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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/orangutans/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:48:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Orangutans</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/orangutans/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Flames reach edge of orangutan rehabilitation center, with fire season set to intensify</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 10:41:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07103831/Kebakaran-Rangkong-22-July_20260722_-MUFID_0434-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325527</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, Rehabilitation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rehabilitation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A wildfire that reached the edge of an orangutan rehabilitation center in western Borneo is highlighting how Indonesia&#8217;s intensifying fire season threatens not just forests and wildlife, but also the conservation work taking place within them. The fire stopped just short of the facility run by the nonprofit organization YIARI, where more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A wildfire that reached the edge of an orangutan rehabilitation center in western Borneo is highlighting how Indonesia&#8217;s intensifying fire season threatens not just forests and wildlife, but also the conservation work taking place within them. The fire stopped just short of the facility run by the nonprofit organization YIARI, where more than 60 critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are undergoing rehabilitation after being rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss. The fire broke out on July 22 about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Thick smoke blanketed the area as nearly 100 personnel from government agencies, the military, police and YIARI fought for hours to stop the flames before they reached the facility. &#8220;The fire reached the boundary of the rehabilitation center&#8217;s land,&#8221; YIARI CEO Karmele Llano Sánchez told Mongabay. Aerial view of the fire that broke out on July 22, 2026, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from YIARI&#8217;s orangutan rehabilitation center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Image courtesy of YIARI. She said the incident highlighted the importance of being prepared for fires. “If we had not responded quickly, part of our rehabilitation center might already have been destroyed by the fire,” Llano Sánchez said. Satellite imagery of the fire that broke out on July 22, 2026, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from YIARI&#8217;s orangutan rehabilitation center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Red&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Major orangutan study finds Sumatran population fell nearly 20% despite slower forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/major-orangutan-study-finds-sumatran-population-fell-nearly-20-despite-slower-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/major-orangutan-study-finds-sumatran-population-fell-nearly-20-despite-slower-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 08:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongJunaidi Hanafiah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/01134730/sabah_3983-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324552</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Global, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hydroelectric Power, Mammals, Mining, Orangutans, Peatlands, Poaching, Primates, Renewable Energy, Research, Tropical Deforestation, Wetlands, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The number of Sumatran orangutans has declined by nearly 20% in the past decade and the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan remains perilously close to extinction despite years of conservation efforts, according to a new study. The study, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, also suggests that habitat loss alone cannot explain the species&#8217; [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The number of Sumatran orangutans has declined by nearly 20% in the past decade and the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan remains perilously close to extinction despite years of conservation efforts, according to a new study. The study, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, also suggests that habitat loss alone cannot explain the species&#8217; decline. While deforestation remains the primary driver, several orangutan populations in Indonesia’s island of Sumatra shrank by a far greater degree than the rate of forest loss might explain, pointing to additional threats such as killing, conflict with humans and habitat fragmentation. The findings come from the first comprehensive reassessment of both Sumatran (Pongo abelii) and Tapanuli (Pongo tapanuliensis) orangutans since the landmark 2016 range-wide survey led by primatologist Serge Wich. The study also signals a notable shift in the Indonesian government&#8217;s public approach to orangutan conservation. Between 2018 and 2022, then environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar repeatedly said &#8220;ground-based evidence&#8221; showed orangutan populations were growing and dismissed projections of continued decline. Those claims were challenged at the time by prominent primatologists, who argued that peer-reviewed research consistently showed that the populations of all three orangutan species, Sumatran, Tapanuli and Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus), were declining and urged the ministry to release the data underpinning its assertions. The dispute escalated when the ministry temporarily barred several of the scientists from conducting research with Indonesia&#8217;s national parks and conservation agencies. The latest assessment of the animals presents a picture that’s markedly different from the previous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/major-orangutan-study-finds-sumatran-population-fell-nearly-20-despite-slower-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/major-orangutan-study-finds-sumatran-population-fell-nearly-20-despite-slower-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324552</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small-scale