and their habitats. And companies – logging, mining, or plantations – need to be made legally responsible for ensuring that the protected orangutan can survive and thrive on the lands that they manage. Ultimately, we need to protect both orangutans and humans’ rights and access to their customary lands.</p>
<p>In the case of orangutans, half-Earth seems to be a good idea in the short term, especially with regard to habitat loss. Whole Earth-type approaches might be needed in the longer term to ultimately ensure a reduction in the number of orangutans who are killed or have to be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138120300534">captured and relocated</a>.</p>
<p>Neither approach is likely to provide a silver bullet. Every conservation context is going to be different and will require its own specific solution. It is therefore also important to just get on with conservation and not spend too much time thinking about ideal solutions.</p>
<p>It is not an easy path ahead, but solutions exist that can ensure the long-term survival and even recovery of the Asian red ape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik Meijaard receives funding from UWFSW. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serge Wich receives funding from UKRI, USFWS, and others.</span></em></p>Setting aside half of Borneo would significantly reduce their decline, say experts.Erik Meijaard, Adjunct Professor of Conservation, University of KentSerge Wich, Professor of Primate Biology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651752021-08-01T20:07:27Z2021-08-01T20:07:27ZOrangutans, gibbons and Mr Sooty: what the origins of words in Southeast Asia tell us about our long relationships with animals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413283/original/file-20210727-23-1td5b4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4489%2C3058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forest creatures include some of humanity’s closest biological relatives. Due to human threats, they are also some of the most endangered animals on our planet. </p>
<p>Southeast Asia hosts many unique forest species, and many of our English words for forest creatures have their origins in Southeast Asian languages. What sound to English speakers like exotic loanwords are meaningful in their original languages. </p>
<p>By exploring the Southeast Asian etymologies of these names, we can understand how humans have maintained relationships of respect and affinity with forest creatures over the centuries. And, as these ecosystems are under grave threat, it is important to recognise a different way of relating to our most endangered relatives is possible.</p>
<p>Here, then, are the names of four of my favourite Southeast Asian forest species, and what we know about the origins of their names.</p>
<h2>Orangutan</h2>
<p>Orangutans belong to the great ape family, our closest biological relatives. This familial link is reflected in the word orangutan itself, which Malay speakers today can still recognise as deriving from the phrase <em>orang hutan</em>, which means “forest person”.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/bki/176/4/article-p532_5.xml">recent research</a> shows this term goes back over a thousand years, contrary to the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/orangutan#etymonline_v_7108">conventional belief</a> it was coined by European visitors to Indonesia in the 17th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C16%2C5446%2C3603&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two orangutans, on a walk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C16%2C5446%2C3603&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413278/original/file-20210727-20-1qr58zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans are one of our closest relatives, as reflected in the Malay word <em>orang hutan</em>, or ‘forest person’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeremy Zero/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Surprisingly, the oldest surviving texts to use the word orangutan do not come from Sumatra or Borneo, where orangutans live today, but from the neighbouring island of Java. One of the oldest texts to mention orangutans is the 9th-century poem <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakawin_Ramayana">Rāmāyaṇa</a>. Written in the Old Javanese language, the poem describes “the orangutans, all bearded, climbing up”. </p>
<p>The word orangutan came into Old Javanese from another archaic language related to modern Malay. These early appearances show the word was circulating among the archipelago’s languages well over a thousand years ago. </p>
<p>This origin as the phrase “forest person” shows for many centuries Southeast Asians have viewed orangutans as human-like creatures residing in the forest.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/orangutans-have-been-adapting-to-humans-for-70-000-years-99036">Orangutans have been adapting to humans for 70,000 years</a>
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<h2>Gibbon</h2>
<p>Gibbons are a type of ape ideally suited to swinging through the trees of Southeast Asia’s forests. The word gibbon entered European languages through French in the 18th century.</p>
<p>The French adopted it from the Malay word, <em>kebon</em>. But <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/4291">recent research</a> shows this Malay word originally came from a group of languages called Northern Aslian, spoken by indigenous communities in peninsular Malaysia. In Northern Aslian, it was probably pronounced <em>kebong</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two gibbons, just chilling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413271/original/file-20210727-25-96q13d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Called gibbons in English, many Southeast Asian languages call this creature a <em>wak-wak</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dušan veverkolog/unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gibbon is a relatively rare term in Southeast Asia itself. It even fell out of use in Malay after the 18th century. More common in the region’s languages is the word <em>wak-wak</em>. Like orangutan, this word appears in the Old Javanese language as early as the 9th century and seems to derive from the crow-like sound gibbons make. </p>
<p>Through my research, I suggest the word <em>wak-wak</em> may have inspired the Middle Eastern legend of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Wakwak#The_waqwaq_tree">Wakwak Tree</a>: a fantastical tree from a far eastern land whose fruits produced human heads and bodies which cried out “wak wak”. Folk memories of the gibbon’s piercing cry may have been transmitted across the Indian Ocean many centuries before the animal was identified by European science.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gibbon-song-may-be-music-to-the-ears-of-human-language-students-9528">Gibbon song may be music to the ears of human language students </a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Binturong</h2>
<p>Binturongs, also known in English as bearcats, are long and heavy tree-dwellers with large tails which they use to communicate. The word binturong first appeared in English in the 19th century as a borrowing from Malay. </p>
<p>Binturong also appears in <a href="https://8c6d8b5b-dee4-4f98-a03b-e09ddbea71e0.filesusr.com/ugd/fb0c2e_f84afbbcb72a444680ef1b8d7bef51ea.pdf">a wide variety of languages</a> from Sumatra and Borneo. This shows the word was coined early in the history of the region: probably several millennia ago, before these languages began to diverge. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A binturong having a nap, for a little treat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413274/original/file-20210727-23-1v5ug60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The binturong does not leap from tree to tree, instead it makes its way along the ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The earliest form of this word we know about was <em>maturun</em>, which probably meant “the one who descends”. It was inherited by many languages of Borneo and Sumatra, undergoing a series of regular sound changes. This is how the Malay form <em>benturong</em> evolved, which was later adopted by English.</p>
<p>Unlike many other tree creatures, binturongs do not nimbly leap among the branches. Rather, they tend to descend one tree and walk along the ground to another tree. The aptness of the name <em>maturun</em> shows us these early Southeast Asian communities were close observers of animal behaviour.</p>
<h2>Siamang</h2>
<p>The endangered siamangs are the largest type of gibbon. They have distinctive black coats and communicate with a complex system of booming calls. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="This siamang is giving a very big yell." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413277/original/file-20210727-20-1bn142c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Siamangs communicate with complex booming calls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/4291">ultimate origin</a> of the word is probably the word <em>ʔamang</em> (where the <em>ʔ</em> represents a glottal stop), found in several indigenous languages of the Central Aslian group.</p>
<p>When speakers of Malay borrowed the word <em>ʔamang</em>, they added the personal article <em>si</em>. Similar to an honorific like “mister”, <em>si</em> generally applies only to humans, or to animals, spirits or objects that are personified. Malay speakers later interpreted the word <em>amang</em> as “black”, giving rise to a folk etymology of <em>si amang</em> as meaning something like “Mr Sooty”.</p>
<p>The Malay expression was eventually treated as the single word <em>siamang</em>. For the Malays, the charisma exuded by siamangs entitled them to the status of personhood — another recognition of the affinity between humans and our forest ape relatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan receives funding from the European Research Council Project #809994 DHARMA. </span></em></p>By exploring Southeast Asian etymologies, we get a glance into the centuries-old relationships between humans and forest creatures.Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, Research associate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1068682018-11-14T16:09:45Z2018-11-14T16:09:45ZIceland advert: conservation is intensely political, let’s not pretend otherwise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245320/original/file-20181113-194513-h7fxao.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C7%2C1451%2C891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o">Iceland / youtube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The supermarket chain Iceland has been denied clearance to screen its <a href="https://youtu.be/JdpspllWI2o">Christmas advert</a> on British television. Consisting mainly of Greenpeace’s short “<a href="https://youtu.be/TQQXstNh45g">Rang-tan</a>” animation, the ad highlights Iceland’s commitment to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/10/iceland-to-be-first-uk-supermarket-to-cut-palm-oil-from-own-brand-products">eliminate palm oil</a> from its own-brand products. According to the advertising clearing body, <a href="https://www.clearcast.co.uk/blog/clearcasts-md-responds-to-coverage-of-their-decision-not-to-clear-the-iceland-ad/">Clearcast</a>, it was disallowed not because of its content, but because of its connection with Greenpeace, a “body whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature”.</p>
<p>Iceland <a href="https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737">reacted swiftly</a>, tweeting that its ad had been “banned” from television because it was “<a href="https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1061204817257918464">seen to be in support of a political issue</a>”. The tweet was picked up by mainstream media such as the Guardian, which ran <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/09/iceland-christmas-tv-ad-banned-political-greenpeace-orangutan">the headline</a>: “Iceland’s Christmas advert banned for being too political.” Furious responses followed, with nearly 100,000 people sharing Iceland’s original tweet and over 650,000 <a href="https://www.change.org/p/release-iceland-s-banned-christmas-advert-on-tv-nopalmoilchristmas">petitioning</a> Clearcast to reverse its decision.</p>
<p>Most of these responses revolve around the (inaccurate but powerful) claim that Iceland’s ad was “banned” for being “political”. How, ask critics, could highlighting the destruction of the rainforest be political? How could saving orangutans be anything but worthwhile? As <a href="https://twitter.com/MaggieMski/status/1061406777131126784">one tweet</a> put it, “since when is outrage about losing such beautiful animals political?”</p>
<p>Such responses portray environmental and conservation causes as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01621.x">above politics</a>: as built on unquestionable, universal truths. As such, they are too important to be used for petty point-scoring. In this view, Iceland’s ad reveals a devastating apolitical reality that the world needs to see and respond to. </p>
<h2>People live in those forests too</h2>
<p>But show the same footage to rural communities on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, where most palm oil is produced, and we may well get a different response. Many would see the ad’s message as entirely political, for several reasons.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245531/original/file-20181114-194519-6pubic.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A village in Malaysian Borneo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Liana Chua</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The forests that the ad exhorts viewers to save are also these people’s homes: places filled with specific histories, social relations, assets and other living beings. But the <a href="http://press.anu.edu.au/?p=123701">relationships</a> that forest dwellers have to these places are not always understood or recognised by the state or conservation bodies. Wildlife protection laws and the expansion of protected areas – often driven by conservation initiatives – <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Beyond-the-Sacred-Forest/">have complicated</a> the situation. These have turned access to forests and their resources into highly political issues.</p>
<p>Many rural villagers across Indonesia and Malaysia also rely on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150.2017.1311867?journalCode=fjps20">small-scale cultivation of oil palm</a> (the tree which produces palm oil) for their livelihoods. Some smallholders work for or in partnership with oil palm companies, and others operate independently. While participation in the industry has <a href="https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/infobrief/6842-infobrief.pdf">generated its own problems</a>, it has also generated income and infrastructure in rural areas. Such smallholders will be rightly concerned about the damaging effects of attacks on palm oil on their futures, and their access to necessities like food and medicine.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245533/original/file-20181114-194497-146zvt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not so popular with local humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">jeep2499/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Iceland ad is also a classic example of how life is unequally valued across the global political terrain. In certain parts of Borneo and Sumatra, where my team and I are currently conducting <a href="https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Projects/The-global-lives-of-the-orangutan-GLO">research</a>, many forest residents see orangutans as dangerous and not particularly special creatures that can damage their crops and livelihoods. Yet they are acutely aware that many well-meaning foreigners would privilege the well-being of orangutans over their own. Why, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/454159b">they ask</a>, do governments, NGOs and tourists put so much time and money into saving this one animal when people like us are struggling to get by?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-boycott-could-actually-increase-deforestation-sustainable-products-are-the-solution-106733">Palm oil boycott could actually increase deforestation – sustainable products are the solution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Humans’ and ‘nature’ cannot be easily separated</h2>
<p>Such concerns reveal a mismatch between Iceland’s conservation message and the experiences of rural people in Borneo and Sumatra. In Greenpeace’s film, humans are either intruders (represented by bulldozers) in the pristine rainforest home of the orangutan, or the “good guys” (represented by the girl) who are going to save them. This vision is built on a historically <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Beyond_Nature_and_Culture.html?id=lGulMQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Western understanding</a> of the world that treats “humans” and “nature” as fundamentally separate. But what it blots out are the people who live in and around the same forests, for whom such a separation is much harder – and by no means apolitical.</p>
<p>The idea that environmental and conservation causes are above politics thus makes sense only from a particular Western perspective – one built around an image of the <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-wilderness-fetish-is-bad-for-people-and-for-the-planet">forest-as-wilderness</a> that is not universally shared. The depiction of such causes as apolitical has facilitated their spread across the world, while shielding them from scrutiny and critique. Yet scrutiny and critique can reveal significant problems and oversimplifications in Iceland’s ad.</p>
<p>The “palm oil kills orangutans” narrative, for example, sidesteps the fact that deforestation is only one of several factors driving orangutan extinction. Other <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027491">key drivers</a> include hunting and poaching, though these won’t be solved by oil palm activism. And as various <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/iceland-advert-banned-christmas">analysts</a> have pointed out, simply boycotting palm oil could <a href="https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-boycott-could-actually-increase-deforestation-sustainable-products-are-the-solution-106733">ultimately backfire</a>. A collapse in global demand would disproportionately affect smallholders, generating further poverty and resentment. It could also encourage the cultivation of other ecologically-damaging crops such as soy or rapeseed, which would <a href="https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2018.11.en">displace rather than reduce</a> forest conversion and biodiversity loss – an unfortunate geopolitical outcome.</p>
<p>None of this mitigates the need to address the problems of environmental destruction and extinction. And it’s no bad thing that Iceland’s ad has helped raise awareness of these issues. But conservation isn’t a black-and-white morality tale, and depicting the advert’s message as apolitical is both misleading and counterproductive. For the sake of both orangutans and the people who share their forests, we need fewer emotive simplifications and more acknowledgement of the complex political realities at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liana Chua receives funding from the Arcus Foundation and the European Research Council (Starting Grant no. 758494).</span></em></p>Calls to ban palm oil could get a very different response among people who live in the same forests as orangutans.Liana Chua, Reader in Anthropology, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067332018-11-14T11:57:25Z2018-11-14T11:57:25ZPalm oil boycott could actually increase deforestation – sustainable products are the solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245375/original/file-20181113-194485-rsrdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1862%2C1117%2C3768%2C2831&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/baby-orangutan-lay-down-390850576?src=j6UFlkRVgmp96KqSSXz6zg-3-4">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Palm oil can be found in food and cosmetics everywhere: in fact, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity">half of the world’s population</a> uses palm oil in food. But public awareness about the loss of wildlife through deforestation caused by palm oil crops is growing, and there’s mounting pressure on retailers to reduce their sales of palm oil products, or boycott them altogether. </p>
<p>The debate has become especially heated since a Christmas advert by UK-based supermarket chain Iceland – which dramatises the link between palm oil, deforestation and the death of orangutans - <a href="https://theconversation.com/iceland-christmas-ad-banned-but-it-will-help-2018-go-down-as-the-year-of-corporate-caring-106735">was barred</a> from being broadcast in the UK, on the basis that it would have breached political advertising laws, because the animation was originally produced by Greenpeace. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JdpspllWI2o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the first four days of its release, the video was viewed <a href="https://www.facebook.com/icelandfoods/">13m times</a>. A <a href="https://www.change.org/p/release-iceland-s-banned-christmas-advert-on-tv-nopalmoilchristmas">petition to overturn the advert ban</a> has so far attracted more than 720,000 signatures. But while Iceland’s campaign has been a great way to bring more public attention to food sustainability issues, an outright boycott on palm oil products could actually lead to more problems for forests and wildlife.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/iceland-christmas-ad-barred-but-it-will-help-2018-go-down-as-the-year-of-corporate-caring-106735">Iceland Christmas ad: barred, but it will help 2018 go down as the year of 'corporate caring'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The evidence</h2>
<p>A recent report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/201806/saying-no-palm-oil-would-likely-displace-not-halt-biodiversity-loss---iucn-report?fbclid=IwAR0Ck6fnfn6ZQIO8kFHleofLPImb9aAjRlGkPgFP_h8BneI1fve3gAA23nA">concluded that</a> boycotting palm oil would merely shift – rather than counter – losses to rainforests and wildlife caused by agriculture. Put simply, boycotted palm oil would need to be replaced by other types of vegetable oil to meet global demand – and that could actually make matters worse. </p>
