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Wildlife

Why Orangutans Will Go Extinct if We Don't Act Now

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Written by Giovanni Lauricella
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 15:53

One of the world's largest paper companies plans to clear a large portion of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for critically endangered orangutans, according to environmental groups working in the area. Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper and a local joint venture partner, Sinar Mas Group, received a license to clear hundreds of hectares (acres) of trees just outside the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park on Sumatra island in May.

Last week Matthew at TreeHugger.com reported that $30 million in debt will be forgiven in exchange for increased forest protection in Sumatra. This is the largest debt relief for conservation agreement ever reached. What this means is that Indonesia will put $30 million over the next eight years into a trust fund, which will issue grants for forest conservation and restoration work on the island. That work is sorely needed, considering that in the past 20 years or so about 90 percent of the original forest cover has been removed due to logging or conversion to agriculture. That's simply unconscionable.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 February 2010 13:59 )

Jaguars Habitat Fragmented and Shrinking

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Written by Administrator
Thursday, 26 March 2009 22:28

 Jaguar Fragmented Habitat

 

Path of the Jaguar

If forward-looking conservationists prevail, this wanderer will live on.

By Mel White

From National Geographic

Photograph by Pete Oxford, Minden Pictures

(Update: Big cats can protect humans from the rise of future pandemics. See more in National Geographic News.)

At dusk one evening, deep in a Costa Rican forest, a young male jaguar rises from his sleep, stretches, and silently but determinedly leaves forever the place where he was born.

There's shelter here, and plenty of brocket deer, peccaries, and agoutis for food. He has sensed, too, the presence of females with which he might mate. But there's also a mature male jaguar that claims the forest-and the females. The older cat will tolerate no rivals. The breeze-blown scent of the young male's mother, so comforting to him when he was a cub, no longer binds him to his home. So he goes.

But the wanderer has chosen the wrong direction. In just a few miles he reaches the edge of the forest; beyond lies a coffee plantation. Pushed by instinct and necessity, he keeps moving, staying in the trees along fences and streams. Soon, though, shelter consists only of scattered patches of shrubs and a few trees, where he can find nothing to eat. He's now in a land of cattle ranches, and one night his hunger and the smell of a newborn calf overcome his reluctance to cross open areas. Creeping close before a final rush, he instantly kills the calf with one snap of his powerful jaws.

Last Updated ( Friday, 27 March 2009 01:07 )

Orangutan on the Brink

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Written by Administrator
Monday, 23 March 2009 23:41

From MSNBC

 

Orangutan on the Brink Palm Oil Habitat LossBANGKOK, Thailand - Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.

The declines in Indonesia and Malaysia since 2004 are mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, said on Saturday.

The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate" but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in "rapid decline."

"Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct," researchers wrote.

 

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 31 March 2009 03:23 )

Reclaiming Belize

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Wednesday, 18 March 2009 21:36

Belize: Dark Cloud



Mention Belize and most people conjure green thoughts – images of thick rainforest canopies, lush and filled with unexpected living treasures. And well they should. The Belize Rainforest provides habitat for 877 known species of animals including jaguars, ocelots, armadillos, tapirs, howler monkeys, kinkajous, manatees and crocodiles. Toucans, scarlet macaws, and huge jabiru storks, as well as 500 other species of birds soar through the vine-trailed jungle, and over 4,000 species of flowers, including 250 kinds of orchids, bejewel the trees and forest floor.


Tropical Rainforests comprise only 7% of the planet 

yet harbor over 50% of the world’s species.


Until recently, 80% of the Belize Rainforest and her creatures thrived under government protection. Sadly, that no longer holds true. Foreign logging companies from China, Japan and Indonesia have begun clear-cutting thousands of acres of rainforest, reaping enormous profits by exporting rainforest timber to the international market. American and European land speculators have burned, bulldozed and destroyed many more thousands of acres of rainforest to create citrus, cocoa and banana plantations or doomed cattle ranches.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 11 April 2009 00:30 )
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