farming, logging eclipse megaprojects as top threats to Tapanuli orangutan habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/small-scale-farming-logging-eclipse-megaprojects-as-top-threats-to-tapanuli-orangutan-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/small-scale-farming-logging-eclipse-megaprojects-as-top-threats-to-tapanuli-orangutan-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2026 11:24:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/12041811/Orangutan_Tapanuli_Anakan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323335</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Business, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Forest Loss, Forestry, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Industrial Agriculture, Logging, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, Protected Areas, Subsistence Agriculture, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Large infrastructure projects have long dominated debate over the future of Indonesia&#8217;s Batang Toru ecosystem, the main stronghold of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. But a new study suggests that while those projects have accelerated forest loss, the greatest direct threat to the ape&#8217;s habitat now comes from a much less visible source: [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Large infrastructure projects have long dominated debate over the future of Indonesia&#8217;s Batang Toru ecosystem, the main stronghold of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. But a new study suggests that while those projects have accelerated forest loss, the greatest direct threat to the ape&#8217;s habitat now comes from a much less visible source: the cumulative impact of small-scale agriculture and logging. Recently published in the journal Biological Conservation, the study combines satellite imagery, causal inference, and years of ethnographic fieldwork — including interviews with local communities — to assess the drivers of forest loss in Batang Toru. Home to an estimated 716 Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis), Batang Toru lost 7,659 hectares (18,925 acres) of forest — about 5% of its forest cover — between 2000 and 2023, the researchers found. Forest loss accelerated markedly after 2012, increasing at a rate significantly higher than historical trends would have predicted. The shift coincided with the development of three major extractive projects in the landscape: the Martabe gold mine, the Batang Toru hydropower project, and the Sarulla geothermal project. Using a counterfactual analysis, the researchers estimated that Batang Toru lost an additional 3,472 hectares (8,579 acres) of forest after the projects began, compared with what would have been expected had they never happened. At the same time, however, the researchers found that small-scale agriculture and logging accounted for roughly 70% of direct forest loss in the landscape during the same period. The findings suggest that while large-scale development projects remain an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/small-scale-farming-logging-eclipse-megaprojects-as-top-threats-to-tapanuli-orangutan-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/small-scale-farming-logging-eclipse-megaprojects-as-top-threats-to-tapanuli-orangutan-habitat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323335</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lawmakers seek rights probe into Indigenous conflict at Indonesian timber firm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2026 10:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/27180141/Screenshot-2024-03-28-010118-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322966</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Products, Forestry, Great Apes, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Social Conflict, Tropical Deforestation, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented during the session strengthened indications of alleged structural and systematic human rights violations in the conflict. Responding to the hearing, Indonesia&#8217;s Ministry of Human Rights said it would conduct a more comprehensive review of the case, including field monitoring and coordination with other government agencies, as it prepares to investigate allegations of human rights violations linked to the conflict between PT Mayawana Persada and the Dayak Kualan community in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. The Dayak Kualan community alleges the company&#8217;s concession overlaps with its customary lands and forests, and that Mayawana proceeded to clear the area without obtaining its meaningful consent. Despite the community&#8217;s longstanding objections, Mayawana razed lands and forests that the Dayak Kualan community says form part of its customary territory, according to Tarsisius Fendy Sesupi, the customary chief of Lelayang, one of the Indigenous hamlets overlapped by the concession. &#8220;The company never sought the community&#8217;s agreement. It simply moved in and cleared everything,&#8221; he said at a recent press conference in Jakarta. In cases where community members agreed to relinquish their land, they did so under pressure and received only 1.5 million rupiah (about $83) per hectare, or $34 per acre,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322966</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia driver sentenced over organized crime group trafficking live orangutan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2026 11:01:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Junaidi Hanafiah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24104236/Satwa-yang-disita-oleh-tim-gabungan_Foto-Dokumen-Bea-Cukai-Langsa-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321753</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Great Apes, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Orangutans, Organized Crime, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EAST ACEH, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced a man in Aceh to three years in prison after investigators stopped him while driving a truck transporting dozens of live animals, among them a live Sumatran orangutan and two critically endangered birds. A panel of three judges ruled on June 