<p>This is because, compared to other common sources of vegetable oil – such as rapeseed and soybeans – palm oil crops yield <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ng-interactive/2014/nov/10/palm-oil-rainforest-cupboard-interactive">four to ten times</a> more oil per unit of land, and require far less pesticide and fertiliser. In fact, palm oil <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity">makes up 35%</a> of all vegetable oils, grown on just 10% of the land allocated to oil crops. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245065/original/file-20181112-83596-1i5r5ku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palm oil plantation next to forest in Malaysia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sol Milne</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, if other crops such as soybean replaced a shortfall in palm oil, this would not only shift more production to the Amazon (<a href="https://trase.earth/?lang=en">a major soy-producing region</a>), it would also require more land, leading to more deforestation. Indeed, <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/1.%20Report%20analysis%20of%20impact.pdf">soybean farming is already responsible</a> for more than double the deforestation of palm oil. In the context of other food sources, livestock and beef production has led to <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/1.%20Report%20analysis%20of%20impact.pdf">more than five times</a> the amount of deforestation, compared to palm oil. </p>
<h2>Sustainable palm oil</h2>
<p>Certification – a mechanism by which consumers pay higher prices for more responsibly sourced products – is one way to help safeguard rainforests, and the wildlife which lives in them. Palm oil certification is spearheaded by the <a href="https://www.rspo.org/about">Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil</a> (RSPO), who are leading the market toward environmentally and socially responsible palm oil that doesn’t contribute to deforestation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.rspo.org/c/rt16-programme/">As the RSPO meets</a> to renew its sustainability commitments, one major challenge facing the sector is that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ng-interactive/2014/nov/10/palm-oil-rainforest-cupboard-interactive">less than 20%</a> of the world’s palm oil is currently certified as sustainable. </p>
<p>There is little incentive for producers to seek certification – or for retailers to promote environmentally and socially responsible products – as long as the debate continues to focus on boycotting palm oil altogether. As a result, <a href="https://www.eco-business.com/news/why-is-it-so-hard-to-sell-sustainable-palm-oil/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7+November+newsletter&utm_content=7+November+newsletter+Version+A+CID_f4f9746dc6744e23cf9132b9a0e82c58&utm_source=Campaign+Monitor&fbclid=IwAR2LxctmIrWk4BYLw7JBTD0B02qjhpMuvUAsXnZqY4ehY_4RS-FNe7WxdJI">only about half</a> of sustainable palm oil is actually sold as certified, because a large proportion of the market is not willing to pay the premium for sustainable products. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245523/original/file-20181114-194488-xu8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palm oil crops in Borneo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/6502201713/sizes/l">Rainforest Action Network/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this, many large <a href="http://palmoilscorecard.panda.org/">retailers and leading brands</a> (including Nestlé, Unilever and Palmolive) and supermarkets (such as Morrison’s, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s in the UK) are already using certified palm oil in their products, but cannot heavily promote this due to the persistent negativity toward any type of palm oil.</p>
<h2>Wildlife friendly plantations</h2>
<p>To help the palm oil industry to safeguard wildlife, conservation scientists are working with certification bodies and producers to improve how palm oil cultivation affects biodiversity. It can be as simple as growing the crop on non-forested areas. But it can also involve <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13233">protecting forests along rivers</a>, such that they join up patches of high quality forest <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13023">within the palm oil landscape</a>, allowing wildlife to move more freely.</p>
<p>If certification of palm oil becomes more popular, it will improve prospects for wildlife, including orangutans. This is why major conservation organisations – including leading orangutan charities and Greenpeace – <a href="http://poig.org/leading-brands-progressive-palm-oil-producers-and-ngos-confirm-deforestation-free-palm-oil-is-available-to-european-market/">continue to support certified palm oil</a>, rather than a boycott. And now, environmentally conscious <a href="http://palmoilscorecard.panda.org/">consumers can check</a> where they can buy products that contain responsibly sourced palm oil.</p>
<p>Hopefully the interest sparked by Iceland’s advert will bring positive changes for rainforests and their wildlife. But a boycott is not the best answer. The best thing retailers can do is support their suppliers to bring more responsibly sourced products to the supermarket shelves this Christmas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jake Bicknell's research is funded by a UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Slade receives funding from the UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, and the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund of the British Council and Malaysian Industry Group for High Technology. She has provided independent advice to the RSPO.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Struebig receives funding from the UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, and the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund of the British Council and Malaysian Industry Group for High Technology. </span></em></p>Boycotting palm oil would increase production of other crops, such as soy, which actually require more land.Jake Bicknell, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of KentEleanor Slade, Research Fellow, University of OxfordMatthew Struebig, Senior Lecturer in Biological Conservation, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067352018-11-09T19:02:27Z2018-11-09T19:02:27ZIceland Christmas ad: barred, but it will help 2018 go down as the year of ‘corporate caring’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244832/original/file-20181109-37973-j38m02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C1261%2C709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o">Iceland/YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Christmas advertisement for the UK supermarket chain Iceland, which tells the story of a young girl who tries to help a baby orangutan whose home has been destroyed to create palm oil, will not be broadcast on television. The short animation, voiced by actress Emma Thompson, highlights <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">the devastating impact</a> that deforestation for palm oil plantations has on orangutans. </p>
<p>But because the film was originally <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g">made by Greenpeace</a>, Clearcast – the body responsible for clearing ads on behalf of the UK’s major broadcasters – <a href="https://www.clearcast.co.uk/press/iceland-advert/">decided that</a> it breaches <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/contents">rules against political advertising</a>. Richard Walker, the son of the supermarket chain’s founder, who had led a move towards environmental campaigning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/09/iceland-christmas-tv-ad-banned-political-greenpeace-orangutan">admitted</a>: “We always knew there was a risk [the clip would not be cleared for TV] but we gave it our best shot.” </p>
<p>Yet from a marketing point of view, taking this risk makes perfect sense as it’s effectively a win–win. If the advert had been permitted to air on television, the company would have got the airing it wanted. But since it has been barred, Iceland tweeted to <a href="https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737">ask if the public</a> will help share the advert – and people are doing just that. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1060774234266484737"}"></div></p>
<p>This all amounts to a lot of free publicity. </p>
<h2>Following their footsteps</h2>
<p>Throughout 2018, a number of brands have been embracing causes. In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/nike-colin-kaepernick-and-the-pitfalls-of-woke-corporate-branding-102922">recent Nike advert</a> featuring former National Football League (NFL) star, Colin Kaepernick, the sportswear company featured called on consumers to “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nike-colin-kaepernick-and-the-pitfalls-of-woke-corporate-branding-102922">Nike, Colin Kaepernick and the pitfalls of 'woke' corporate branding</a>
</strong>
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<p>Nike initially saw a decrease in share prices, while the media debated the brand’s decision to reference to Kaepernick’s silent protest against police shootings of unarmed African Americans, and its capacity to effectively fight for social justice. But consumers seemed to view the campaign favourably – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/08/colin-kaepernick-nike-ad-sales-up">analysts reported</a> a sales increase of more than 31% during the Labour Day weekend, up from a 17% increase the previous year. </p>
<p>Taking a stand is important, as market <a href="https://www.edelman.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018-Earned-Brand-UK.pdf">surveys have recently</a> revealed that consumers are more likely to purchase products and brands that back causes their consumers believe in. Over the past decade there has been a shift, as many more people are prepared to engage with campaigns that represent a belief in a just world, such as the the <a href="https://metoomvmt.org/">#MeToo</a> movement against sexual harassment. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JdpspllWI2o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Companies have been quick to pick up on the wider public’s interest in social justice, and have subsequently engaged with a diverse range of issues in their marketing and business practices, including <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/t-mobile-goes-for-message-of-equality-with-super-bowl-spot-narrated-by-kerry-washington/">equality for women</a>, the <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/01/21/coca-cola-joins-crusade-against-plastic-world-without-waste-recycling-campaign">impact of single-use plastics</a> on the world’s oceans and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17476850/pride-month-lgbtq-corporate-explained">LGBTQI rights</a>. </p>
<p>If it is close to consumers’ hearts, it tends to be of keen interest to brands looking to entice people to purchase their products and services. For brands to survive and thrive, it is essential to follow consumer trends – and the current trend is to show that you care. Over the years, the interests of the consumers have been wide ranging: in response, some corporate marketing has shifted its focus from individuals and physical appearance, toward groups and their desires to change the world.</p>
<h2>Caring or co-opting?</h2>
<p>The simplest way to ensure a strong clear association between a brand (in this case Iceland) and the cause it is hoping to be associated with is by repeatedly pairing the two together. This is usually done through advertising – but the fact that many mainstream media outlets are now drawing attention to the ban ensures that this pairing will happen without the help of a prime-time television slot. </p>
<p>From the consumer’s perspective there will now be a clear association between the supermarket chain and the fight to protect endangered species and the environment. <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/16/iceland-pledges-go-plastic-free/">This is not the first time</a> Iceland has set out to tackle environmental issues – earlier in the year, the supermarket pledged to remove plastic packaging from its own-brand products by 2023. But the Christmas ad is one of its most successful attempts at capturing interest from a wider audience.</p>
<p>A cynical person might say that Iceland is simply trying to increase its sales. But if the outcome is good – in this case, generating environmental awareness around the impacts of deforestation – consumers may not care. Just imagine how much good could be done if all big brands and manufacturers would jump on the justice bandwagon – at least until consumer trends change again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathrine Jansson-Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From LGBTQI rights to racial justice, companies are embracing the social issues that matter to their consumers. And, of course, that makes sense.Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, Reader in Consumer Psychology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990362018-06-28T11:44:07Z2018-06-28T11:44:07ZOrangutans have been adapting to humans for 70,000 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225151/original/file-20180627-112641-idgmo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Don Mammoser / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you are very lucky you might have seen an orangutan in the wild. Most people have only seen them on television. In either case the animal was probably deep in some remote forest, as yet untainted by people. This is the image we associate with these critically endangered animals: vulnerable, dependent on pristine habitats, and incapable of coexisting with people. But that view may be wrong.</p>
<p>Until recently, our ideas about conservation were constrained by romantic notions of “wild” nature and our limited grasp of just how adaptable and robust nature can be. Yet understanding how prolonged exposure to humans has impacted even well-studied species can help overturn assumptions about them and make conservation more effective. The orangutan is a good example.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225325/original/file-20180628-117436-1echrlc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans were once found across Southeast Asia and into China (shaded areas). Today they are restricted to the three coloured areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/e1701422/tab-figures-data">Spehar et al (2018)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Orangutans are the largest mammals to primarily live in trees, and they have few predators aside from humans. They generally live at low densities and are unique among apes in being largely solitary. Though orangutan species were once widespread in mainland South-East Asia, the three that remain are restricted to small populations on Sumatra (<em>Pongo abelii</em> and the newly described <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-new-species-of-orangutan-in-northern-sumatra-86843"><em>P. tapanuliensis</em></a>) and Borneo (<em>Pongo pygmaeus</em>). All orangutans are critically endangered, but it was assumed that significant human impacts mostly took place within the past 60 years, leading to the view of orangutans as “untouched” and lacking the capacity to adapt to humans.</p>
<p>But we may have misjudged the orangutan. That’s the conclusion of research we have just published, together with co-authors, in <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/e1701422">Science Advances</a>. Rather than being an ecologically-fragile ape, there is evidence that orangutans have long been adapting to humans. The modern orangutan is the product of both environmental and human impacts, and where they live and how they act appear to reflect our shared history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225327/original/file-20180628-117430-x5z519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans in landscape dominated by oil palm plantations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HUTAN/Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are not implying that orangutans aren’t endangered by current human activities – they are. For example, between 1999 and 2015, Borneo’s orangutan population plummeted by about 50%, a loss of <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">an estimated 100,000 individuals</a> in 16 years. The main factor responsible for this was likely hunting. But if major threats like hunting are controlled – an important “if” – then orangutans may be better able to coexist with people than is widely thought. This opens up opportunities for conservation beyond simply protecting remote forests.</p>
<h2>Coexistence for 70,000 years</h2>
<p>People and orangutans have been in contact ever since modern humans made their home in the wet tropics some 70,000 years ago. At that time orangutans were widespread and abundant. Their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248413002042">teeth</a> are relatively common among animal remains found in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618214001116">China</a>, Vietnam, and Thailand suggesting they were easy pickings for prehistoric hunters.</p>
<p>Orangutans underwent a precipitous decline around 20,000 years ago, resulting in a restricted distribution and low densities even before mass deforestation over the past century. While the climate likely had some effect, evidence from fossils, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/emergence-of-bone-technologies-at-the-end-of-the-pleistocene-in-southeast-asia-regional-and-evolutionary-implications/8185E61D92F04F855F2F71A72DA2B6B5">archaeology</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mec.13027,%20http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0049429">genetics</a> strongly suggests a human role. Specifically, we found that the arrival of humans – and especially advances in their hunting technologies, such as projectile weapons and, later, blowguns and guns – match up with orangutan declines. </p>
<p>Indeed, it appears that ancient humans nearly wiped out the orangutan, as they did the woolly rhino, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hunt-a-giant-sloth-according-to-ancient-human-footprints-95344">giant ground sloths</a>, and other Pleistocene megafauna. Surviving orangutans probably modified their behaviour to counter this threat, perhaps retreating further into the thickest forests to avoid human hunters.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225332/original/file-20180628-117430-omn2vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making the most of a human-altered world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Serge Wich</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That ability to adapt is still present in orangutans, and is also why they are still around today. Recent studies have found they can get by reasonably well in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yxxhq3EGYukC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=meijaard+life+after+logging&ots=JDrIPot4RV&sig=CY1bDfGz9vODoxkr46Rixk-r_tI#v=onepage&q&f=false">logged forests</a>, and they even inhabit <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/of-pongo-palms-and-perceptions-a-multidisciplinary-assessment-of-bornean-orangutans-pongo-pygmaeus-in-an-oil-palm-context/EAB43948746DC794FC573596E5036135">fragmented forest landscapes dominated by oil palm</a> and other crops, although they still need <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10764-017-9959-8">access to natural forest</a>. When their preferred foods (ripe fruit) are not available, orangutans are even able to eat a wide variety of “fallback foods” like bark. </p>
<h2>The good news</h2>
<p>The realisation that orangutans have already adapted to a world dominated by humans has implications for conservation. The fact that these animals can survive relatively well in plantations and farmland outside pristine forests – as long as they are not being hunted – means that these areas should be integrated into conservation strategies. This is especially important given that most orangutans today <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0049142">do not live in protected forests</a>, but in areas open to human use.</p>
<p>The line between nature and human-dominated world is increasingly blurred. Most species have adapted to human activities in some manner. This isn’t always a good thing, but with the orangutan it allows us to see conservation opportunities that were previously invisible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Bruford received funding for his orangutan research from the Darwin Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serge Wich receives funding from the ARCUS Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Services, National Geographic, STFC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Spehar received funding for her orangutan research from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Nacey Maggioncalda Foundation, the ARCUS Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Douglas Sheil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Time to rethink orangutan conservation, now we know that our red relatives are actually very adaptable.Douglas Sheil, Professor, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life SciencesMike Bruford, Professor of Organisms and Environment, Cardiff UniversitySerge Wich, Professor of Primate Biology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityStephanie Spehar, Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-OshkoshLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958742018-05-03T20:23:43Z2018-05-03T20:23:43ZChina-backed Sumatran dam threatens the rarest ape in the world<p>The plan to build a massive hydropower dam in Sumatra as part of China’s immense <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook45p/ChinasRoad">Belt and Road Initiative</a> threatens the habitat of the rarest ape in the world, which has only 800 remaining members. </p>
<p>This is merely the beginning of an <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6362/442.full">avalanche of environmental crises</a> and broader social and economic risks that will be provoked by the BRI scheme.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-new-species-of-orangutan-in-northern-sumatra-86843">How we discovered a new species of orangutan in northern Sumatra</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The orangutan’s story began in November 2017, when scientists made a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-new-species-of-orangutan-in-northern-sumatra-86843">stunning announcement</a>: they had discovered a seventh species of Great Ape, called the Tapanuli Orangutan, in a remote corner of Sumatra, Indonesia. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.082">an article</a> published in Current Biology today, my colleagues and I show that this ape is perilously close to extinction – and that a Chinese-sponsored megaproject could be the final nail in its coffin.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217363/original/file-20180502-153900-1hf6gcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest clearing for the Chinese-funded development has already begun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sumatran Orangutan Society</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ambitious but ‘nightmarishly complicated’</h2>
