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Paterson`s come face to face with Orang-utans in Borneo!

12/03/08

As you may know, Paterson Arran became lifelong members of the UK Orangutan Foundation in 2007. Our managing director, Alan Hardie undertook a visit to Borneo last September to witness the work the foundation does to prevent rainforest destruction and rescue displaced orangutans.

As you may know, Paterson Arran became lifelong members of the UK Orangutan Foundation in 2007. Our managing director, Alan Hardie undertook a visit to Borneo to witness the work the foundation does to prevent rainforest destruction and rescue displaced orangutans. 

Alan travelled with Mark Jordan, correspondent for Sky News. Describing his own experiences of the trip, Alan said: 

“The Orangutan Foundation is based at Tanjung National Park in Borneo, which isn’t the easiest place to get to, we flew from Jakarta to Semarang then onto Pangkalanbun where we travelled up river through the rainforest on a small klotok in a torrential downpour. 


“We stayed in an eco-hotel called the Rimba Lodge which has been sympathetically designed along the lines of the local Dayak villages which are built on stilts.
“The first visit we took was to the orang-utan care centre where rescued orangutans are taken to be protected until they can be re-introduced to the wild. There are currently 350 orangutans in the centre with an arrival rate of about five per week. Space is at a premium as orang-utans may spend up to five years in the centre before they can be released. The centre has medical facilities including an operating theatre as well as a training forest where young orang-utans can develop the skills required for their return to the wild.
“It was also during this visit that we met Julian, a four-year old orang-utan sponsored by Paterson Arran. He’s a great character, very active and full of fun. His carer, Lena, has her hands full looking after him as he is already very strong!
“Once we had seen the care centre we travelled by klotok back along the Setyanyet river, the southern bank of the river is tree-lined and forms the boundary of Tanjung National Park. You can see the results of deforestation on the north bank of the river, it’s also tree-lined but in many places to a depth of only 50 metres beyond which the rainforest has all but disappeared.
“The most amazing thing about Tanjung is that you see orangutans living in the wild. Each orangutan needs about 2 square kilometres of land to provide enough fruit for them to survive. They live alone, not in communities, and are surprisingly silent as their needs for communication are low. Their four hands make them extremely agile in the trees but less comfortable on the ground.
“As we walked through the rainforest, we heard a sound behind us and turned to see a huge orangutan following us only about 5 metres away. They are not particularly violent but due to their immense strength they can cause some damage!
Fortunately, he took a short cut through the forest to the site of the daily feeding station where we saw him ensure he was fed before his juniors!
The Foundation feeds the orangutans with bananas every day, in the reserve, they often don’t have enough food to live off due to there being such a high number in a relatively small area. The orang-utans know they can find some food there every day if they are in the vicinity. This gives the researchers a chance to keep an eye on the numbers and health of the local orangutan population.
“We also visited a palm nursery where we say 30,000 saplings being grown to further expand the plantations. The price of palm oil is now almost double last year’s price driven for demand by food, cosmetics and now biodiesel. In Indonesia an area of rain forest the size of Wales is destroyed annually, initially for its timber and then for palm oil plantations. The Indonesian government is now issuing permits for large scale iron ore mining in Borneo which will cause further destruction.
The pressure from the West unfortunately seems to be having little effect. By the time the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil has written its standards it will be too late for another huge area of rainforest.
The Indonesians with a young population of 240 million people, not surprisingly, see the need for development to raise living standards and China and India will buy all the raw materials they can get. The unintended consequences of rich country ‘green’ biofuel are the destruction of the rainforest and massive increases in the prices of basic foods which the poor of the world cannot pay.
It became clear on the trip that the process of destruction is almost unstoppable however, as a manufacturer we intend to continue to do our part to give consumers the opportunity to buy palm oil free biscuits and oatcakes.

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