17 that 41-year-old Agussalim [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EAST ACEH, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced a man in Aceh to three years in prison after investigators stopped him while driving a truck transporting dozens of live animals, among them a live Sumatran orangutan and two critically endangered birds. A panel of three judges ruled on June 17 that 41-year-old Agussalim bin Abdul Hamib, a farmer from Sumatra’s Kuta Makmur subdistrict in the semiautonomous region of Aceh, accepted a job to deliver a consignment in a white Isuzu Traga, a common light commercial vehicle, on Jan. 30, 2026, in North Aceh district. “We very much appreciate this legal ruling — this is an important lesson for the perpetrators and the wider community to refrain from engaging in illegal activities,” said Dwi Harmawanto, head of the customs and excise office in Langsa city. The original indictment published by the district court listed 82 live animals recovered by customs officers. Civil society organizations said it was the largest wildlife crime case tried in Aceh in years. The seized consignment also contained four dead Moluccan parrots (Eclectus roratus), which are currently listed as least concern on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species owing to its wide distribution in eastern Indonesia. In addition, investigators found a large number of frozen horseshoe crabs, and some skulls of dead animals. Prosecutors successfully proved Agussalim helped load the truck at a meeting point in the village of Alue Bili in the subdistrict of Baktiya. They said he was aware the cargo of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321753</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL adds major deforesters as suppliers after revising sustainability policy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:12:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15111219/DJI_0028-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321412</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Law, Orangutans, Primates, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Timber, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, the world’s largest manufacturer of viscose rayon, said the changes are needed to align its policies with international standards and secure fiber supplies following the loss of several long-term suppliers. Environmental groups, however, said the move weakens a key safeguard that APRIL has long cited as evidence of its no-deforestation commitments. The controversy centers on APRIL&#8217;s decision to add Indonesian concessions PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana) as its wood suppliers, integral to manufacturing viscose. Both companies, based on Kalimantan, have experienced extensive forest loss in recent years and have been repeatedly criticized by environmental groups. Previously, RGE and its subsidiaries, including APRIL, pledged not to source wood from plantations linked with deforestation since 2015. It is a pledge the company had reportedly broken. Its new corporate promise lowers the cutoff date to 2020, drawing sharp criticism from environmental groups. APRIL said IFP began delivering wood fiber to the company in May 2026. However, vessel-tracking data reviewed by Mongabay indicated that at least five barges carrying timber from the vicinity of IFP&#8217;s operations in Central Kalimantan were tracked traveling to Futong Port in Riau between mid-March and mid-April. Futong serves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321412</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate-fueled landslides killed an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/climate-fueled-landslides-killed-an-estimated-58-tapanuli-orangutans-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/climate-fueled-landslides-killed-an-estimated-58-tapanuli-orangutans-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2026 06:52:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15042253/Orangutan-tapanuli_Junaidi-Mongabay1-1536x1024-1-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321265</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Business, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Landslides, Mammals, Orangutans, Primary Forests, Primates, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Climate change has become a direct threat to the survival of the world&#8217;s rarest great ape, according to scientists, after landslides triggered by an unusually intense storm killed an estimated 58 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis) in Indonesia’s Batang Toru ecosystem. The estimate comes from a new study published in Current Biology, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Climate change has become a direct threat to the survival of the world&#8217;s rarest great ape, according to scientists, after landslides triggered by an unusually intense storm killed an estimated 58 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis) in Indonesia’s Batang Toru ecosystem. The estimate comes from a new study published in Current Biology, whose authors say the findings may represent one of the first examples of climate change immediately threatening the survival of an entire species. The researchers found that landslides triggered by extreme rainfall associated with Cyclone Senyar in November 2025 likely killed about 7% of the estimated global population of Tapanuli orangutans, which number fewer than 800 individuals and are concentrated in the Batang Toru landscape in North Sumatra. After analyzing satellite imagery, the researchers identified more than 50,000 individual landslide scars and estimated that about 8,300 hectares (20,500 acres) of forest in the western block of Batang Toru were affected by the disaster. The western block is considered the species&#8217; most important stronghold, hosting more than 500 orangutans and one of the three known population clusters within the Batang Toru landscape. The researchers believe most orangutans caught in the landslides died rather than being displaced because of the violence and speed of the event. While the landslides were relatively shallow, they moved extremely rapidly and transformed into channelized debris flows. With little or no warning, orangutans and other wildlife likely had little chance of escaping and may have been buried, drowned