These heartbreaking images show endangered orangutans made homeless as farmers jeopardise their habitat. The pictures show a troop of these magnificent creatures gathered near water at their reserve on Salat Island, Borneo, after being driven from wooded areas by illegal land clearing. Satellites show that the number of such blazes across Borneo and Sumatra are […]
Tag: deforestation
New monkey species found in Amazon forest area that’s fast disappearing
From an area of southern Amazonia, where forests are rapidly being cut for gold mining, agriculture, cattle pastures, and construction of dams, researchers have described a species of marmoset that’s new to science. “The spread of deforestation is pretty visible,” said Rodrigo Costa Araújo of the National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil. Araújo and his […]
Orangutan population falls by 25 every day — and food we eat is to blame
He may be King of the Swingers, the jungle VIP, but King Louie and his friends will be no more if man continues its relentless and greedy march of destruction. Alarming new figures show that the orangutan population is falling by 25 every day. Monday is World Orangutan Day and animal lovers are asked to […]
Orangutan numbers drop as much as 30 per cent in Malaysian palm oil estate forests
The number of endangered orangutans living in forest patches found in oil palm estates in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah fell as much as 30 per cent between 2002 and 2017, but the overall population of the species in the area is stable, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Thursday. Their […]
Pregnant orang-utan pictured clinging to final tree as bulldozers destroy rainforest around her
A starving, heavily pregnant orang-utan clings to a solitary tree high above what had been pristine rainforest for millennia – till giant bulldozers moved in and flattened it in days. Boon-Mee was too weak and frightened to leave the trunk where she had sought sanctuary as the machines tore down her jungle home in Borneo, […]
POLL: Should Iceland’s Christmas ad about palm oil have been banned?
Major retailers enter a battle every Christmas to make us cry with their saccharine seasonal ads – but this year we already have a clear winner. Concern about our planet has never been greater, thanks to last month’s UN report warning that we have 12 years to stop irreversible damage to the Earth. Yet, one […]
‘The most intellectual creature to ever walk Earth is destroying its only home’
During my years studying chimpanzees in Gombe national park in Tanzania I experienced the magic of the rainforest. I learned how all life is interconnected, how each species, no matter how insignificant it may seem, has a role to play in the rich tapestry of life – known today as biodiversity. Even the loss of […]
Chainsaw Massacre: Protected areas in danger in Brazil’s state of Rondônia (commentary)
One reserve is already gone and ten others are likely to go within the next few weeks when the legislature of one of Brazilian Amazonia’s most anti-environmental states votes on overriding a veto from the state governor. The 11 protected areas total 537,000 hectares (3 percent of the state), and four of them had been […]