<p>The BRI is an ambitious but nightmarishly complicated venture, and far less organised than many believe. The hundreds of road, port, rail, and energy projects will ultimately span some 70 nations across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific region. It will link those nations economically and often geopolitically to China, while catalysing sweeping expansion of land-use and extractive industries, and will have myriad knock-on effects. </p>
<p>Up to 2015, the hundreds of BRI projects were reviewed by the powerful <a href="http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/mfndrc/">National Development and Reform Commission</a>, which is directly under China’s State Council. Many observers have assumed that the NDRC will help coordinate the projects, but the only real leverage they have is over projects funded by the big Chinese policy banks – the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Development_Bank">China Development Bank</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exim_Bank_of_China">Export-Import Bank of China</a> – which they directly control. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217365/original/file-20180502-153895-8e3ujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">China’s Belt & Road Initiative will sweep across some 70 nations in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mercator Institute for China Studies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most big projects – many of which are cross-national – will have a mix of funding from various sources and nations, meaning that no single entity will be in charge or ultimately responsible. An informed colleague in China describes this model as “anarchy”. </p>
<h2>Tapanuli Orangutan</h2>
<p>The dangerous potential of the BRI becomes apparent when one examines the Tapanuli Orangutan. With fewer than 800 individuals, it is one of the rarest animals on Earth. It survives in just a speck of rainforest, less than a tenth the size of Sydney, that is being eroded by illegal deforestation, logging, and poaching. </p>
<p>All of these threats <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-road-building-explosion-is-shattering-nature-70489">propagate around roads</a>. When a new road appears, the ape usually disappears, along with many other rare species sharing its habitat, such as Hornbills and the endangered Sumatran Tiger.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217361/original/file-20180502-153908-n4ubed.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Tapanuli Orangutan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maxime Aliaga</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most imminent threat to the ape is a <a href="http://www.batangtoru.org/threats/hydro-electric-dam/">US$1.6 billion hydropower project</a> that Sinohydro (China’s state-owned hydroelectric corporation) intends to build with funding from the Bank of China and other Chinese financiers. If the project proceeds as planned, it will flood the heart of the ape’s habitat and crisscross the remainder with many new roads and powerline clearings. </p>
<p>It’s a recipe for ecological Armageddon for one of our closest living relatives. Other major lenders such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank aren’t touching the project, but that isn’t slowing down China’s developers. </p>
<h2>What environmental safeguards?</h2>
<p>China has produced a small flood of documents describing <a href="https://foe.org/resources/investing-green-belt-road-assessing-implementation-chinas-green-credit-guidelines-abroad/">sustainable lending principles</a> for its banks and <a href="https://www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/wcm.files/upload/CMSydylgw/201705/201705161104041.pd">broad environmental and social safeguards</a> for the BRI, but I believe many of these documents are mere paper tigers or “greenwashing” designed to quell anxieties.</p>
<p>According to insiders, a heated debate in Beijing right now revolves around eco-safeguards for the BRI. Big corporations (with international ambitions and assets that overseas courts can confiscate) want clear guidelines to minimise their liability. Smaller companies, of which there are many, want the weakest standards possible. </p>
<p>The argument isn’t settled yet, but it’s clear that the Chinese government doesn’t want to exclude its thousands of smaller companies from the potential BRI riches. Most likely, it will do what it has in the past: issue lofty guidelines that a few Chinese companies will attempt to abide by, but that most will ignore. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BtbKfC9HVYk?wmode=transparent&start=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Greater Leuser Ecosystem in northern Sumatra is the last place on Earth where Orangutans, Tigers, Elephants and Rhinos still persist together.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stacked deck</h2>
<p>There are three alarming realities about China, of special relevance to the BRI.</p>
<p>First, China’s explosive economic growth has arisen from giving its overseas corporations and financiers enormous freedom. Opportunism, graft and corruption are embedded, and they are unlikely to yield economically, socially or environmentally equitable development for their host nations. I detailed many of these specifics in <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-dark-legacy-of-chinas-drive-for-global-resources">an article</a> published by Yale University last year.</p>
<p>Second, China is experiencing a perfect storm of trends that ensures the harsher realities of the BRI are not publicly aired or even understood in China. China has a notoriously closed domestic media – <a href="https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/04/china-model-threatens-press-freedom-in-asia-pacific/#wvflezrfe5mdMDjr.97">ranked near the bottom</a> in press freedom globally – that is intolerant of government criticism. </p>
<p>Beyond this, the BRI is the signature enterprise of President Xi Jinping, who has become the de-facto ruler of China for life. Thanks to President Xi, the BRI is now <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-silkroad/pressure-on-as-xis-belt-and-road-enshrined-in-chinese-party-charter-idUSKBN1CT1IW">formally enshrined</a> in the constitution of China’s Communist Party, making it a crime for any Chinese national to criticise the program. This has had an obvious chilling effect on public discourse. Indeed, I have had Chinese colleagues withdraw as coauthors of scientific papers that were even mildly critical of the BRI.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217367/original/file-20180502-153900-1wm3oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Xi Jinpeng at the 19th People’s Congress, where the BRI was formally inscribed into China’s national constitution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foreign Policy Journal</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Third, China is becoming increasingly heavy-handed internationally, willing to overtly bully or covertly pull strings to achieve its objectives. Professor Clive Hamilton of Charles Sturt University has warned that <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/australian-universities-fear-offending-chinese-backers-clive-hamilton/news-story/984a9cdadc8f9f7b1d16d47a8d1645cd">Australia has become a target</a> for Chinese attempts to stifle criticism. </p>
<h2>Remember the ape</h2>
<p>It is time for a clarion call for greater caution. While led by China, the BRI will also involve large financial commitments from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Infrastructure_Investment_Bank">more than 60 nations</a> that are parties to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, including Australia and many other Western nations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-growing-footprint-on-the-globe-threatens-to-trample-the-natural-world-88312">China’s growing footprint on the globe threatens to trample the natural world</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>We all have a giant stake in the Belt and Road Initiative. It will bring sizeable economic gains for some, but in nearly 40 years of working internationally, I have never seen a program that raises more red flags.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, and founder and director of ALERT--the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers.
</span></em></p>A US$1.6 billion dollar dam in Sumatra threatens the recently discovered and desperately imperilled Tapanuli Orangutan.Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919442018-02-15T17:34:56Z2018-02-15T17:34:56ZWe surveyed Borneo’s orangutans and found 100,000 had ‘disappeared’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206573/original/file-20180215-131038-12etyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gudkov Andrey / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The Big House”, home to the University of Michigan’s American football team, is one of the world’s largest stadiums. Here’s what it looks like when packed to the brim with more than 100,000 rowdy spectators:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206569/original/file-20180215-130997-16q9p42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You could fit every orangutan in here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michigan_Stadium_2011.jpg">AndrewHorne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now, imagine replacing those people with Bornean orangutans. It’s a funny sight, isn’t it? Thousands of red-haired apes jostling in the stands. Well, scientists just learned that at least 100,000 of these orangutans have disappeared over the past 16 years. And the worst part of this story is that all the remaining orangutans on the vast island of Borneo would only just about fill The Big House again one more time.</p>
<p>This finding is the result of our new study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.053">Current Biology</a>, in which we investigated what has happened to orangutans in Borneo, the Southeast Asian island where most of them live. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206567/original/file-20180215-131038-dhyywz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans population map: most live on Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia (in the north) and Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.orangutan.org.uk/about-orangutans/habitat">Orangutan Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We first gathered 16 years of survey data, collected both from researchers on the ground and from “aerial surveys” which used helicopters to identify orangutan nests high in the canopy. We then combined this with satellite images which indicated how the landscape has changed. </p>
<p>Our results show that the declines were steepest in areas that were deforested or transformed for industrial agriculture (often oil palm or paper pulp plantations), as orangutans struggle to live outside the forest. </p>
<h2>Killing is at least as big a problem as deforestation</h2>
<p>Worryingly, however, the largest number of orangutans were lost from areas where the forest remained intact or where only the tallest trees had been <a href="https://forestsnews.cifor.org/22924/how-selective-logging-could-help-protect-indonesias-forests?fnl=en">selectively logged</a>. Here the species is in decline because it is hunted, just like any other edible animal on Borneo. </p>
<p>One analysis, based on interviews with 5,000 local people, found that few hunters would go out <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0075373">specifically to target an orangutan</a>, and locals generally prefer deer and pigs. However, when an orangutan is encountered at the end of a long hunting day, a big orange primate sitting in a tree is a sitting duck or, more accurately, a sitting ape. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"960815359082115073"}"></div></p>
<p>Orangutans are also increasingly killed when their forest habitat is cut down and they are pushed into people’s gardens and <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/02/orangutan-shot-17-times-decapitated-two-men-claim-self-defence-7281060/">into plantations</a>. People who encounter them there are scared or angry and resort to killing them.</p>
<p>Orangutans are very slow breeders. Previous research has indicated that a population will probably go extinct even if only <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213276.001.0001/acprof-9780199213276-chapter-22">one reproductive female per 100 adults</a> is removed per year. But killing rates have been identified as being as much as <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027491">three to four times higher</a> than this, which would explain the immense losses seen within Borneo’s forests. </p>
<h2>All is not lost</h2>
<p>There is a positive twist to the story: there are actually more orangutans than we had previously thought. Some populations, in parts of Malaysian Borneo and larger national parks in Indonesian Borneo, even <a href="http://www.greeners.co/berita/report-reveals-71820-orangutans-left-in-the-islands-of-sumatra-and-kalimantan/">appear to be relatively stable</a> and make it seem unlikely that the species will go extinct just yet. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206574/original/file-20180215-131029-rjt9ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent research found orangutans spent more time on the ground than we had realised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Katesalin Pagkaihang / Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the more we learn about orangutans, the more we find that they are a resilient species that can adapt to new challenges. For example, our colleague <a href="http://www.hutan.org.my/about/">Marc Ancrenaz</a> has discovered that orangutans can cover large distances by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep04024">walking on the ground</a>, and that they <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/of-pongo-palms-and-perceptions-a-multidisciplinary-assessment-of-bornean-orang-utans-pongo-pygmaeus-in-an-oil-palm-context/EAB43948746DC794FC573596E5036135">adapt their diet</a> to new resources such as acacia or oil palm. If they are not hunted, these abilities may allow them to survive in the fragmented landscapes that now make up most of Borneo.</p>
<h2>Prevention is more important than rescue</h2>
<p>People working on the ground know that the orangutan can be saved. It requires persistence, good collaboration with governments, strong support from local people, and help from companies that manage the land. Once forests are maintained and protected, and killing is stopped, orangutan populations can be stabilised. It might even allow them to slowly bounce back and recolonise forest areas where orangutans have disappeared in the past.</p>
<p>We need to think outside of the box. For instance, a lot of effort and funding goes towards rescuing individual orangutans, who are then moved to a safer place where they can be rehabilitated. But while this may help individuals in desperate situations, it is a very expensive and ineffective way to deal with the overall conservation problem. To put things into perspective, we lost more than 100,000 orangutans in the past 16 years and saved perhaps 1,000 through rescues, translocations and rehabilitation in the same period. </p>
<p>If we really want to stop the decline, we must both protect forests and stop the killing within them. As most orangutans live outside protected areas, we need to get the communities and companies who manage their habitats on board. Here, there are many possibilities. For example, one oil palm plantation is now <a href="http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=207&doi=10.11648/j.ijnrem.20160104.15">protecting 150 orangutans</a> within its concession, showing that oil palm is not inevitably linked to the complete destruction of primate habitat. </p>
<p>On a larger scale, the Malaysian state of <a href="https://www.borneotoday.net/sabah-ready-to-trail-blaze-the-world-on-certified-sustainable-palm-oil/">Sabah</a> and the Indonesian province of <a href="https://www.rspo.org/news-and-events/news/rspocertified-palm-oil-could-become-the-norm-in-sabah-kalimantan">Central Kalimantan</a>, both in Borneo, intend to certify their entire production of palm oil as sustainable by the year 2025, which includes a zero-killing policy. At the same time, both countries are developing new long-term action plans for orangutan conservation. </p>
<p>We urge the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to include firm strategies to stop the killing of orangutans. Because if we do not learn from past failures that stadium will eventually be empty, forever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik Meijaard works for Borneo Futures. He has received funding from the Arcus Foundation to conduct this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Voigt and Serge Wich do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To save the orangutans we must both protect their forests and stop any hunting and killing within them.Maria Voigt, Doctoral Researcher, Sustainability and Complexity in Ape Habitat, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity ResearchErik Meijaard, Adjunct professor, Australian National UniversitySerge Wich, Professor of Primate Biology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/868432017-11-06T01:37:13Z2017-11-06T01:37:13ZHow we discovered a new species of orangutan in northern Sumatra<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193136/original/file-20171103-26472-gug2mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new species has a smaller head, and a distinctly 'cinnamon' colour compared with other orangutans.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maxime Aliaga</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have discovered a new species of orangutan – the third known species and the first new great ape to be described since the bonobo almost a century ago.</p>
<p>The new species, called the Tapanuli orangutan (<em>Pongo tapanuliensis</em>), has a smaller skull than the existing Bornean and Sumatran orangutans, but has larger canines. </p>
<p>As we and our colleagues <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31245-9">report in the journal Current Biology</a>, the new species is represented by an isolated population of fewer than 800 orangutans living at Batang Toru in northern Sumatra, Indonesia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193149/original/file-20171103-26483-j9yeu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutan populations in Sumatra and Borneo - the new species’ distribution is shown in yellow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Curr. Biol.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lengthy-childhood-of-endangered-orangutans-is-written-in-their-teeth-77564">The lengthy childhood of endangered orangutans is written in their teeth</a>
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<p>The existence of a group of orangutans in this region was first reported back in 1939. But the Batang Toru orangutans were not rediscovered until 1997, and then <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/status-of-the-sumatran-orangutan-pongo-abelii-an-update/5011186F0D1A18B2076B802E57EA1FFC">confirmed in 2003</a>. We set about carrying out further research to see whether this isolated group of orangutans was truly a unique species.</p>
<p>On the basis of genetic evidence, we have concluded that they are indeed distinct from both the other two known species of orangutan: <em>Pongo abelii</em> from further north in Sumatra, and <em>Pongo pygmaeus</em> from Borneo.</p>
<p>The Batang Toru orangutans have a curious mix of features. Mature males have cheek flanges similar to those of Bornean orangutans, but their slender build is more akin to Sumatran orangutans. </p>
<p>The hair colour is more cinnamon than the Bornean species, and the Batang Toru population also makes longer calls than other orangutans.</p>
<h2>Making sure</h2>
<p>To make completely sure, we needed more accurate comparisons of their body dimensions, or “morphology”. It was not until 2013 that the skeleton of an adult male became available, but since then one of us (Anton) has amassed some 500 skulls of the other two species, collected from 21 institutions, to allow for accurate comparisons. </p>
<p>Analyses have to be conducted at a similar developmental stage on male orangutan skulls, because they continue growing even when adult. Anton found 33 skulls of wild males that were suitable for comparison. Of 39 different measurement characteristics for the Batang Toru skull, 24 of them fall outside of the typical ranges of northern Sumatran and Bornean orangutans.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193138/original/file-20171103-26456-71y9ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new orangutans have smaller heads - but some impressive teeth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew G Nowak</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall the Batang Toru male has a smaller skull, but bigger canines. Combining the genetic, vocal, and morphological sources of evidence, we have confidently concluded that Batang Toru orangutan population is a newly discovered species – and one whose future is already under threat.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193140/original/file-20171103-26456-16xu8kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under threat as soon as they’re discovered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maxime Aliaga</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the heavy exploitation of the surrounding areas (hunting, habitat
alteration and other illegal activities), the communities surrounding the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan still give us the opportunity to see and census the surviving population. Unfortunately, we believe that the population is fewer than 800 individuals. </p>
<p>Of the habitat itself, no more than 10 square km remains. Future development has been planned for that area, and about 15% of the orangutans’ habitat has non-protected forest status. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/orangutans-need-more-than-your-well-meaning-clicktivism-45783">Orangutans need more than your well-meaning clicktivism</a>
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</em>
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<p>The discovery of the third orangutan in the 21st century gives us an understanding that the great apes have more diversity than we know, making it all the more important to conserve these various groups. </p>