or fatally injured by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/climate-fueled-landslides-killed-an-estimated-58-tapanuli-orangutans-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/climate-fueled-landslides-killed-an-estimated-58-tapanuli-orangutans-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321265</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental group intervenes in lawsuit to help orangutans, tigers in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/environmental-group-intervenes-in-lawsuit-to-help-orangutans-tigers-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/environmental-group-intervenes-in-lawsuit-to-help-orangutans-tigers-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 13:08:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/12041811/Orangutan_Tapanuli_Anakan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320997</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deforestation, Disasters, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Recovery, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Law, Law Enforcement, Orangutans, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s oldest and largest environmental group, Walhi, has formally intervened in an environmental lawsuit filed by the government against a major logging company, arguing the government’s case fails to account for the full extent of ecological damage allegedly caused by the company’s operations. Walhi filed the intervention on May 20, 2026, in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s oldest and largest environmental group, Walhi, has formally intervened in an environmental lawsuit filed by the government against a major logging company, arguing the government’s case fails to account for the full extent of ecological damage allegedly caused by the company’s operations. Walhi filed the intervention on May 20, 2026, in the Medan District Court, where the environment ministry is seeking 3.89 trillion rupiah ($214 million) in damages and environmental restoration measures against pulpwood plantation operator PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL). The environmental group is not arguing that the ministry’s damages claim is too small. Instead, it says the lawsuit overlooks key ecological impacts, such as critical orangutan and tiger habitats, that should also be addressed through court-ordered restoration. In January 2026, the environment ministry filed lawsuits against six companies over alleged damage to watersheds in North Sumatra province, which the government says contributed to the floods and landslides that struck the region in late November 2025 following cyclone-driven storms across Sumatra. The government also announced the revocation of the permits for TPL and 27 other companies in January 2026. TPL later disclosed to investors that it had received a forestry ministry decree dated Jan. 26 formally revoking its forest-use license, and that it had subsequently ceased forest-use activities within its concession. The floods and landslides struck three provinces on the island of Sumatra, including North Sumatra, and claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people. In its lawsuit against TPL, the environment ministry identified 1,261.5 hectares&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/environmental-group-intervenes-in-lawsuit-to-help-orangutans-tigers-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/environmental-group-intervenes-in-lawsuit-to-help-orangutans-tigers-in-indonesia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320997</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists fear fires could erase years of orangutan habitat recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 10:34:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/01/02083516/sabah_3982-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, El Nino, Fires, Forests, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began restoring degraded orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province, after villagers repeatedly reported orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) entering farms and eating crops. The incursions were driven by habitat loss. Large parts of the surrounding forest had already been degraded, including during Indonesia’s catastrophic 2015 fire season, when more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land in and around the village were burned. Since then, YIARI, together with the government and local communities, have worked to restore the damaged landscape by planting trees that provide food for orangutans, with the hope that if enough food is available in the forest, the critically endangered apes will stop venturing into farmland. As of early 2026, the group had restored around 300 hectares (740 acres) with 150,000 trees, including fruit-bearing species favored by orangutans. Local community members planting trees at the restoration site of orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan. Image courtesy of YIARI. The work is especially important because the remaining orangutan habitat in the area has become increasingly fragmented. Illegal gold mining operations now surround much of the forest, leaving wildlife confined to shrinking patches of habitat. “Once&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>See an orangutan, take a photo, earn some money: A viable conservation model?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 22:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Linnea Hoover]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/10154758/orangutan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Kapuas Hulu district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, a pilot program is attempting to change how people living in Borneo perceive and engage with wildlife and wildlife conservation. KehatiKu, a play on the Indonesian words for “my heart” or “biodiversity,” was the brainchild of Borneo Futures, a scientific consultancy company, says biologist Erik Meijaard, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Kapuas Hulu district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, a pilot program is attempting to change how people living in Borneo perceive and engage with wildlife and wildlife conservation. KehatiKu, a play on the Indonesian words for “my heart” or “biodiversity,” was the brainchild of