Orangutans are in dire...yes, dire straits. According to IUCN:
This species is seriously threatened by logging (both legal and illegal), wholesale conversion of forest to agricultural land and oil palm plantations, and fragmentation by roads.
Animals are also illegally hunted and captured for the international pet trade but this appears to be more a symptom of habitat conversion, as orangutans are killed as pests when they raid fruit crops at the forest edge..."
This video is a snippet showing orphan orangutans rescued.
Yes, Mama gnome also has trouble wrapping her mind around this disturbing truth: Orangutan mothers are killed (either shot down or hacked with machetes) by poachers to take the baby orangutans to be sold in the black market as pets.
Do the people who paid to have an orangutan pet realize they paid to kill mother orangutans?
An example van Schaik cited was how orangutans extracted seeds from a favorite local fruit "puwin." Puwin is covered with fine hairs as sharp as "plexiglass needles" according to van Schaik. To avoid being hurt or jabbed by the needle like hairs on the fruit, orangutans insert a fine stick inside the fruit to obtain the seeds without handling the puwin directly.
But if you watch this video you will be even more amazed at just how intelligent orangutans are.
What exactly is the impact of losing the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra? Is it equivalent to just losing the orangutans, the "people of the forest"?
No. The scope of the devastation goes beyond that. According to the WWF:
Mama gnome wants to reiterate: 80% of timber comes from illegal logging. Trees supposedly in protected areas and nature reserves are under no protection at all.
"Conversion of forests into palm oil plantations has been shown to result in the loss of 80-100 percent of the mammal, reptile and bird species in the area."
"...Indonesia accounts for more than 14 percent of global deforestation. This represents almost half of the total global carbon emissions from deforestation and land degradation — almost twice as much as Brazil (the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases from land conversion), and more than three times Malaysia (the third largest)."
"Indonesia ranks fourth in the world in terms of total carbon emissions — behind the U.S., the European Union and China, and ahead of Brazil. Deforestation and forest degradation account for more than 83 percent of Indonesia's carbon emissions."
They are literally destroying rainforests and consequently contributing to global warming in pursuit of financial profit.
What can we do to help the orangutans and other species lost by rainforest destruction?
Use papers that are made from postconsumer waste. If it's 100% postconsumer waste, that's one hundred percent even better.
Recycle paper such as junk mail, shredded paper, telephone books, magazines you cannot donate to the library, your old school notes.
Instead of using paper towels or paper napkins use cloth napkins, cloth rags, old shirts reused as rags. You'll save money as well as save trees.
Support reforestation efforts.
Give eco-friendly cards such as these from Arborday.org.
Look for Fair Trade Certified labeling on products such as coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit, sugar and rice when shopping. They endorse products obtained through sustainable practices.
Mama gnome now feels like living in a tree for a while and if she spots illegal loggers trespassing in her forest she will hurl spiky puwin fruits at them to protect her baby and her trees.
If they persist to cut down trees despite being jabbed by the puwin fruit, Mama gnome will use her handy-dandy opposable thumbs and show them the way out of the rainforest, the fastest way out of the rainforest.
Mama gnome hopes you've enjoyed learning about the Mystery Animal of the Day.
In the meantime, please make your opposable thumbs equally handy in the tricky human world full of gadgets and tools and
"Indeed, with deforestation rates in the Philippines among the highest in the world (more than 90 percent of primary forest may have been lost to logging and development)..."
Ninety percent lost? Um, that leaves maybe 10 percent.
Are you kidding? Is that just someone's backyard?
What can we do as gnomes and humans?
Inform yourself
Volunteer
Donate
Write letters to your local and national government
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Ten trees, honey. Is that okay?"
"Yes, and you'd better not divorce me, 'cause then I'd want fifty."
In one of the most romantic and moving stories, Mama gnome has ever read, people are asked to plant ten trees in order to get married.
How romantic is that? Get married and plant trees at the same time?
In the Javanese province of Garut in Indonesia, couples are asked to plant ten trees to get their marriage license.
And if they divorce, they need to plant fifty trees.
Indonesia is the third largest producer of green house emissions after China and the United States. This is due to massive deforestation in the country due to overfarming.
The act of deforestation itself releases carbon dioxide and with the the trees gone, carbon dioxide is less absorbed and thus more emissions are released.
Forestry officials have identified "critical land" in Garut, which has been overfarmed and needs to be reforested. The overfarming leads to erosion, which can cause major flooding.
Environmental officials estimate that 50 million trees are needed in Garut alone to reverse the harm done by overfarming.
Fifty million trees! How much will that cost? So they came up with a brilliant plan to ask couples to plant trees.
What does your steak have to do with tree frogs and tapirs?
Has Mama gnome lost it? I wish I had, then it would be easier for me to forget this horrible mess we're in. I don't even know where to start. But I'll try my best.
Mama gnome loves trees. Loves forests even more. And as far as rainforests, let me tell you about one who is very special.
She is Amazonia.
The largest rain forest in the world is the Amazon rainforest. Her range touches nine countries, with 60% of it in Brazil, 13% in Peru and smaller portions run in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
The Amazon rainforest is the most biodiverse rainforest on Earth. She is home to thousands and thousands of plants, millions of insect species, thousands of species of fish and birds, hundreds of species of mammals and reptiles.
Basically, this is where your steak or chicken comes in.
With more and more people in the world, more and more people are eating meat.
Therefore, people who are only capable of short-term planning and consider the rainforests not as profitable, employ slash and burn methods to clear the forests to make way for cattle and soy farming.
And Mama gnome has to consider that there are probably desperate people as well who have no other economic means but to do this.
Why soy? To feed the cattle and chicken in factory farms where meat is processed and mass marketed to the world.
If you are now slumped down in front of the computer, depressed and frustrated with this dilemma, Mama gnome says,
"Dust yourself off. Pick yourself up and let's get to work."
Please, please consider changing your diet.
Now, don't panic.
The spectrum is wide.
On one end is becoming vegetarian and vegan.
The other end is not changing at all. Just go about your business as usual.
I propose somewhere in the middle to start. How about really looking at where you buy your meats and produce?
I know times are hard and fast foods are the cheapest.
But really consider purchasing local produce, meats that are grass fed and not from factory farms.
And even the act of limiting how often you eat meat would make a world of a difference not just for the Amazon, but for your health as well.
How about considering growing your own produce?
I'm sure where you live gets more rain than where Mama gnome lives. Ehemm, lots of Joshua trees here. Not that that's bad. But the gnomes (especially you know who), do their best to save water, our lawns are the attractive color of beige.
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