<p>Without the strong support of, and participation from, the communities surrounding its habitat, the future of the Tapanuli orangutan will be uncertain. Government, researchers and conservation institutions must make a strong collaborative effort to make sure that this third orangutan will survive long after its discovery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Groves has previously received ARC funding for other research projects. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anton Nurcahyo has received a Vice Chancellor's Travel Grant and a part scholarship from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.</span></em></p>A group of fewer than 800 orangutans in northern Sumatra has been recognised as a new species - and they are already under threat from deforestation.Colin Groves, Professor of Bioanthropology, Australian National UniversityAnton Nurcahyo, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775642017-05-17T20:16:56Z2017-05-17T20:16:56ZThe lengthy childhood of endangered orangutans is written in their teeth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169181/original/file-20170513-3689-10bd37p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C576%2C3259%2C1705&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young Bornean orangutan nursing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erin Vogel</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Orangutan populations in the wild are <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39780/0">critically</a> <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17975/0">endangered</a>, and one of the things that may hamper their survival is the time they take to rear new offspring.</p>
<p>An orangutan mother will not give birth again until she’s finished providing milk to her previous offspring. Nursing can take a long time and vary across seasons, as we found in research published today in <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/5/e1601517">Science Advances</a>.</p>
<p>Primate mothers, including humans, raise only a few slow-growing offspring during their reproductive years. </p>
<p>Differences in infant development have a profound effect on how many children a female can have over the course of her life – the key marker of success from an evolutionary vantage point. </p>
<p>Great apes have a high-stakes strategy. Chimpanzee mothers nurse their offspring for five years on average, twice as long as humans in traditional small-scaled societies. </p>
<p>Orangutans have been suspected of having even longer periods of infant dependency, although determining just how long has been a particular challenge for field biologists. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NuoTzBRsrG0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Wild orangutan from Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia with her one month old infant. (Gunung Palung Orangutan Project)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Living high up in dwindling Southeast Asian forests, these apes are adept at evading observers. Their nursing behaviour is often concealed, particularly while juveniles cling to their mother or rest together in night nests. </p>
<p>Maintaining continuous field studies to track their development is expensive, and efforts are hindered by frequent <a href="http://news.rutgers.edu/news/indonesian-fires-threaten-humans-and-wildlife/20151027#.WRiz-1J7GL9">forest fires</a> and devastating deforestation for <a href="https://www.orangutan.org.au/about-orangutans/palm-oil/">palm oil plantations</a>. </p>
<h2>Teeth tell the story</h2>
<p>I have spent the past few decades studying how orangutans and other primates form their teeth. Amazingly, every day of childhood is captured during tooth formation, a record that begins before birth and lasts for millions of years.</p>
<p>Teeth also contain detailed dietary, health and behavioural histories, allowing biological anthropologists <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/reconstructing-hominin-life-history-96635644">an unprecedented window into the human past</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve also teamed up with researchers Manish Arora and Christine Austin, at <a href="http://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/lautenberglab/">Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai</a> in New York, who have pioneered methods to map the fine-scaled elemental composition of teeth, as well as primate lactation expert <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/katie-hinde-340889">Katie Hinde</a> at Arizona State University. </p>
<p>We have shown in a previous study that tiny amounts of the element barium are an <a href="https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/press4">accurate marker of mother’s milk consumption</a>. Like calcium, barium is sourced from the mother’s skeleton, concentrated in milk, and ultimately written into the bones and teeth of her offspring. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169224/original/file-20170514-3668-ld2oq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tooth growth creates daily lines (indicated by short white lines), as well as a neonatal line (NL) at birth. Growth starts at the junction between enamel and dentine, and progresses away from the junction and towards the root (arrows).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Austin and Tanya Smith</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once animals start nursing after birth, their teeth show increases in barium values, which begin to decrease when solid food is added to the diet. These values drop further to pre-birth levels when primates stop nursing and are weaned.</p>
<p>We’ve recently used this approach to explore the nursing histories of wild orangutans in collaboration with orangutan expert <a href="https://erinvogelphd.wordpress.com">Erin Vogel</a> at Rutgers University. In order to do so, I borrowed teeth housed in natural history museums from individuals that had been shot many years ago during collection expeditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169648/original/file-20170517-24330-ecxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild Bornean orangutan mother and suckling 19-month old infant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paige Prentice</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Orangutan teeth show a gradual increase in barium values from birth through their first year of life, a time of increasing consumption of their mother’s milk. After 12-18 months, values decrease as infants begin eating solid foods consistently.</p>
<p>But surprisingly, barium levels then begin to fluctuate on an approximately annual basis. We suspect that this is due to seasonal changes in food availability. When fruit is in short supply, infants appear to rely more on their mother’s milk to meet their nutritional needs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169244/original/file-20170515-3649-1i5p6zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Light microscope image (left) of a wild orangutan molar contrasted with an elemental map of the same tooth (right) showing the distribution of barium. The timing of barium incorporation was determined from accentuated lines (in days of age on the left), which form during enamel and dentine secretion. Approximately annual bands of enriched barium are apparent in the dentine after the first year, likely due to seasonal increases in mother’s milk intake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Smith et al. (2017) Science Advances</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hanging around</h2>
<p>Another surprising finding is that nursing may continue for more than eight years, longer than any other wild animal.</p>
<p>This information is the first of its kind for wild Sumatran orangutans, as they have been especially difficult to study in their native habitat. Previous estimates from two wild Bornean orangutans suggested that juveniles nurse until about six to eight years of age. </p>
<p>Rather than spending so much time and energy breastfeeding their children, human mothers in traditional societies transition their infants onto soft weaning foods around six months of age, tapering them off milk a few years later. </p>
<p>Humans also benefit from having help such as older siblings and grandparents who lend a hand with childcare and enable women to energetically prepare for having their next child. </p>
<p>Orangutan mothers have it hard by comparison. They live alone in unpredictable environments with limited nutritional resources. In order to survive <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/08/03/2971898.htm">they use less energy</a> than other great apes, raising their young more slowly. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169182/original/file-20170513-3675-1rluy4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild orangutan mother and 11-month old infant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Laman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Vulnerable orangutans</h2>
<p>Female orangutans begin reproducing around age 15 and can live until 50 years old in the most favourable of circumstances. They bear new offspring every six to nine years, producing no more than six or seven descendents over their lifetime.</p>
<p>Having a long nursing period and slow maturation makes orangutan populations especially vulnerable to environmental perturbations. </p>
<p>Recent work has also implicated <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/orangutan-conservation-food/">poor habitat quality</a> and the pet trade as additional factors in their rapidly declining numbers, which is underscored by their critically endangered status.</p>
<p>Research on collections housed in natural history museums provides timely evidence of how remarkable orangutans are, how much information we can retrieve from their teeth, and why <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/great_apes/orangutans/">conservation efforts</a> informed by evolutionary biology are critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by NSF BCS 0213994 (T.M.S.), BCS 0643122 (E.V.), NIEHS DP2ES025453 (M.A.), R00ES019597 (M.A.), APS-497-11-000001 (E.V.), Griffith University, Stony Brook University, the Max Planck Society, Harvard University, L.S.B Leakey Foundation, Rutgers University, and the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies. </span></em></p>Young orangutans are dependent on their mother’s milk for many years and that could have an impact on the survival of the critically endangered species.Tanya M. Smith, Associate Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755152017-04-20T09:18:40Z2017-04-20T09:18:40ZThese amazing creative animals show why humans are the most innovative species of all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165598/original/image-20170418-32700-pzj1f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the many millions of species on the planet, only humans have sequenced genomes, invented smart phones and composed moonlight sonatas. To an evolutionary biologist like me, who studies the complex behaviour of animals, this is an uncomfortable observation that demands an evolutionary explanation.</p>
<p>Historically, researchers assumed that animals lacked the intelligence to devise novel solutions, and that this <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/461104.The_Ascent_of_Man">creative deficit</a> accounted for the gulf between their behaviour and human technological achievements. But more recent research into animal behaviour suggests otherwise. Animals constantly devise novel innovations, and research into the nature and consequences of their creativity helps to explain how our own species evolved to be so very different. </p>
<p>My laboratory has been investigating <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/animal-innovation-9780198526223?cc=gb&lang=en&">animal innovation</a> for two decades. Our studies, and those of other animal innovation researchers, have established beyond doubt that <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1690">humans do not have a monopoly on creativity</a>. Animals commonly invent new patterns of behaviour, modify their existing behaviour to new contexts, or respond to social and ecological changes in novel ways.</p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/animal-innovation-9780198526223?cc=gb&lang=en&">Animal innovation is highly diverse</a>. It can be ingenious, as with the orangutans that devised ways means of extracting heart of palm vegetables from trees with vicious defences such as sharp spines and stalks. It can be morbid, as with the herring gull that invented the habit of catching rabbits and killing them by drowning them at sea.</p>
<p>Sometimes, it is enchanting. For example, Japanese macaques have been known to start rolling snow balls and playing with them. And sometimes it is plain disgusting, as with the rook that made a habit of eating human vomit.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165586/original/image-20170418-32720-qoz3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whoever threw that is gonna get it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoonar/Fritz Poelking</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My favourite example concerns a young chimpanzee called Mike, observed by primatologist Jane Goodall. Mike shot up the social rankings and became alpha male in record time by devising <a href="http://www.lessonsforhope.org/abc/show_description.asp?abc_id=31">an intimidating dominance display</a> that involved banging empty kerosene cans together.</p>
<p>In truth, many animals are enormously inventive, but the extent of animal innovation remained hidden until recently for a simple and obvious reason. You can’t recognise novel behaviour until you have a good understanding of the normal behaviour of a species. For instance, only after capuchin monkeys had been studied in the wild for many years could we be confident that <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1012069500899">the first recorded instance of them attacking a snake with a club</a> was an innovation.</p>
<h2>Innovative species have the edge</h2>
<p>Years of careful study means researchers can now <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347296903309">count up the number of innovations</a> produced by a species and quantify how creative it is. This measure has taught us an awful lot. For example, not all animals are equally inventive, and birds andprimates are more likely to be innovative <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/99/7/4436.abstract">when they have bigger brains</a>.</p>
<p>Research has also shown innovative animals are more likely to evolve new species, because <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347203920859">creativity opens up new niches and triggers evolutionary events</a>. For instance, it is probably no coincidence that the Galapagos islands’ finches, whose diversity helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution, are members of a highly innovative superfamily of birds called the Emberizoidea. This group has evolved many different species in a process that <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1690/20150188">may have begun</a> when different birds began to develop innovative ways of feeding.</p>
<p>Being creative confers survival value, too. Research shows <a href="http://biology.mcgill.ca/faculty/lefebvre/articles/Sol_et_al_2002.pdf">innovative species of birds are more likely to survive</a> and establish themselves when introduced into new locations. Another fascinating analysis revealed that <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1571/1433">migratory species are less innovative</a> than non-migrant birds, with the former forced to travel because they can’t adjust their behaviour to the tough winter months. A further study found that <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/3/161040">small-brained birds are more likely to die in traffic accidents</a> than large-brained species, and this is almost certainly because the large-brained species have the flexibility to learn road safety.</p>
<p>But the role animal innovation plays in brain evolution is potentially of greatest scientific significance. <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1567/1017">Apes, capuchins and macaques exhibit the greatest amounts of innovation</a> among primates. These are the primate species with the largest brains (in absolute terms or relative to body size), that are the heaviest tool users, have the broadest diets, and exhibit the most complex forms of learning and cognition.</p>
<p>In my recent book, <a href="https://darwinsunfinishedsymphony.com">Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind</a> I argue that these associations are no coincidence. Primates, particularly the great apes, evolved larger brains because doing so gave them multiple evolutionary advantages, including the ability to <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1690/20150186">use tools</a>, gather a more varied diet and develop complex societies. It also gave them the intelligence to <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1567/1017">invent new solutions</a> to life’s challenges and copy the innovations of others. This favoured further brain expansion in an accelerating cycle that climaxed with the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10961.html">evolution of human cognition</a>.</p>
<p>Why, then, haven’t chimpanzees invented gene-editing techniques or composed symphonies? Non-human <a href="https://darwinsunfinishedsymphony.com">animals possess simple cultures</a> and can develop novel foraging techniques or ways of communicating that spread through social learning. But for all their natural inventiveness, these animals rarely, if ever, refine or improve upon the solutions of others, as <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/335/6072/1114.full">recent experiments show</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165588/original/image-20170418-32723-1crw4rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Only humans build satellites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1599/2171">Mathematical analyses have helped explain this puzzle</a>. It turns out that to develop a “cumulative culture” – technology that constantly ratchets up in complexity and diversity – a species needs to be able to share information very accurately. It doesn’t matter how much novel invention takes place, unless those inventions are replicated accurately then they die out before they can be built upon.</p>
<p>On the other hand, once a species can share information very accurately, then even very modest amounts of innovation rapidly lead to massive cumulative culture. Only humans build bridges and put satellites into space because only we – largely through our teaching and language – can transmit learned knowledge with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3385684/">sufficiently high fidelity</a>.</p>
<p>Our species’ remarkable achievements are first and foremost down to the fact that <a href="http://secretofoursuccess.fas.harvard.edu">we pool our knowledge</a> and build upon it. The absence of complex culture in other animals isn’t down to a lack of creativity. Rather it’s their inability to transmit cultural knowledge with sufficient accuracy. That’s why no monkey ever composed a sonata.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin N Laland receives funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, the John Templeton Foundation, and the European Research Council. His book "Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind" is published by Princeton University Press.</span></em></p>Our secret? We’re better at sharing our ideas.Kevin N Laland, Professor of Biology, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/662242016-10-06T18:00:29Z2016-10-06T18:00:29ZCan great apes read your mind?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140212/original/image-20161004-27269-16hqfws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C144%2C3767%2C2446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bonobo Jasongo at Leipzig Zoo has a hunch about what you're thinking.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MPI-EVA</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the things that defines humans most is our ability to read others’ minds – that is, to make inferences about what others are thinking. To build or maintain relationships, we offer gifts and services – not arbitrarily, but with the recipient’s desires in mind. When we communicate, we do our best to take into account what our partners already know and to provide information we know will be new and comprehensible. And sometimes we deceive others by making them believe something that is not true, or we help them by correcting such false beliefs.</p>
<p>All these very human behaviors rely on an ability psychologists call <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00076512">theory of mind</a>: We are able to think about others’ thoughts and emotions. We form ideas about what beliefs and feelings are held in the minds of others – and recognize that they can be different from our own. Theory of mind is at the heart of everything social that makes us human. Without it, we’d have a much harder time interpreting – and probably predicting – others’ behavior.</p>
<p>For a long time, many researchers have believed that a major reason human beings alone exhibit unique forms of communication, cooperation and culture is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146282">that we’re the only animals to have a complete theory of mind</a>. But is this ability really unique to humans?</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf8110">new study published in Science</a>, my colleagues and I tried to answer this question using a novel approach. Previous work has generally suggested that people think about others’ perspectives in very different ways than other animals do. Our new findings suggest, however, that great apes may actually be a bit more similar to us than we previously thought.</p>
<h2>Apes get some parts of what others are thinking</h2>
<p>Decades of research with our closest relatives – chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans – have revealed that great apes do possess many aspects of theory of mind. For one, they can <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614536402">identify the goals and intentions behind others’ actions</a>. They’re also able to recognize which <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1518">features of the environment others can see or know about</a>. </p>
<p>Where apes have consistently failed, though, is on tasks designed to assess their understanding of others’ false beliefs. They don’t seem to know when someone has an idea about the world that conflicts with reality.</p>
<p>Picture me rummaging through the couch because I falsely believe the TV remote is in there. “Duuuude,” my (human) roommate says, noticing my false belief, “the remote is on the table!” He’s able to imagine the way I’m misconstruing reality, and then set me straight with the correct information. </p>
<p>To investigate false belief understanding in great apes, comparative psychologist <a href="http://www.fumihirokano.com/p/main-page.html">Fumihiro Kano</a> and I turned to a technique that hadn’t been used before with apes in this context: eye-tracking. Our international team of researchers enrolled over 40 bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans at Zoo Leipzig in Germany and Kumamoto Sanctuary in Japan in our novel, noninvasive experiment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140213/original/image-20161004-20235-1ja5x7r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers use juice to attract the apes to the spot where they can watch the videos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MPI-EVA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Watching what they watched</h2>