Borneo Futures, a scientific consultancy company, says biologist Erik Meijaard, the consultancy’s managing director. Under the program, citizen observers are offered small payments for recording and reporting wildlife sightings, collecting around 175,000 records in around a year of operations. In a video interview, Meijaard says the project came about because he was frustrated with inefficiency in conservation. In 2022, Meijaard worked on a study analyzing 20 years of efforts to save orangutans. The study found that from 2000-19, nearly $1 billion was spent on orangutan conservation worldwide, even as around 100,000 orangutans were lost. By offering small payments directly to residents, Meijaard says KehatiKu has shown concrete successes at a fraction of the cost of normal conservation. Photograph of a Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) submitted by a KehatiKu citizen observer. Participants can earn Rp. 100,000 (about $5.84) for finding and photographing orangutans. Image courtesy of Borneo Futures. He estimates the program is spending less than $1 per hectare (2.5 acres) per year across the 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) they are studying. For that money, they are both building community engagement and getting real-time data on multiple species ranging from common birds to rare and endangered species such as the flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps), Rhinoceros hornbill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying &#038; defending orangutans, has died at 79</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 03:21:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/26032516/birute-galdikas-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Obituary, Orangutans, Primates, Reintroductions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their forest habitat in Borneo and Sumatra was still vast, though already beginning to change. Logging roads were extending into areas that had long [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their forest habitat in Borneo and Sumatra was still vast, though already beginning to change. Logging roads were extending into areas that had long resisted access. The outlines of a larger problem were visible, even if its scale was not yet clear. At the same time, a small group of researchers was beginning to reshape how great apes were studied. Fieldwork, rather than captivity, became the preferred approach. Long-term observation replaced short expeditions. The premise was simple but demanding: to understand animals that were hard to find, one had to remain in place long enough for them to become familiar with human presence. Into this setting came a young graduate student with an interest in human evolution and a determination to study orangutans in their natural habitat, despite doubts that such work was feasible. With limited funding and little infrastructure, she established a research station in a remote peat swamp in Indonesian Borneo in 1971. Over time, that station would become one of the longest-running field sites for any wild mammal. Galdikas in the field. Photo courtesy of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI). Birutė Galdikas spent the next five decades working from that base. Her early years were marked less by discovery than by persistence. Finding orangutans could take weeks. Observing them required learning to move through dense forest and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil clearing advances in Bornean orangutan habitat despite red flags</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 01:50:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124058/sabah_3937-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316314</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Forests, Mammals, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is ramping up its destruction of forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the island of Borneo, according to satellite imagery and government sources. In October 2025, Mongabay reported that PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) had clear-cut 1,376 hectares (3,400 acres) of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is ramping up its destruction of forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the island of Borneo, according to satellite imagery and government sources. In October 2025, Mongabay reported that PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) had clear-cut 1,376 hectares (3,400 acres) of forest between January and August 2025, based on satellite image analysis by Satya Bumi, an Indonesian environmental nonprofit. Prior to that, ESR had cleared no more than 195 hectares (482 acres) of forest. The company is operating within a 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) oil palm plantation concession in Kapuas Hulu, a district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province. Now, an updated analysis by Satya Bumi shows that ESR further accelerated its rainforest clearing in the final quarter of 2025, razing an additional 1,492 hectares (3,687 acres) of forest from October to December. It has now cleared a total of 3,063 hectares (7,569 acres) of forest within its concession, according to Satya Bumi. Map that shows deforestation in palm oil company PT Equator Sumber Rezeki&#8217;s concession in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. ESR’s concession overlaps with part of the Labian–Leboyan watershed, a wildlife corridor connecting Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum national parks — two of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). The corridor and parks form part of the UNESCO-designated Betung Kerihun–Danau Sentarum Biosphere Reserve, whose forests sustain hundreds of species of wildlife, including sun bears, hornbills and giant rafflesia flowers. They also provide&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316314</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s orangutan trafficking cases reveal need for a change in approach (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesias-orangutan-trafficking-cases-reveal-need-for-a-change-in-approach-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesias-orangutan-trafficking-cases-reveal-need-for-a-change-in-approach-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 13:08:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Onrizal