Orangutans vs palm oil in Malaysia: setting the record straight
mongabay.comJanuary 16, 2010
Interview by HUTAN's Dr. Marc Ancrenaz
"The industry wants to be part of the efforts that not only show concern for the environment, but in fact actually take an active part in its conservation," chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Dato' Lee Yeow Chor, told the conference.
 Presenting his findings during the 2009 Orang-utan Colloquium held at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria Resort in Sabah, Malaysia last October. Photo by H. Kler/HUTAN |
HUTAN's Q&A with Dr. Marc Ancrenaz
Do you agree with claims by organisations such as World Growth that the oil palm industry is not directly responsible for the decline of orang-utan
 Fragmentation of the landscape by monoculture along the Lower Kinabatangan. Note the lack of riparian forest and at some points palm being planted all the way down to the Kinabatangan River. Photos courtesy of Novista. |
In this case why does World Growth and others in the palm oil industry make such false claims?
Dr. Marc Ancrenaz: I think this is because you have two “groups”, the orang-utan group and the palm oil group. People on both sides are so passionate that it becomes difficult to have an impartial view of the true situation on the ground. The industry is under attack by environmentalists and has adopted a very defensive “greenwashing” approach denying there are the root cause of the problem. NGOs have adopted the opposite strategy called “blackwashing” and blame the industry for all problems encountered in the field, which is not true either. This situation is very sad since the debate in its current stage cannot move in any direction at all. We all need to work together to identify solutions.
Is this why you worked with the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) recently?
 In the field, Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Sabah, Malaysia. |
But why look within oil palm plantations
Dr. A: Surveys conducted in 2004 by HUTAN and the Sabah Wildlife Department revealed that there were 11,000 orang-utans in Sabah but an amazing 62% were found outside of Protected Areas in non-protected forests mostly exploited for timber. However nothing was known about orang-utans “inside” oil palm plantations and we wanted to investigate if orang-utans were found inside the palm oil landscape.
So what is the situation within the oil palm landscape in Sabah Dr. Ancrenaz?
 Fragmentation of the landscape by monoculture along the Lower Kinabatangan. Note the lack of riparian forest and at some points palm being planted all the way down to the Kinabatangan River. Photos courtesy of Novista. |
And what did you find
Dr. A: We found a surprising high number of orang-utan nests within extremely isolated and degraded tree patches located within oil palm plantations and in mangrove forests that have been cut off from mainland forests by the development of oil palm plantations. We estimate that a few hundred individuals are found in the extensive palm oil landscape of Eastern Sabah, namely the watershed of the Kinabatangan, Segama and Sugut Rivers..
Does this mean that the orang-utans have adapted to surviving within palm oil plantations
Dr. A: I want to be absolutely clear here, so that these findings are not misquoted by others again, orang-utans have not adapted to the palm oil landscape and cannot survive within the palm oil landscape in its present condition today. It is equivalent to asking a human to survive on eating potatoes alone. Just as humans need a variety of food sources for survival and health, so do the orang-utans. In the course of our research in the Kinabatangan we have identified more than 300 different species of plant-life being consumed by the orang-utans in the forest, which is their natural habitat.
But Dr. Ancrenaz, if you found orang-utans within the palm oil landscape does that not mean they are surviving
Dr. A: No, it does not.
 Shots of a mother and child in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo by Dzulirwan @ Jolirwan bin Takasi/HUTAN. |
Why can’t they just stay put in the forest they are in, why do they disperse?
Dr. A.: Through dispersal the animals mix their genes and this process prevents inbreeding and other genetic disorders to happen in populations. In addition, small forests fragments can lead to overcrowding and fighting between orang-utans who are competing for scarce food resources. In this case, dispersal is necessary to regulate the number of animals who can survive in isolated forest patches.
So, what now
Dr. A: There is so much we can do right now to help the orang-utans in Sabah and our findings really give the opportunity to the oil palm industry to contribute to the protection of this species after having heavily contributed to its decline in the past. The priority would be for plantations to make serious effort to establish forest corridors throughout their estates to link isolated forests that are still home to orang-utans. However, this approach is site specific. Let me take the Kinabatangan Floodplain as an example. The participants of the recent 2009 Orang-utan Colloquium organized in Kota Kinabalu asked for the establishment of a contiguous corridor of forest for an absolute minimum of 100 meters along the river bank. Such a corridor would go a long way to assisting orang-utan crossing the oil palm landscape when they disperse as well as other wildlife such as the Bornean Elephant which is only found in Sabah and on the border with Indonesian Kalimantan.
Hasn’t this been done yet? Much has been written about such contributions within the Kinabatangan by the palm oil industry.
 Shots of a mother and child in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo by Dzulirwan @ Jolirwan bin Takasi/HUTAN. |
Dr. Marc Ancrenaz is a wildlife biologist with 20 years of experience in Africa, Saudi Arabia and Borneo. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as PLOS Biology, Nature, Animal Conservation, etc and is a reviewer for several scientific journals himself. Dr.. Ancrenaz is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of French Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) HUTAN which is based in the village of Sukau along the Kinabatangan River located on the East Coast of the State of Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Since, 1998, HUTAN has been working with the Sabah Wildlife Department on orang-utan conservation issues in the wild. Dr. Ancrenaz is also a member of the Advisory Panel with the Sabah Wildlife Department. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Section for Great Apes in the IUCN Species Survival Commission of the Primate Specialist Group.
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