<p>We showed the apes videos of a human actor engaging in social conflicts with a costumed ape-like character (King Kong). Embedded within these interactions was important information about the human actor’s belief. For example, in one scene the human actor was trying to search for a stone that he saw King Kong hide within one of two boxes. However, while the actor was away, King Kong moved the stone to another location and then removed it completely; when the actor returned, he falsely believed the stone was still in its original location.</p>
<p>The big question was: Where would the apes expect the actor to search? Would they anticipate that the actor would search for the stone in the last place where he saw it, even though the apes themselves knew it was no longer there?</p>
<p>While the apes were watching the videos, a special camera faced them, recording their gaze patterns and mapping them onto the video. This eye-tracker let us see exactly where on the videos the apes were looking as they watched the scenarios play out.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kgYNSin3Sfc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch a video of what the apes were shown. The red dots show where one ape was looking as she watched the movie. Credit: MPI-EVA and Kumamoto Sanctuary, Kyoto University.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apes, like people, do what’s called anticipatory looking: They look to locations where they anticipate something is about to happen. This tendency allowed us to assess what the apes expected the actor to do when he returned to search for the stone. </p>
<p>Strikingly, across several different conditions and contexts, when the actor was reaching toward the two boxes, apes consistently looked to the location where the actor falsely believed the stone to be. Importantly, their gaze predicted the actor’s search even before the actor provided any directional cues about where he was going to search for the stone.</p>
<p>The apes were able to anticipate that the actor would behave in accordance with what we humans recognize as a false belief.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140215/original/image-20161004-20205-oirolj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The red dots show the ape looking at the place where he anticipates the person will search – even though he himself knows the stone has been moved.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MPI-EVA and Kumamoto Sanctuary, Kyoto University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Even more alike than we thought</h2>
<p>Our findings challenge previous research, and assumptions, about apes’ theory of mind abilities. Although we have more studies planned to determine whether great apes can really understand others’ false beliefs by imagining their perspectives, like humans do, the current results suggest they may have a richer appreciation of others’ minds than we previously thought.</p>
<p>Great apes didn’t just develop these skills this year, of course, but the use of novel eye-tracking techniques allowed us to probe the question in a new way. By using methods that for the first time assessed apes’ spontaneous predictions in a classic false belief scenario – with minimal demands on their other cognitive abilities – we were able to show that apes knew what was going to happen.</p>
<p>At the very least, in several different scenarios, these apes were able to correctly predict that an individual would search for an object where he falsely believed it to be. These findings raise the possibility that the capacity to understand others’ false beliefs may not be unique to humans after all. If apes do in fact possess this aspect of theory of mind, the implication is that most likely it was present in the last evolutionary ancestor that human beings shared with the other apes. By that metric, this core human skill – recognizing others’ false beliefs – would have evolved at least 13 to 18 million years before our own species <em>Homo sapiens</em> hit the scene.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Krupenye receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Realizing that others’ minds hold different thoughts, feelings and knowledge than your own was thought to be something only people could do. But evidence is accumulating that apes, too, have ‘theory of mind.’Christopher Krupenye, Assistant Research Professor, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644702016-09-29T13:32:56Z2016-09-29T13:32:56ZA new twist to whodunnit in science’s famous Piltdown Man hoax<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139721/original/image-20160929-27034-7p8chm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C201%2C946%2C839&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eoanthropus dawsoni, or the Piltdown Man, never really existed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia/Wellcome Images</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1912 it was announced that some remains of “the earliest Englishman” had been found in a gravel pit. This “hominid”, <em>Eoanthropus dawsoni</em>, became known as the Piltdown Man.</p>
<p>About 50 years later, South African anatomist Joseph Weiner <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do53pi.html">exposed</a> the Piltdown Man as a hoax. He revealed that a human skull and a modern orangutan jaw, both stained brown, had been deposited together in the gravel pit. </p>
<p>Weiner and his colleagues named Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur archaeologist based in Sussex, as the prime suspect in the forgery. Dawson claimed that his involvement in Piltdown had started when workers digging for gravel found the skull fragments and handed them to him.</p>
<p>It later emerged that Dawson was responsible for <a href="http://www.badarchaeology.com/frauds-and-hoaxes/charles-dawson/">more than 30 forgeries</a>. It is speculated that Dawson committed these in the hope of becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society – a distinction he never achieved.</p>
<p>Dawson’s role in the Piltdown Man hoax appears to have been confirmed in 2016 by palaeo-anthropologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/solving-the-piltdown-man-crime-how-we-worked-out-there-was-only-one-forger-63615">Dr Isabelle de Groote</a> and her colleagues. High-tech forensic analyses led them to conclude that only a single hoaxer, presumably Dawson, was responsible. The case seems closed. But is it? </p>
<p>Research I have conducted recently and <a href="http://sajs.co.za/piltdown-case-further-questions/j-francis-thackeray">published</a> in the South African Journal of Science suggests that Dawson may not necessarily have been the culprit in this particular case. </p>
<p>I suspect someone realised that Dawson was a fraudster and decided to play a joke on him. Archival research in London and Paris leads me to believe that a French Jesuit priest was in on the joke – which went terribly wrong after palaeontological experts mistook Piltdown Man for the real thing. </p>
<p>This is a reminder that palaeontologists should always be extremely vigilant and thorough in ensuring that fossil finds are authentic.</p>
<h2>A religious joker?</h2>
<p>So who was this joker?</p>
<p>Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit based at Ore Place, a theological seminary nears Hastings in Sussex. As a young man he longed to become a professional palaeontologist. The seminary was within 50 kilometres of Piltdown, where Teilhard contributed to excavations in an amateur capacity. </p>
<p>In January 1913 De Chardin <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">wrote an essay</a> beginning with the words</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was a time when the study of prehistory deserved to be suspect, and deserved to be the subject of jokes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His essay is about the current understanding of human evolution, but most strangely – and suspiciously – he omits all reference to the Piltdown Man even though its discovery had been officially announced just three weeks earlier. </p>
<p>Almost immediately after the Piltdown announcement, Teilhard <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">wrote</a> to his Jesuit friend Felix Pelletier, with whom he had collected fossils in Sussex:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We must do nothing. We must wait for the criticisms that will follow. Marcellin Boule [an eminent French prehistorian] will not be taken in, especially because the finds are English. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139722/original/image-20160929-27042-iw16av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia/Archives des jésuites de France</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This convinced me Teilhard knew from the very beginning that Piltdown Man was not genuine. I am not, I should point out, the first to suspect him. </p>
<p>Distinguished scientists like Louis Leakey and Stephen Jay Gould have previously <a href="http://www2.clarku.edu/%7Epiltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/leakeyandpilt.html">suggested</a> that Teilhard was involved in the Piltdown case. Gould was strongly suspicious about Teilhard because the hinge between the jaw and the skull – known anatomically as the condyle – was broken. In 1920 Teilhard had <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">stated</a> that the Piltdown mandible might have been deliberately broken (<em>comme par espres</em>, “as if on purpose”). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139736/original/image-20160929-27017-zliv4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first lower molar of the Piltdown orangutan. Scratch marks show that the tooth had been artificially filed down to give it the appearance of a human tooth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Isabelle de Groote et al 2016, Royal Society Open Science</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gould thought this was tantamount to Teilhard admitting that he knew of the forgery long before anyone else suspected it. If the condyle had been preserved in the case of the Piltdown jaw, it would have been immediately recognised that it could not possibly have articulated with the human skull. </p>
<p>In 1977 Kenneth Oakley, a palaeontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, told me he was giving Teilhard the benefit of the doubt – because he was a priest. But Oakley also told me that Teilhard appeared to be agitated and very reluctant to talk about Piltdown when he was shown the evidence that led to the exposure of the hoax. </p>
<p>Another famous palaeontologist, Phillip Tobias, said Teilhard was known as a joker. </p>
<p>It is important to emphasise that both Teilhard and Martin Hinton, a palaeontologist at the British Museum, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">said</a> they <em>knew</em> who the Piltdown perpetrator had been. But neither disclosed this person’s identity – except to say that it was <em>not</em> Dawson. So were Teilhard, Hinton and a third “Person X” complicit in a joke, directed against Dawson?</p>
<h2>A strange cast of characters</h2>
<p>The Piltdown orangutan jaw came from Borneo. It is probable that the jaw <a href="http://sajs.co.za/piltdown-case-further-questions/j-francis-thackeray">originated</a> from an 1878 expedition. Most of the material collected on that trip was deposited in the British Museum of Natural History. But “duplicates” could have been distributed elsewhere, subject to a committee’s decision, as <a href="http://sajs.co.za/piltdown-case-further-questions/j-francis-thackeray">mentioned</a> in a paper by archaeologist Andrew Sherratt. </p>
<p>It would seem that such “duplicates” could have been distributed to donors of the expedition, including members of the Willett family who lived in Sussex. </p>
<p>Edgar Willett was trained at Oxford. He practised as an anaesthetist and served as a curator of a museum with expertise in anatomy. He was also <a href="http://sajs.co.za/system/tdf/publications/pdf/SAJS-112-9-10-Thackeray-NewsViews.pdf?file=1&type=node&id=35300&force=">at Piltdown</a> with Dawson at some point in time.</p>
<p>Willett is a common name in the area of Ore in Sussex, and it was at “Ore Place” where Teilhard de Chardin was based between 1908 and 1912 – the very years in which Piltdown material was initially collected. </p>
<p>Did Teilhard know about a Piltdown joke through Edgar Willett who, as an anatomist, could have had access to an orangutan jaw and other specimens in a private collection or museum? And could Edgar Willett have been in a position to facilitate a joke against Dawson with Teilhard as an adviser? Was Willett “Person X”?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">a letter</a> to the palaeontologist Kenneth Oakley dated November 28 1953, Teilhard wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Would it have been impossible for some collector who had in his possession some ape bones, to have discarded specimens into the pit? The idea sounds fantastic. But, in my opinion, no more fantastic than to make Dawson the perpetrator of the hoax. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In another <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/deceiver-joker-or-innocent-teilhard-de-chardin-and-piltdown-man/50D15FC19CC74CC2E18E0EFF5AD6E79F">letter</a> to a famous French prehistorian, the Abbe Henri Breuil, dated December 8 1953, Teilhard wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have difficulty in accepting a hoax on the part of Dawson…and as fantastic as it seems, I admitted rather that someone threw, innocently, from the cottage nearby, some “collection” in the “Pit” of Piltdown"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In these two separate letters, Teilhard is probably being absolutely honest about a “collection” which included an ape such as an orangutan. But was he joking when he suggested that someone “<em>innocently</em>” threw part of such a collection into the Piltdown pit? </p>
<h2>A joke gone wrong</h2>
<p>To my mind, we need to take another close look at the Piltdown case. Perhaps Dawson was hoist with his own petard: someone realised that he was a habitual forger and sought to beat him at his own game. If this is indeed the case, Dawson may be considered a victim of a joke that went terribly wrong. It won’t repair his blighted reputation, though: he’ll still go down in history as a fraudster who hoped to boost his own career through forgeries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Thackeray receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa</span></em></p>One of paleontology’s most notorious hoaxes has long been blamed on a serial forger named Charles Dawson. But might a Jesuit priest have been in on a joke that went wrong ?Francis Thackeray, Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/587772016-05-05T04:40:34Z2016-05-05T04:40:34ZGood news for the only place on Earth where tigers, rhinos, orangutans and elephants live together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121151/original/image-20160504-6918-1i5gp73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sumatra's tigers are among the species that will benefit from a new land-clearing moratorium in Leuser's forests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">dangdumrong/Shutterstock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conservationists and environmental scientists are used to bad news. So when there’s some really good news, it’s important to hear that as well.</p>
<p>While the battle is far from over, there has been a series of breakthroughs in the long-running battle to protect the imperilled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuser_Ecosystem">Leuser ecosystem</a> in northern Sumatra, Indonesia – the last place on Earth where tigers, orangutans, rhinoceros and elephants still live alongside one another.</p>
<p>The government of Aceh Province – which controls most of the Leuser ecosystem and has been subjected to withering criticism for its schemes to destroy much of the region’s forests for oil palm, rice and mining expansion while opening it up with a vast road network through the forest – has agreed to a <a href="http://www.foresthints.news/minister-and-acehnese-leaders-declare-moratorium-on-palm-oil-and-mining-expansion-in-the-leuser-ecosystem">moratorium on new land clearing and mining</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121150/original/image-20160504-27756-1fswcq9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Leuser ecosystem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Forest Watch</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is huge news, and it’s clear that both the international community and Indonesia’s federal government have played big roles in making this happen. Indonesian President Joko Widodo deserves a great deal of credit for this accomplishment, which he has been pushing for many months, not just in Aceh but <a href="http://setkab.go.id/en/president-joko-widodo-prepares-moratorium-on-palm-oil-plantation-and-mining-activities/">elsewhere in Indonesia</a> too.</p>
<p>It is the culmination of an <a href="http://alert-conservation.org/leuser-ecosystem/">almost three-year battle</a> by the <a href="http://alert-conservation.org/">Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers</a> (a scientific group I founded and lead) as well as many other dedicated researchers and conservationists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121154/original/image-20160504-6918-qhn8lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sumatran orangutans have lost huge areas of forest habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Whitcombe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Set in stone?</h2>
<p>Moratoria can always be cancelled or weakened, but the chances of that happening seem increasingly remote. In a <a href="http://www.foresthints.news/minister-points-to-leuser-ecosystem-moratorium-in-un-speech-as-proof-of-indonesias-commitment">speech</a> at last month’s signing of the Paris climate agreement in New York, Indonesia’s environment and forestry minister, Siti Nurbaya, underscored her commitment to the Leuser moratorium.</p>
<p>It seems unlikely that she would make this statement at such a high-profile event if there were any significant possibility that the moratorium will collapse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121157/original/image-20160504-22761-1agmqyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sumatran elephants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gudkov Andrey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the news gets even better. Last week, Aceh’s deputy governor, Muzakir Manaf, <a href="http://www.foresthints.news/aceh-deputy-governor-ready-to-provide-ground-level-backing-to-leuser-ecosystem-moratorium">declared</a> that he will provide full support for ground-level measures needed to enforce the moratorium.</p>
<p>That is critical, for two reasons. First, it shows that the Aceh government is strongly behind the moratorium. Second, a moratorium is just a piece of paper unless there is real on-the-ground enforcement to ensure that illegal land-clearing, poaching, mining and other activities don’t continue unabated.</p>
<h2>Limiting palm oil</h2>
<p>A final piece of good news is that Nurbaya has <a href="http://www.foresthints.news/entire-process-for-new-palm-oil-permits-ended-confirms-minister">confirmed</a> her intention to halt completely the granting of new permits for oil palm plantations in state-owned forests right across the country.</p>
<p>To be clear, this doesn’t mean that oil palm plantations won’t keep expanding in Indonesia. There are thousands of existing permits encompassing many millions of hectares of native forest. Indeed, Indonesia has previously <a href="http://www.redd-monitor.org/2014/09/10/deforestation-is-inevitable-indonesia-promises-to-deforest-another-14-million-hectares-in-the-next-six-years/">announced plans</a> to clear a further 14 million hectares of native forest by 2020, mostly for oil palm and wood-pulp production.</p>
<p>But at least it means that the avalanche of new oil palm permits is coming to an end, for which both Widodo and Nurbaya deserve credit.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121156/original/image-20160504-25000-16l1ob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rainforests being felled for oil palm in central Sumatra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not over yet</h2>
<p>The fight to conserve Indonesia’s mega-diverse forests is far from over. The nation’s plans for massive road, dam and mining projects – many in forested areas where they can open a Pandora’s box of problems such as illegal poaching, logging and forest burning – is enough to frighten even the most sober of observers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121158/original/image-20160504-27756-1j7sfja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos survive in the wild, making it one of the world’s rarest species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynsey Allen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But for today, at least, we can celebrate a very significant victory for conservation, and give credit to the many people who have worked to raise the profile of Leuser, including the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/29/leonardo-dicaprio-visits-mt-leuser-national-park.html">visited recently</a>. </p>
<p>Few have had more impact than Ian Singleton, director of the <a href="http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/about-us">Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program</a>. In a <a href="http://www.foresthints.news/fate-of-leuser-ecosystem-depends-on-decision-made-now-warns-conservationist">recent interview</a>, Singleton laid out a remarkably compelling and detailed argument for saving Leuser, and for the surprisingly limited economic benefits its exploitation would generate for the local Sumatran citizens.</p>
<p>The economic and environmental think-tank <a href="http://www.greenomics.org/">Greenomics Indonesia</a> also deserves a big round of applause for its efforts to facilitate this groundbreaking achievement.</p>
<p>But while we’re congratulating ourselves and others, we shouldn’t forget to keep a close eye on Leuser to ensure the promised moratorium really does take effect, and that one of the most important wild places in the world still survives.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of a blog post that originally appeared <a href="http://alert-conservation.org/issues-research-highlights/2016/4/30/new-hope-for-the-last-home-for-tigers-orangutans-rhinos-and-elephants">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is the director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) at James Cook University and founder and director of ALERT--the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers.