Onrizal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/11212405/Juv-of-Sumatran-orangutan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315549</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Commentary, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Great Apes, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Orangutans, Pet Trade, Trade, trafficking, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For months, four infant orangutans lived in limbo in Thailand — not as pets, but as evidence. Confiscated in two separate trafficking cases, they were cared for at the Khao Pratubchang Wildlife Rescue Centre while investigators built their files. On Dec. 23, 2025, the babies finally came home: three Sumatran orangutans and one critically endangered [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For months, four infant orangutans lived in limbo in Thailand — not as pets, but as evidence. Confiscated in two separate trafficking cases, they were cared for at the Khao Pratubchang Wildlife Rescue Centre while investigators built their files. On Dec. 23, 2025, the babies finally came home: three Sumatran orangutans and one critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan, handed over by Thai authorities and repatriated for rehabilitation in North Sumatra. The images were moving — and they mattered. But a hard truth sits behind every heartwarming handover: if the pipeline stays open, the next baby will already be on the move. Just five weeks later, on Jan. 30, 2026, Indonesian officers in East Aceh stopped a truck carrying 53 packages filled with hundreds of protected wildlife specimens and parts, allegedly bound for Thailand. Seen together, these episodes read less like isolated crimes and more like a repeating pattern: seizure, repatriation, new shipment. Wildlife trafficking is an adaptive, transnational business. Repatriation is essential and humane, but it is not a strategy. Prevention is the strategy, and prevention starts by making trafficking unprofitable. Juvenile orangutans confiscated from a trafficker in Indonesia&#8217;s Aceh province in 2015. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah for Mongabay. Transnational supply pipeline, not “petty crime” Orangutan trafficking and the broader trade in protected wildlife function like a supply chain: capture at the source → local collectors → transporters → cross-border smugglers → end-market buyers. In this chain, couriers are replaceable; organizers and financiers are not. Infant orangutans are especially lucrative because&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesias-orangutan-trafficking-cases-reveal-need-for-a-change-in-approach-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 01:38:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09070406/man-with-chicken-Batang-Toru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313214</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Orangutans, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November 2025, which killed about 1,200 people across Indonesia’s main western island. The audit found that the 28 companies had violated various rules, including the 2009 law on environmental protection, and bore responsibility for environmental damage linked to the disasters. Authorities still haven’t disclose detailed findings or evidence for each case. The audit results were presented to President Prabowo Subianto during an online meeting on Jan. 19. “Based on that report, the president decided to revoke the permits of 28 companies that were proven to have committed violations,” State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said at a press conference on Jan. 20, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia. The move signals a shift in how administrative enforcement is framed in Indonesia, with permit sanctions now explicitly justified by post-disaster accountability rather than routine compliance alone. The revoked permits include 22 forest utilization permits (PBPH) for operating in natural and plantation forests, covering a combined area of about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) — roughly one-third the size of Belgium — as well as six mining, plantation and timber forest product utilization permits (PBPHHK). Among the affected permit holders is major pulpwood producer PT Toba&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313214</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods &#038; landslides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2026 06:21:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03233535/AP25336560227612-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Disasters, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Law, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Mining, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In the wake of the deadly floods and landslides that struck Indonesia in late 2025, the nation’s environment ministry has sued six companies, seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages linked to the disasters. Following devastating floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November, which killed more than 1,100 people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In the wake of the deadly floods and landslides that struck Indonesia in late 2025, the nation’s environment ministry has sued six companies, seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages linked to the disasters. Following devastating floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November, which killed more than 1,100 people across Indonesia’s main western island of Sumatra, the ministry launched an investigation into 70 companies operating in the region to examine possible links between corporate activities and the disasters. This week, the environment ministry’s law enforcement department announced the preliminary results of its investigation. Six companies, it said, were responsible for alleged damage to watersheds in North Sumatra province, involving the clearing of 2,516 hectares (6,217 acres) of rainforest, particularly in and around the Batang Toru and Garoga watersheds. “The reason these companies are being sued is that, based on expert studies, alleged environmental damage was found around the Garoga watershed and the Batang Toru watershed,” said Dodi Kurniawan, the director of environmental