</span></em></p>The Leuser ecosystem in northern Sumatra is home to some of the world’s rarest and best-loved animals. Thanks to a new government moratorium on land clearing, conservationists have enjoyed a big win.Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547462016-02-17T19:17:36Z2016-02-17T19:17:36ZGoing on safari? Research shows ecotourism can help save threatened species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111622/original/image-20160216-22587-z3cdft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black rhino cow and calf, southern Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guy Castley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Should your next holiday include a safari, whale watching, or a trip to a tiger temple? Ecotourism has recently been in the spotlight. For instance, we’ve seen claims that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/articles/Tiger-increase-in-India-proof-of-the-benefits-of-tourism/">tourism helps conserve tigers</a> and that it has been linked to <a href="http://www.natgeotraveller.in/web-exclusive/web-exclusive-month/video-evidence-links-thailands-tiger-temple-to-wildlife-trafficking/">wildlife trafficking</a>. </p>
<p>But how can we tell if ecotourism is good or bad for threatened species? In our research published today in PLOS ONE we looked at nine different species, and found that overall, <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147988">ecotourism is good for wildlife</a>. <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22685553/0">Great green macaw</a> in Costa Rica, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22695180/0">Egyptian vultures</a> in Spain, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39876/0">hoolock gibbons</a> in India, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22697810/0">African penguins</a>, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12436/0">African wild dogs</a>, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/219/0">cheetahs</a>, and <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/11506/0">golden lion tamarins</a> in Brazil all benefited from tourism. </p>
<p>But we also found that current tourism levels aren’t enough to help <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39780/0">orang utans in Sumatra</a>, and are actually bad for <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17026/0">sea lions in New Zealand</a>. So how do we get the balance right?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111589/original/image-20160216-22570-r50hai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African penguins in Algoa Bay, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guy Castley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is ecotourism?</h2>
<p>“Ecotourism” is a very broad term. It may include visitors to public national parks, volunteers for community projects, or adventurous expeditions to remote regions. Some may even include hunting safaris. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-tourism-really-have-conservation-benefits-1337">Ecotourism has both positive and negative effects</a>. It can contribute to conservation, or impact wildlife, or both. Some effects are small, others large; some direct, others indirect. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628860-200-endangered-animals-caught-in-the-tourist-trap/">Attitudes of local communities</a> towards native wildlife, for example, influence whether they support or oppose poaching. Furthermore, income from ecotourism may be used for conservation and local community development projects, but not always.</p>
<p>We also need some way to measure ecotourism effects on wildlife? Many ecotourism measures are social or economic rather than ecological. It’s often difficult to compare positive and negative impacts on a species. Therefore, quantifying the net effect of ecotourism is challenging. </p>
<p>For species at risk of extinction, such as those in the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List</a>, it is critical to be able to assess how various threats, including tourism, affect their survival. So we wanted to develop a way of measuring how ecotourism affects the risk of extinction for these species. </p>
<h2>Measuring ecotourism</h2>
<p>Previously when considering ecotourism researchers looked at revenue to parks, and how much of a species’ global population was protected by these parks. </p>
<p>This approach showed that tourism funding is significant for many IUCN Redlisted <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0044134">mammals</a>, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0062598">birds</a> and <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0043757">amphibians</a>. But it doesn’t tell us whether ecotourism will help or harm a specific species or population.</p>
<p>Our new approach uses population analysis (specifically population viability analysis). This sort of analysis is the gold standard for predicting future population trends, and probable time to extinction, for threatened species. </p>
<p>We looked at how populations changed over time in response to threatening processes, by simulating births and deaths one generation at a time. We do this thousands of times to estimate extinction risk. These methods are well-tested and widely-used in practical wildlife management. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111750/original/image-20160217-19269-1y39fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African wild dogs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ralf Buckley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To do this we need to know a couple of things about the species we are looking at: habitat area; population size and age. We also need to know the birth and death rates for different ages as well as migration patterns. This information exists only for some threatened species such as those used in our study.</p>
<p>We also need to be able to convert ecotourism effects into these measures of species performance. By looking at how ecotourism affects these aspects we can compare ecotourism to other threats such as poaching, logging, or fishing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111786/original/image-20160217-19250-1c2lrz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tiger in India (from the back of an elephant)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ralf Buckley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Winners and losers</h2>
<p>For seven of the species that we looked at, ecotourism provides net conservation gains. This is achieved through establishing private conservation reserves, restoring habitat or by reducing habitat damage. Removing feral predators, increasing anti-poaching patrols, captive breeding and supplementary feeding also helps.</p>
<p>But for orang utans in Sumatra, small-scale ecotourism cannot overcome the negative impacts of logging. However, larger-scale ecotourism yields a net positive outcome by enabling habitat protection and reintroduction of individuals from captive situations.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for New Zealand’s sea lions, ecotourism only compounds the impacts of intensive fisheries, because it increases the number of sea lion pups dying as a result of direct disturbance at haul out sites.</p>
<p>Our research highlights three key messages. The first is that to predict how ecotourism affects wildlife, we need to know basic things about them: ecotourism needs biologists as well as social scientists. </p>
<p>The second is that the effects of ecotourism are not universal: whether ecotourism is good or bad depends on the species and local circumstances. </p>
<p>The third, and perhaps most important, is that ecotourism, at appropriate levels, can indeed help to save threatened species from extinction.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111591/original/image-20160216-6548-1h4w3jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">River ecotourism at the Storms River Mouth, Tsitsikama National Park, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guy Castley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Next time you plan a holiday you can rest assured that wildlife sightseeing can help some threatened species.Guy Castley, Senior Lecturer, Griffith UniversityClare Morrison, Research Fellow - Academic Editor, Griffith UniversityRalf Buckley, International Chair in Ecotourism Research, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/457832015-09-24T05:27:33Z2015-09-24T05:27:33ZOrangutans need more than your well-meaning clicktivism<p>Orangutans are often more popular on the internet than in their native forests. Online, their attractive faces, fluffy bodies and swinging abilities make them perhaps the most shareable of all the great apes. But back in Borneo and Sumatra, where local populations are more ambivalent about orangutans, the situation is less straightforward.</p>
<p>The third annual <a href="http://www.worldorangutanevents.org/international-orangutan-day.php">International Orangutan Day</a> was held in August: a celebration of all things orangutan which aimed to highlight their crisis and encourage public action. For 24 hours, orangutan conservation organisations filled Facebook and Twitter with images, trivia and calls to save the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra – their only home. People donated to charities, signed petitions, liked, tagged, shared and retweeted content, posted supportive selfies and even organised local gatherings to mark the day. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"634115097762373632"}"></div></p>
<p>This was just one of many digital entry-points that has made orangutan conservation an increasingly accessible, everyday affair. Today, one doesn’t need to gain a PhD, spend months in the jungle or stage Greenpeace-style confrontations to help save orangutans. Thanks to digital technology and social networking, ordinary members of the public can do their bit. </p>
<p>The dominant narrative portrays orangutans as being pushed to the brink of extinction by deforestation and the expansion of oil palm plantations. This is often illustrated by a colourful cast of both stereotypical characters – the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WorldOrangutanEvents/photos/gm.398655310343575/885813438180279/?type=1">majestic, handsome male</a>, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WorldOrangutanEvents/photos/gm.398683353674104/885856378175985/?type=1">loving mother and the cute baby</a> – and individual personalities such as Budi and Jemmi, two orphans in Sumatra whose adventures have been avidly followed across <a href="https://www.facebook.com/internationalanimalrescue">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/IAR_updates">Twitter</a> and their <a href="http://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/when-baby-budi-met-jemmi">rescue centre’s website</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tOxaOPA96kQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Budi and Jemmi enjoying some guava.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These charismatic creatures bring a powerful immediacy and reality to the dominant narrative. Through them, an account of environmental destruction and species loss is turned into a series of gripping stories and personal tragedies: the innocent babies who have lost their mothers, the formidable male left helpless by chainsaws, the “saved” victims in need of help. </p>
<p>Not simply animals or scientific specimens, these orangutans are the very faces of the rainforest – threatened by appropriately large, faceless villains. As such, they’re immensely powerful magnets of public affection, <a href="http://www.orangutan.org.uk">support</a> and funding. </p>
<h2>The other faces of orangutan conservation</h2>
<p>In the midst of all this, however, some other faces and voices remain hidden. Among them are the people who live alongside orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. </p>
<p>Many orangutan conservation bodies work closely with local partners and communities. But these collaborations tend to receive far less attention in online conversations and popular perceptions of the orangutan “crisis”. And when local communities do appear in conservation material, they’re often cast as either victims of deforestation or as “<a href="http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/the-ecologically-noble-savage">ecologically noble</a>” allies who simply need to be educated about conservation.</p>
<p>But as any anthropologist would point out, real life is far more complicated than that. Even the most exotic groups have internal divisions, ambitions, political leanings and ethical dilemmas. Not everybody is an instinctive defender of the forest or subscriber to Western conservation values. </p>
<p>Indeed, many rural Borneans are understandably more concerned about obtaining development and guarding their livelihoods – from crop-raiding orangutans, for instance – than the rather vague idea of saving the environment. And as recent <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027491">research</a> has shown, humans and orangutans are not always natural bedfellows. Hunting and conflict-related killing have also contributed to the decline of orangutan populations in recent decades. </p>
<p>Such findings don’t make for easy reading, not least because they reveal the complex humanity of Bornean and Sumatran populations. Like orangutans, these rainforest dwellers also have a vital stake in the fate of their environment – but in ways that can challenge the black-and-white morality of the dominant conservation narrative. </p>
<p>Only a small minority of these voices are currently part of digital conversations about orangutan conservation. But if orangutan conservation goals are to be realised, these local faces and voices can’t be glossed over. Rather, they need to be more carefully integrated into the dominant narrative – while ideally helping to transform it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liana Chua has previously conducted research (as a volunteer) with the Sumatran Orangutan Society.</span></em></p>People living in their forests must be on board too – and they don’t always subscribe to Western conservation values.Liana Chua, Lecturer in Anthropology, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/430722015-06-16T14:32:58Z2015-06-16T14:32:58ZIndonesia at risk from huge fires because of El Niño<p>In 1997-98, extremely dry El Niño conditions in Indonesia kicked off a wave of large–scale uncontrolled burning, <a href="http://rainforests.mongabay.com/08indo_fires.htm">destroying about five million hectares of tropical forest</a> (equivalent to seven million football fields). Much of the burning occurred in carbon-rich peatland forests and continued in two phases from July 1997 until March 1998, releasing vast amounts of <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/">carbon dioxide</a> into the atmosphere, and huge clouds of smoke and haze across the region. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/index.shtml#tabs=Sea-surface">Present conditions in the Pacific Ocean</a> are similar to what they were in mid-1997. El Niño is set to strengthen, and seasonal weather prediction models point towards this being an exceptionally dry season. Indonesia and its neighbours should be worried.</p>
<p>In order to predict, and hopefully prevent, such fires in the future, we’ve looked at how far in advance they can be anticipated using a seasonal weather prediction model.</p>
<h2>Deforestation, peat drainage and El Niño</h2>
<p>During the dry season, numerous fires occur in <a href="http://www.wetlands.org/Whatarewetlands/Peatlands/Tropicalpeatswampforests/tabid/2739/Default.aspx">Indonesia’s peatland forests</a>, particularly in the southern region of Kalimantan and eastern Sumatra. Although some rain falls during a normal dry season, it is sporadic, leaving many windows of opportunity for burning. </p>
<p>Most of these fires are deliberately lit to clear rainforest to establish oil palm and Acacia pulp and paper plantations. Fire spread is enhanced by the increased availability of combustible material, notably, woody debris as a result of wasteful logging practices, and the widespread practice of draining peatlands.</p>
<p>When El Niño strikes, however, the situation changes drastically. During strong El Niño episodes, almost no rain falls during the dry season and the monsoon is delayed. So in areas where peatlands have been degraded by logging and draining, fires ignite easily and once started, the peat is so dry that fires escape underground, and cannot be put out until after the monsoon reappears. </p>
<p>At their worst, the fires have enormous impacts on carbon emissions, regional haze production, biodiversity, and the economy, and are recognised as a serious health risk in Indonesia as well as neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. The fires are a major threat to the remaining orangutans who live in the forests – the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17975/0">Bornean orangutan is rated endangered</a>, and the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39780/0">Sumatran orangutan is critically endangered</a>. During past El Niño years, around <a href="https://theconversation.com/indonesia-sets-a-carbon-time-bomb-17216">one gigatonne of carbon was emitted from peatland forest fires</a>, equivalent to about <a href="http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/tre_glob_2011.html">10% of annual global fossil fuel emissions</a>, and regional haze from such fires has caused major disruptions to air traffic in nearby Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84714/original/image-20150611-11406-537zok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fire-caused air pollution spreading across the Indian Ocean on October 22, 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TOMS_indonesia_smog_lrg.jpg">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sea surface temperatures from the vast array of sea buoys established across the Pacific Ocean plus other important meteorological data are now telling us that <a href="https://theconversation.com/bom-were-calling-it-the-2015-el-nino-is-here-41598">El Niño conditions are already in place</a>. Furthermore, most seasonal weather prediction models, which are driven by observed SSTs, predict El Niño will strengthen over the coming months. This means the upcoming dry season in Indonesia will probably be much drier than usual, and the fires worse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85213/original/image-20150616-5854-1si00of.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85211/original/image-20150616-5825-pu2u7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=94&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=94&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=94&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=118&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=118&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85218/original/image-20150616-5854-zqhxam.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=118&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Probability rainfall forecasts for Asia for the periods: June-July-August 2015 (top) and September-October-November 2015 (bottom).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author providedInternational Research Institute (IRI)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Early warning systems</h2>
<p>The regional haze problem has become so serious in recent years that the Singapore government passed the <a href="http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=CompId:113ccc86-73fd-48c9-8570-650a8d1b7288;rec=0">Trans-boundary Haze Pollution Act in 2014</a>. This act financially penalises companies listed on the Singapore stock exchange deemed responsible for smoke-haze affecting the city-state but originating elsewhere. The governments of the ten ASEAN member states signed the <a href="http://haze.asean.org/?page_id=185">ASEAN Agreement on Trans-boundary Haze Pollution</a> on 10 June 2002, which Indonesia finally ratified in September 2014. </p>
<p>The agreement requires all states to implement measures to prevent, monitor and mitigate trans-boundary haze pollution by controlling peat land and forest fires. It makes explicit mention of the development of an early fire warning system to help prevent and mitigate major haze events. </p>
<p>Since burning is opportunistic, it can happen as soon as conditions will allow it. Research since the 1997 haze disaster has given us a fairly reliable understanding of how dry conditions must be in order for severe fires to happen.</p>
<p>But by the time these conditions occur, burning has already started, fires have escaped, and it is too late for prevention. Dry conditions instead need to be forecast weeks to months in advance for any prevention to be effective. Up until now, the forecasting component has been missing.</p>
<p>We wanted to see if past fires, especially severe El Niño-influenced fires, could have been predicted using seasonal weather forecasts. Using satellite observations of fire activity and the case study region of southern-central Kalimantan, which is characterised by a June-November dry season, we demonstrated that most of the severe fires (and associated haze) since 1997 could have been anticipated using rainfall predictions from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts seasonal weather prediction model. A second part of our work confirmed a clear link between severe fires and massive forest loss (also estimated from satellite data).</p>
<p>Our findings were recently published in the journal <a href="http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/15/429/2015/nhess-15-429-2015.pdf">Natural Hazards and Earth System Science</a>.</p>
<p>The implication of our work is that regional weather services, fire-fighting and resource management agencies are potentially able to identify areas that are likely to be dangerously dry ahead of time. Preventing severe uncontrolled burning in Indonesia and associated impacts will ultimately depend on how well fire is managed. This is a complex problem involving governments, multinational companies and indigenous people. Nonetheless, knowing ahead of time about a potentially bad fire situation will no doubt form part of the final answer. </p>
<p>While seasonal predictions are not perfect, and occasionally a year may turn out differently to what was expected, seasonal forecasts are anticipated to continue to show improved skill in future. The challenge remains to build on these advances to create an Indonesia-wide early fire warning system for operational use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allan Spessa is funded through the Open University Research Investment Fellowship scheme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Field receives funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>New early-warning systems are being developed and they’re warning of imminent danger.Allan Spessa, Research Investment Fellow, Dept Environment, Earth and Ecosystems , The Open UniversityRobert Field, Associate Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/352202014-12-09T06:15:46Z2014-12-09T06:15:46ZConservation drones – here comes the animals’ air force<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66612/original/image-20141208-5137-1jmtzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smile, you're on drone-cam.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekilby/12627253363">Eric Kilby</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the common problems we have in wildlife biology is knowing how many of an endangered species there are in a particular area. For example, how many orangutans are there in a particular national park in Sumatra?</p>
<p>Traditionally this problem was solved by biologist doing on-the-ground surveys: literally walking through the forests counting the number of orangutans and their nests (a proxy of their presence). Tough terrain and the difficulty in seeing the animals high up in the rainforest’s canopy makes this very time consuming.</p>
<p>To solve this problem <a href="http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/NSP/124306.htm">Serge Wich</a>, a primate expert at Liverpool’s John Moores University, came up with the idea of using drones to survey for orangutans and their nests. As commercial quality drones were too expensive for day-to-day use in conservation biology projects, he and his colleagues set about building their own drone and developing appropriate software. Now from <a href="http://conservationdrones.org/">their site</a> you can download <a href="http://conservationdrones.org/airframes/">instructions</a> to build a high-quality drone for around US$2,000.</p>
<p>Conservation drones have proved to be a huge success. In just a few hours they are able to survey huge areas of the rainforest ––something in the past that took weeks or months to do by biologists walking on foot and straining their necks as they looked constantly upwards. This means that we are now able to better track changes in population sizes. </p>
<p>However, all these drones generate many hours of video, which needs to be analysed. It is important that the time gained by the use of drones is not lost through the need to manually observe the video recorded. Thus, the development of video recognition software to count objects such as orangutans and their nests is well underway.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hXTbJA-304k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Next step: get a computer to analyse this data.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Drones can also be used to protect animals. Kenya <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/25/kenya-drones-national-parks-poaching">announced this year</a> that it would be using drones to assist its national park rangers in the fight against poaching. Using drones it is possible to monitor remote areas of national parks where herds of elephants or groups of rhinos may fall victim to the poacher’s bullet. </p>
<p>Drones are also useful in forests where they can detect the campfires of poachers or illegal loggers and gather video evidence. Poachers can’t just shoot the drones down either – shooting a drone with an AK47, the poacher’s weapon of choice, is difficult as drones are small, speedy (60kph) and fly at several hundred feet.</p>
<p>Drones open up all kinds of interesting areas of research for wildlife biologists. For example, the HD cameras on a drone means you can obtain images of rainforests that would make most spy satellite images look like a highly pixelated 1970s computer screen. Plus due to the low cost of flying the drones it would be possible to constantly monitor the target environment – something that can be done with satellite images, but at a high cost.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66647/original/image-20141208-5155-qja1dh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What the drones are looking for.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drlianpinkoh/7905394898">Lian Pin Koh</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The possible applications for drones in conservation biology are almost endless. I would like to use them to film and follow secretive species such as the puma from the Brazilian savannahs (cerrado). They could also be used to pick up data from remote sensing stations in environments where there is no telecommunication signal. For example, images from camera traps could be uploaded to a drone as it circles overhead – reducing the need to walk for days to download such images.</p>
<p>This technology is not without its problems; at the moment low-cost drones are not able to stay in the air for much longer than 45 minutes. But advances in battery technology and the use of solar panels means this issue should disappear in the not too distant future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert John Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the common problems we have in wildlife biology is knowing how many of an endangered species there are in a particular area. For example, how many orangutans are there in a particular national park…Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/330872014-11-10T04:46:14Z2014-11-10T04:46:14ZHow plywood started the destruction of Indonesia’s forests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64048/original/zh8z2h83-1415577387.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Endangered – thanks to plywood.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matley0/4016817246">Marco Abis/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>How do the products we buy affect the world’s rainforests? In the lead up to the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/rain-forest-summit">Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit</a> held in Sydney this week, The Conversation is running a series on rainforest commodities.</strong></em></p>
<p>Indonesia now has the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/29/rate-of-deforestation-in-indonesia-overtakes-brazil-says-study">has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world</a>, driven largely by clearing for palm oil plantations. But the process began long ago, with one of the most common building materials: plywood. </p>
<p>As far as commodities are concerned, it was plywood that defined the rainforests of Borneo in the 1970s and 80s, clearing the way for pulp and paper, and the booming palm oil industry.</p>
<h2>Super forests</h2>
<p>Indonesia was once the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world (after the Amazon), a position it has relinquished to the rainforests of the Congo.</p>
<p>The flora of Borneo has about <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471983268.html">15,000 species</a> — richer than the whole continent of Africa, which is 40-times larger.</p>
<p>As many as <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0040025">315,000 orangutans</a> lolled in the branches of the giant dipterocarp forests in Borneo. Now it is estimated only 27,000 orangutans are left. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64067/original/skk8zmm9-1415581899.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">My Yamaha guitar - not sourced from primary forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penny van Oosterzee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Plywood is everywhere</h2>
<p>I recently bought my very first guitar. The strong straight wood grain of the impeccably-finished instrument tells me it came from a tropical rainforest tree — a tree that may have reached 45 metres high. This tree was felled to provide the plywood that backs my guitar.</p>
<p>Plywood is one of the most common building materials. You will likely find it in your house, in part of your furniture and your boat.</p>
<p>The strings that tie us to the paradise forests of Borneo twine through our financial institutions, our law-makers and the stuff we began to buy in the 1950s. </p>
<p>In America — and Japan where my guitar was made — plywood fuelled the booming post-World War II building industries.</p>
<h2>The story of plywood</h2>
<p>In 1966, the Indonesian economy was in a bad way. General Suharto became President under dubious circumstances after inciting <a href="http://asianaustraliancinema.org/asian-australian-cinema/film/shadow-play-indonesias-year-living-dangerously">the bloody year of living dangerously</a>, a massacre that killed perhaps one million communist sympathisers.</p>
<p>The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Australia and Japan together organised financial assistance through a development plan to attract private foreign investment. Development was a neat new narrative in the 1960s. But it silenced other narratives such as <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5573.html">conservation and the rights of indigenous people</a>.</p>
<p>With the help of western economic advisers, Suharto became known as the “Father of Development”. His development order crafted the basic forestry law of 1967 and associated foreign investment laws. These laws designated 143 million hectares — three-quarters of all of Indonesia’s land area — as <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/political-economy-of-boom-and-bust-logging-in-indonesia-the-philippines-and-east-malaysia-1950-1994/oclc/753193759">Forest Area</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest loss in Indonesia between 2000 and 2013 (pink), intact forest (dark green) and degraded forest (light green), logged forest (yellow) and oil palm (light pink). Click through for interactive map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/6/0.40/107.22/ALL/grayscale/loss/600,556,581?begin=2001-01-01&end=2013-12-31&threshold=30">Global Forest Watch</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unambiguous exploitation rights were granted to private firms and their domestic partners for generous logging concessions, already inhabited by Indigenous Dayak groups. Despite <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/34498238_Writing_for_their_lives__Bentian_Dayak_authors_and_Indonesian_development_discourse">millenia of presence</a>, these traditional rights were subsumed to twentieth century logging firms. </p>
<p>Displacement of these peoples, and transmigration of seven million Javanese <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/34498238_Writing_for_their_lives__Bentian_Dayak_authors_and_Indonesian_development_discourse_">redistributed poverty</a> to devastating affect. Ultimately the great fire of Borneo in 1982-83, the worst forest fire then known, was started by poor farmers clearing land for <a href="http://www.cifor.org/fire/pdf/pdf20.pdf">subsistence cropping</a>. </p>
<p>In May 2014 Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission launched the first national inquiry into violations related to <a href="http://www.trust.org/item/20140529110927-5sw62">land and forests</a>.</p>
<h2>A tale of corruption</h2>
<p>Indonesia’s forests were first marketed to the Philippines, a country that holds the inimical <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/political-economy-of-boom-and-bust-logging-in-indonesia-the-philippines-and-east-malaysia-1950-1994/oclc/753193759">record for twentieth century deforestation</a>.</p>
<p>The Philippines saw an astonishing logging spree of 30 million hectares, 80% of the country, stripped bare in three decades. In 1972, the feverish scramble resulted in more concessions offered than forest available. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=seap.indo/1106953918">comprehensive study</a> of logging in Indonesia showed that in three years from 1967 to 1970 logging concessions, covering over fifty three million hectares, were virtually gifted to global logging companies.</p>
<p>Mirroring practises honed in the Philippines, companies such as US Wyerhauser and Georgia-Pacific, and Japanese Mitsubishi were guaranteed the free repatriation of profits and tax holidays while, between 1969 and 1974, the export price of Indonesian logs rose 600%. </p>
<p>By 1979, Indonesia was the world’s leading producer of tropical logs, with 40% of the global market. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64069/original/w4gv4vs2-1415582971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plywood is one of the most commonly used building materials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/index-in.mhtml">Plywood image from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the biggest logging companies in the world in 1970 was American Georgia Pacific. Its local partner was Bob Hasan, a close friend and business partner of President Suharto. To staunch the flow of windfall profits leaving the country (as logs) and refocus them on the central leadership Hasan re-formed the entire forestry industry by setting up a monopoly of <a href="http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=seap.indo/1106953918">globally lucrative plywood</a>. </p>
<p>In 1981, the ban on logs leaving the country saw the exit of many big foreign investors dragging down the domestic value of logs and provided cheap raw material for plywood mills. </p>
<p>The Indonesian Wood Panel Association (Apkindo), controlled by Hasan, was given extraordinary powers by Suharto, including sole authority to grant export licenses to plywood makers, and the power to sanction any company that breached its rules. </p>
<p>Apkindo flooded the world’s plywood export market. By 1987, Apkindo’s predatory pricing strategies had captured three quarters of the American import market, and 67% of the global market for tropical plywood with immense profits channeled to Hasan and Suharto’s inner circle.</p>
<p>By 1994 Hasan was one of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/933787.stm">richest men</a> on earth. </p>
<p>In 1997, in an Orwellian twist, Bob Hasan was even awarded a US medal for his environmental achievements in building a giant pulp and paper mill, and an honorary professorship. </p>
<h2>Forests on fire</h2>
<p>But by then concern at the loss of forests had began to emerge enflamed, in 1997-98, by the largest forest fire ever known that burned five million hectares of rich dipterocarp forest, and killed one third of all orangutans. If it were people, think of a fire that wipes out the population of China, the US, and Europe. </p>
<p>It was only at the turn of this century that someone finally looked at what was happening to Indonesia’s forest estate. The 2002 report <a href="http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2002/08/09/000094946_02072604202380/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf">Where have all the forests gone</a> by Derek Holmes was shocking. It shows graphs of forest cover that slope inexorably toward zero. </p>
<p>Extrapolated downward, the slopes show no lowland rainforest for Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) by 2010, and no forests at all by 2035. In 2014 it’s not quite as bad as Holmes predicted but it’s pretty bad. </p>
<p>Nearly 60% of Kalimantan’s lowland forest is gone, and any rainforest that remains is being cleared faster than ever to feed consumer demand for paper and oil palm. </p>
<p>And as for my guitar, <a href="http://www.guitars2go.co.uk/Yamaha_Guitars.htm">Yamaha has a policy</a> that recognises unsustainable harvesting practises and procurement guidelines that focus on planted forests, ironically on plywood from plantations that now grow on land cleared of rainforest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny van Oosterzee receives funding from the Biodiversity Fund for a rainforest restoration project in the Wet Tropics. She is a partner of an Australian Research Council project on cost-effective reforestation for carbon and biodiversity benefits. </span></em></p>How do the products we buy affect the world’s rainforests? In the lead up to the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit held in Sydney this week, The Conversation is running a series on rainforest commodities…Penny van Oosterzee, Senior Research Adjunct James Cook University and University Fellow Charles Darwin University, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/336322014-10-30T03:46:11Z2014-10-30T03:46:11ZPalm oil plantations are bad for wildlife great and small: study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63256/original/292hzpgb-1414632812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where the rainforest meets the plantation: there are probably a lot more insects.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cifor/5701875645/in/photolist-9FRAYM-4B3Veu-dqcPm2-ohhUjQ-CbYER-frhyEC-6HQYi-bfVFr6-EVN69-cZyaU7-ohk271-frhyQY-nZZh3q-5h1LJx-bGwnZc-bGwjrV-4VKBfX-9FRCoF-4QwFSU-bGwgCV-fzPoF-bGwgWB-a2id3q-fA3mE-9GvEvb-fzPa3-bGwpEK-5h1MDa-CD3Qe-9FUzru-9FT6u5-9FUB7m-9Gt62i-9GsUwi-9GvBhS-3Z48P-9dvuRw-cZy9ed-cSD4aN-4pNR77-bYXp5C-cZy9qS-5h1KvM-cSD427-bYYQeL-a2fiBX-cZy9yQ-621CM-5h1JLc-a2idm9">Ryan Woo for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Palm oil plantations have an overall negative impact on biodiversity, according to research released this week. The <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141028/ncomms6351/full/ncomms6351.html">study</a>, published in Nature Communications, found palm oil plantations are home to fewer insect species than even intensive rubber tree plantations. </p>
<p>A forests expert at James Cook University, Bill Laurance, said of the research: “The big message is that oil palm is bad for biodiversity, in every sense of the word — even when compared to damaged rainforests that are regenerating after earlier logging or clearing.”</p>
<p>The study, conducted in Sumatra – an Indonesian island famous for its tiger and orangutan populations – found that palm oil plantations contain half the number of insect species that natural forests do. </p>
<p>Worldwide, palm oil is one of the most rapidly expanding crops, with the total area of land devoted to palm oil production tripling in the last <a href="http://www.rspo.org/file/GHGWG2/4_oil_palm_and_land_use_change_Gunarso_et_al.pdf">25 years</a>. This expansion has been blamed for the rapid <a href="http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work/saving_the_natural_world/forests/palm_oil/palm_oil_and_deforestation/">deforestation</a> seen in both Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years. </p>
<p>In Sumatra, roughly 25% of palm oil plantations have been <a href="http://www.rspo.org/file/GHGWG2/4_oil_palm_and_land_use_change_Gunarso_et_al.pdf">directly converted from forest</a>. Still, Indonesia – one of the world’s leading palm oil producers — plans to double palm oil production by <a href="http://blog.cifor.org/17798/fact-file-indonesia-world-leader-in-palm-oil-production">2020</a>. </p>
<p>The environmental and social consequences of palm oil production have been hotly debated over the past decade, particularly due to the industry’s impact on orangutans. </p>
<h2>Losing predators</h2>
<p>A decline in predatory insects — which help keep other species under control — was particularly worrying. </p>
<p>Laurance explained: </p>
<p>“This is analogous to the kinds of changes we see in larger animals, such as birds and mammals. The specialists and bigger predators tend to be highly vulnerable, and they’re often replaced by generalist omnivores in disturbed environments. </p>
<p>"For example, you lose tigers and specialised understory birds and gain ‘trash’ species—such as generalist rats—that can live almost anywhere.”</p>
<h2>Ecosystem damage</h2>
<p>Insects are important in ecosystems because they help recycle nutrients, and are a food source for other species. </p>
<p>The new research shows a clear link between the reduced numbers of species in palm oil plantations, and lower energy transfer and ecosystem function in these regions. </p>
<p>This is bad news for other species that live in the region, such as the orang-utan: if the environment is producing less energy, it will be harder to survive. </p>
<p>Head of the Conservation Biology department at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and one of the paper’s authors, Ulrich Brose, said there could be several reasons for the loss of insects. </p>
<p>“Two potential explanations are the pesticides or insecticides applied at higher levels in oil palm plantations or differences in energy (litter or nutrients) input.” </p>
<p>He said their data couldn’t yet disentangle these causes, however the research team at the University of Göttingen were working towards an answer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Palm oil plantations have an overall negative impact on biodiversity, according to research released this week. The study, published in Nature Communications, found palm oil plantations are home to fewer…Samantha Walker, EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/265212014-05-18T20:03:44Z2014-05-18T20:03:44ZHow wildlife tourism and zoos can protect animals in the wild<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48580/original/jpzkdsvw-1400131006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeing orangutans like Big Ritchie in conservation areas can raise vital support to protect his cousins in the wild, new research shows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big Ritchie looks up from his pile of bananas, unperturbed by the flock of tourists taking his photo. Sprawled around him, mother <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/orangutan.html">orangutans*</a> and their fluffy orange babies groom affectionately, chase each other, hang upside down, or wander off and vanish into the nearby forest canopy.</p>
<p>Fewer than 2,000 orangutans are left living in the wild in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with nearly all truly wild ones confined to a remote site on the Indonesian border. It’s why thousands of tourists and local Sarawak people come to places like this – the popular <a href="http://www.sarawakforestry.com/htm/snp-nr-semenggoh.html">Semenggoh Nature Reserve</a> – to see orangutans semi-wild in a reserve or captive in a rehabilitation centre.</p>
<p>Our new research has found that some 40% of the tourists to Semenggoh said they had come to Sarawak primarily to see orangutans. We also discovered something more surprising: that international tourists visiting Semenggoh said they would be happy <em>not</em> to see these wild orangutans, just so long as the orangutans were being conserved.</p>
<p>This finding – published in the latest edition of the journal <a href="http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2014;volume=12;issue=1;spage=27;epage=42;aulast=Zander;type=0">Conservation & Society</a> – is significant for global conservation efforts, because it suggests that the wildlife experience can be separated from the wild life. And that could benefit both tourists and animals still living in the wild.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48579/original/2988mk3t-1400130870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mother and infant orangutan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not totally wild</h2>
<p>Our study found that the visitors to Semenggoh who came to Sarawak for orangutans contribute between <a href="http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2014;volume=12;issue=1;spage=27;epage=42;aulast=Zander;type=0">US$13 million-US$23 million</a> a year to the local economy. </p>
<p>Importantly, the tourists said they would be willing to contribute at least as much again to orangutan conservation. However, they said that they would like to see that money used not to support apes at tourist attractions, but instead go to help the remaining truly wild orangutans in and around remote Batang Ai National Park, the last wild population in all of Sarawak.</p>
<p>If tourists want to see orangutans in the wild, they face a 24 hour trip by bus, canoe and on foot into leechy, rainy jungle – all for a slim chance of glimpsing a terrified orange blur, fleeing through the treetops.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48585/original/2cdfwt8f-1400132466.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans swinging along above the heads of visiting school children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So the upside of visiting a place like Semenggoh is that people get to see animals that still look and behave as if they are wild, but without the long trip and discomfort. After snapping their photos, tourists return to their buses for the 20 minute ride to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak.</p>
<p>As for the truly wild orangutans, they would happily never see another human. They are bothered enough by poachers, so any scent or sight of people causes distress. </p>
<p>Their relatives in Semenngoh, however, appeared to be as amused by the humans as the humans are by them. They do not have to come out to take to the proffered food, because they can usually find enough in the surrounding forest, but many come anyway.</p>
<p>Interestingly, both wild and semi-captive populations can benefit from each other. Fewer people would visit Semenggoh, or even come to Sarawak, were the last wild orangutans to be lost from the state. Menwhie the state could get much more assistance for managing the national park were they to ask for contributions from visitors to Semmenggoh.</p>
<h2>Tourism, but not at all costs</h2>
<p>This story has several ramifications.</p>
<p>Wildlife tourism has become important to many economies around the world. But the experience has often come at a cost to the wildlife itself, or to the environment that supports it. </p>
<p>Our Sarawak research suggests that most tourists are happy not to frighten the geese that lay the golden tourist dollars – the genuinely wild populations – as long as they can go home having had some experience that is close to the real thing.</p>
<p>This is also good news for zoos. Some expect that, as a last resort, zoos can keep populations of wild animals should they disappear in the wild. </p>
<p>However, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10030719.x/abstract;jsessionid=84CFEC7C8488714985F98B1DC86478D6.f04t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false>">this is never likely</a>. Even if zoos could house a few of each species, which they can’t, zoos can never retain the genetic variability of a wild population.</p>
<p>But a few individuals of charismatic umbrella species may be all that zoos need, if they can attract enough tourist dollars for cash-strapped governments to support both the zoos and the conservation of those in the unseen wild.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48583/original/rpj6j472-1400131994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A little penguin at Phillip Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/benbeiske/4136064334/in/photolist-7iupQ3-7iquRr-eekwd9-7iuoBh-eekwi5-7iurLh-5TQnR9-4ax3pa-a3c8dh-f1VEKs-8VeNGa-8VeNFZ-8VeNG8-8VeSVZ-8VeNFR-8VeNG6-8VeNG4-9Crekp-5YEuu-dHxAsy-9WUi9U-fke4TE-7JDaM9-5QSvFh-jWcNZB-81uBP6-ohcUB-bA6LTb-49V7NN-9arFMX-4YH4WH-8HPyaK-8HPy3n-5HmVP-4dRiuw-7pE3iZ-7S4kpw">Ben Beiske/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Australia, even common species can be hard to see, let alone the rare ones that require conservation care.</p>
<p>While some members of the public support conservation of such animals on principle, or based on their virtual experience of places that only wildlife and David Attenborough inhabit, the burgeoning wildlife tourism industry suggests a craving for personal experience.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48582/original/b7nxtwsx-1400131823.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A happy visitor with a penguin handbag at Phillip Island in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Lin/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some places do that brilliantly. The Phillip Island penguins in southern Australia have brought wild penguins to the public for decades, fostering conservation of the penguins across their range. In 2012 this one attraction contributed <a href="http://www.penguins.org.au/assets/About/PDF-Publications/annual-report-2011-12.pdf">A$150 million to the Victorian economy</a>.</p>
<p>But how do you take a busload of tourists down the burrow of a bilby so they can personally experience the wiffly pink nose of Australia’s Easter icon? The answer is you don’t: you link the experience of captive colonies in nocturnal houses to conservation of the bilby and its habitat in the wild.</p>
<p>The important thing is for the different players to work together: conservation managers, zoos and the tourist industry to search for sweet spots where everybody benefits, including the wildlife.</p>
<p>Such approaches won’t work universally. But increasingly conservationists are finding that many threatened species do need to turn a dollar to justify their protection and existence.</p>
<p>Orangutans in Sarawak have put up their hairy hands to show that they can do that, and help support local people through increased tourism.</p>
<p>Around the world, threatened species conservation needs to learn more from orangutans and little penguins, so that more of them find a way into the hearts – and wallets – of a more sympathetic public.</p>
<p><em>* Editor’s note: <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/orangutan.html">“Orangutan”</a> (also often written as orang-utan or orang utan) is derived from Malay and Indonesian words: “orang” meaning person, and “utan” from “hutan”, meaning forest. So orangutans are the people of the forest.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council but none related to this project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerstin Zander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Big Ritchie looks up from his pile of bananas, unperturbed by the flock of tourists taking his photo. Sprawled around him, mother orangutans* and their fluffy orange babies groom affectionately, chase…Stephen Garnett, Professor of Biodiversity and Sustainability, Charles Darwin UniversityKerstin Zander, Senior Research Fellow, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/229432014-02-12T19:34:24Z2014-02-12T19:34:24ZHow global forest-destroyers are turning over a new leaf<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41236/original/grptn69b-1392093391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Changing corporate attitudes are giving orangutans and other endangered species in Indonesia’s rainforests more hope of survival.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Austronesian Expeditions</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia is the world’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Indonesia">biggest destroyer of forests</a> and four multinational corporations — APP, APRIL, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources — have been responsible for much of it. Until recently these mega-corporations were considered environmental pariahs, but suddenly things seem to be changing, with all four proclaiming “no deforestation” policies. What gives?</p>
<h2>A corporate revolution?</h2>
<p>APP and APRIL are giant paper-pulp corporations. Collectively, they’ve cleared several million hectares of native Indonesian rainforest and other lands to grow fast-growing pulpwoods, turning the original rainforest into pulp in the process. </p>
<p>Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources are the world’s two biggest producers of palm oil — a <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation/palm-oil-and-forests.html">key driver of forest destruction</a> across the tropics, especially in southeast Asia.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41244/original/whbtdsdb-1392101906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rainforest timbers stockpiled outside an APRIL pulp-processing plant in Sumatra, Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.goldenagri.com.sg/">Golden Agri Resources</a> led the way, announcing a <a href="http://www.cleanbiz.asia/news/palm-oil-giant-golden-agri-moves-%E2%80%9Cno-deforestation%E2%80%9D-policy#.Uviac_aUhH8">no-deforestation policy in 2011</a>. Under growing pressure, its sister company <a href="http://www.asiapulppaper.com/">APP (Asia Pulp & Paper)</a> followed suit <a href="http://www.tft-forests.org/news/item/?n=16793">early last year</a>.</p>
<p>APP’s metamorphosis was especially stunning. For years, APP had thumbed its nose at critics while bulldozing ever more forest. This was easy for it to do because APP is largely a privately held corporation and because countries such as China and India — which generally don’t fuss too much about the environment — snapped up much of its pulp and paper products.</p>
<p>But gradually, the tide turned against APP. Its critics mounted, its reputation turned increasingly toxic, and it began to <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/press/releases/forests/2011/indonesian-rainforest-destroyer-asia/">lose more and more market share</a>. By this point, it had cleared vast expanses of native forest for plantations, and so had less need for more forest clearing.</p>
<h2>Market pressure to change</h2>
<p>So APP announced a radical change: a moratorium on forest clearing until all its lands could be systematically assessed, and then no further clearing of native rainforest or carbon-rich peatlands. In addition, it pledged to introduce safeguards for the rights of local and indigenous communities and to be far more transparent.</p>
<p>Initially, plenty of observers - myself included — were skeptical of APP. But, so far APP <a href="http://travel.mongabay.com/news/2014/0205-app-fcp-event.html?n3ws1ttr">seems to be passing muster</a>. Its efforts are not perfect, but forest clearing has fallen sharply and it is unquestionably being more open and forthcoming.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z5hygTfhz3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Asia Pulp & Paper now has a ‘zero deforestation’ policy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oil-palm giant <a href="http://www.wilmar-international.com/">Wilmar</a> saw <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/wilmar-no-deforestation-commitment-food-production">the light next</a>. Its no-deforestation policy was announced just in December last year, so it’s too early to say much yet. It claims it will immediately halt clearing of all forests and peatlands, and will not buy palm oil from anyone who does. Wilmar’s global holdings are so vast that it will take time to implement its new policy and assess its benefits.</p>
<p>Last off the cab rank was <a href="http://www.aprilasia.com/">APRIL, or Asia Pacific Resources International Limited</a>. APRIL’s policy was announced just a fortnight ago, on January 28, in what is widely being seen as an <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0131-april-forest-policy.html?n3ws1ttr">attempt to steal the thunder from APP</a>, its longtime competitor, in the week before the <a href="http://www.asiapulppaper.com/news-media/press-releases/asia-pulp-paper-calls-ngos-governments-and-businesses-collaborate-protect">one-year anniversary</a> of APP’s original no-deforestation pledge.</p>
<p>What are we to think about APRIL? On the one hand, APRIL has sought to go one better than APP by promising significant ecological restoration, initially to 20,000 hectares of native peatland in a key area of Sumatra, in addition to its other promises.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a close reading of its policies reveals that <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303277704579348651361230452">APRIL will still fell some native forests</a> through 2014. Beyond this, it can continue to process rainforest trees and pulp from other suppliers until 2019. In six years, a lot of forest can fall before the bulldozers and chainsaws. And to make things worse, APRIL’s new sustainability commitments won’t be applied to other pulp-producing companies ultimately owned by the same family business.</p>
<p>For these reasons, APRIL’s new policy clearly falls behind those of the other three big corporations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41242/original/4v3hz4dw-1392101624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clearing of Sumatran rainforest for an APRIL wood-pulp plantation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a global group of 200 major companies committed to sustainable practices, has placed <a href="http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/scepticism-remains-over-forest-plan-of-indonesian-logger/1258296">APRIL on probation</a> because of its deforestation practices. Having seen the fine print, WWF, which initially supported APRIL’s new policy, now seems to be <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/?207578/WWF-urges-Indonesian-pulp-producer-APRIL-to-immediately-stop-pulping-tropical-forests">rapidly backpedalling</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s the good news?</h2>
<p>Despite those significant reservations about APRIL, all of these new policies still seem like a dramatic about-face for some of the world’s biggest forest-felling corporations.</p>
<p>Even if we’re dubious about their motives, their initiatives could represent an important wave of corporate realpolitik in our increasingly eco-conscious world. As such, they might become models for other natural resource-exploiting companies and business sectors internationally. Beyond this, the four corporations have large land interests globally, so one can’t ignore the potential upside of their new policies alone.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41243/original/rjhwvkvp-1392101763.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest clearing for an APRIL wood-pulp plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet few doubt that there is still much to be done. APRIL, in particular, must raise its game. Too much evidence suggests its current approach is intended to muddy the waters and make its longstanding competitor APP seem less progressive.</p>
<p>And in the interests of full disclosure, I need to point out one of my PhD students attempted three years ago to conduct research with APRIL. I toured their wood-pulp operations in central Sumatra, Indonesia, and later <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2011/s3283804.htm">criticised their deforestation policies on ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent</a> program. </p>
<p>APRIL demanded that I cease criticising them and sign a strict confidentiality agreement. I refused, and in response they effectively tossed out my PhD student, right in the midst of her doctoral research. As a result I hold little affection for APRIL. But I’d like to think I’m open-minded enough to give them credit if they make a genuine effort to turn over a new leaf.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, one has to see the actions of these mega-corporations in a hopeful light. Indonesia’s rainforests are among the <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_imperiled_forests_of_borneo_a_rich_tropical_eden_endures/2723/">biologically richest on Earth</a> and sustain <a href="http://alert-conservation.org/leuser-ecosystem/">myriad endangered species</a>, including orangutans and tigers.</p>
<p>Thanks to public pressure, changing ledger sheets and the shifting attitudes of some corporate bigwigs, things finally appear to be improving. If we can sustain and build on these changes, those tigers, orangutans and countless species will have a better shot at long-term survival than they did before. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands. This chair is co-funded by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.
</span></em></p>Indonesia is the world’s biggest destroyer of forests and four multinational corporations — APP, APRIL, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources — have been responsible for much of it. Until recently these mega-corporations…Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.