dispute resolution at the ministry, during a press conference in Jakarta on Jan. 15. Sentinel-2 imagery (natural colors, 10-meter spatial resolution) over the rainforest of Batang Toru, home to the Tapanuli orangutan, taken before and after the extreme rainfall event that caused havoc in Sumatra in late November 2025. The before image was taken on Oct. 27, 2025; the after image on Dec. 3, 2025, showing patches of bare soil suddenly appearing. Image courtesy of TheTreeMap. The steep rainforest hills of Batang&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 10:53:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15024645/AP25342772562499-Batang_Toru-Sumatra-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312648</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Disasters, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Flooding, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Orangutans, Plantations, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Best known as the home of the world’s rarest great ape, the mountainous Batang Toru forest landscape on the island of Sumatra has become a test case for whether Indonesia can enforce environmental law in a region where mining, energy and plantation projects overlap with fragile ecosystems. In late November 2025, a rare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Best known as the home of the world’s rarest great ape, the mountainous Batang Toru forest landscape on the island of Sumatra has become a test case for whether Indonesia can enforce environmental law in a region where mining, energy and plantation projects overlap with fragile ecosystems. In late November 2025, a rare tropical cyclone, Senyar, swept across this part of northern Sumatra, bringing extreme rainfall that triggered flash floods and landslides in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. The disaster killed at least 1,178 people and displaced around 1 million others, according to government figures, making it one of Indonesia’s deadliest natural disasters in recent history. While the storm provided the immediate trigger, climatologists and environmental researchers say the scale of the destruction can’t be attributed to extreme weather alone. They point also to decades of deforestation, land clearing and landscape alteration that have weakened natural buffers across Sumatra’s upland watersheds. “Extreme weather was only the initial trigger,” Erma Yulihastin, a climate researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said at a recent public discussion in Jakarta on disaster risk. “The destructive impact was shaped by weakened environmental buffers upstream.” The government appears to have acknowledged this, with Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq announcing on Dec. 23, 2025, an investigation into eight companies operating in the Batang Toru watershed, to assess whether their activities may have contributed to the floods and landslides. The ministry also ordered all eight companies to cease operations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster relief</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 04:56:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Junaidi Hanafiah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18164055/Gajah-bantu-banjir4-2400x890-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Disasters, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Flooding, Orangutans, Rainforests, Storms, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the veteran responders supported rescuers after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. “They’re guided by mahouts who know very well the characteristics of the elephants,” said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the veteran responders supported rescuers after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. “They’re guided by mahouts who know very well the characteristics of the elephants,” said Ujang Wisnu Barata, head of the Aceh conservation agency, the BKSDA. Rescuers in Indonesia’s westernmost region seconded the experienced squad of four to clear heavy debris in the coastal district of Pidie Jaya in semiautonomous Aceh, as recovery operations continued for a third week across much of the north and west of Sumatra Island. Many affected villages remain cut off due to extensive debris and landslides. Cyclone Senyar arrived over northern Sumatra in the early hours of Nov. 26 with 3-hour precipitation accumulation exceeding 130 millimeters (5 inches), meteorology data showed, which is more rain in three hours than the U.K. usually receives through its wettest month of the year. The number of people killed here in Pidie Jaya district stood at 29 on Dec. 18, with the total death toll rising to 1,059 people across three provinces (Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra) amid the worst disaster to hit Indonesia in years. Male elephants Abu, Ajis and Midok, working together with Noni, a female Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), received the assignment in Pidie Jaya district from their base at the Saree Elephant Training Center, which is located in nearby Aceh Besar district. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapanuli-orangutan-devastated-by-cyclone-now-faces-habitat-loss-under-zoning-plans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapanuli-orangutan-devastated-by-cyclone-now-faces-habitat-loss-under-zoning-plans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 13:50:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Achmad Rizki MuazamHans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15042126/Orangutan-tapanuli_Junaidi-Mongabay3-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311641</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Disasters, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Mammals, Orangutans, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Reeling from a cyclone that may have erased a chunk of its population, the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape population, now faces the prospect of losing more of its already constricted habitat. Just weeks before a rare tropical storm in the Malacca Strait unleashed torrential rains and mudslides that wiped out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Reeling from a cyclone that may have erased a chunk of its population, the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape population, now faces the prospect of losing more of its already constricted habitat. Just weeks before a rare tropical storm in the Malacca Strait unleashed torrential rains and mudslides that wiped out part of the Batang Toru forest in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, local authorities proposed a zoning overhaul that would make it easier to weaken environmental scrutiny for development projects in the region. At a meeting on Oct. 22 in Medan, the North Sumatra provincial capital, they called for scaling back the area zoned as “strategic” by nearly a third, from 240,985 to 163,402 hectares (595,487 to 403,775 acres). The “provincial strategic area” designation in the context of natural ecosystems means that zoning in the area must prioritize ecological functions, assess land-use decisions at the landscape scale, and subject applications for activities such as mining and plantations to extra scrutiny. Removing that designation weakens the legal basis for rejecting projects that pose environmental risks. Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), who attended the Medan meeting, said the plan would devastate the western sector of Batang Toru that’s home to the highest density of Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis). “If Batang Toru is excluded, the landscape would lose legal recognition as a critical ecosystem,” he told Mongabay. “The western block — the largest block [of orangutan habitat] — would no longer be part of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapanuli-orangutan-devastated-by-cyclone-now-faces-habitat-loss-under-zoning-plans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311641</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 04:01:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/28121816/bornean-orangutan-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310408</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts to curb deforestation. The company, PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR), is a subsidiary of the Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, owned by Indonesian tycoon Alexander Thaslim. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts to curb deforestation. The company, PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR), is a subsidiary of the Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, owned by Indonesian tycoon Alexander Thaslim. It has cleared nearly 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of rainforest since it began operating last year in Kapuas Hulu, a landlocked district deep in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, near the border with Malaysia. ESR’s 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) oil palm plantation concession overlaps with part of the Labian–Leboyan watershed, a wildlife corridor connecting Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum national parks — two of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Conservationists estimate that as much as 80% of the concession area contains rainforest deemed of high conservation value, making it especially vital to protect. Orangutans inhabit about a quarter of the concession, according to a government-backed study from 2016. The corridor and parks form part of the Betung Kerihun–Danau Sentarum Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO in 2018. Its forests sustain hundreds of species of fish, birds and mammals, including rare hornbills and giant rafflesia flowers, and provide water, food and livelihoods for Indigenous Dayak communities whose cultures are deeply tied to the land. The location of PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR)&#8217;s palm oil concession in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, which overlaps with a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Despite the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310408</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tapanuli-orangutan-sumatra-endangered-ape-conservation-forest-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tapanuli-orangutan-sumatra-endangered-ape-conservation-forest-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 02:05:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Junaidi Hanafiah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15042253/Orangutan-tapanuli_Junaidi-Mongabay1-1536x1024-1-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307657</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Infrastructure, Logging, Mammals, Orangutans, Primary Forests, Primates, Protected Areas, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CENTRAL TAPANULI, Indonesia — Since it was first described by scientists in 2017, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of the world’s rarest great apes, was believed to live only in the Batang Toru forest of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. But new findings reveal that the species (Pongo tapanuliensis) also inhabits a peat swamp forest some 32 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CENTRAL TAPANULI, Indonesia — Since it was first described by scientists in 2017, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of the world’s rarest great apes, was believed to live only in the Batang Toru forest of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. But new findings reveal that the species (Pongo tapanuliensis) also inhabits a peat swamp forest some 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, adding a new layer to the understanding of its range. On Sept. 26, 2025, a field team from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Foundation–Orangutan Information Centre (YOSL-OIC), accompanied by Mongabay Indonesia journalist Junaidi Hanafiah, documented a mother and infant orangutan in the secondary forest of Lumut Maju village in Central Tapanuli district. The observation followed hours of trekking through thick vegetation, and the sighting became the first confirmed record of Tapanuli orangutans in this area, which borders the Indian Ocean. The location first drew attention in 2022, when local residents reported orangutan sightings to YOSL-OIC’s Human-Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU). Initial verification found no apes, but did reveal five nests. Later that year, HOCRU and the YOSL-OIC research team returned for further monitoring across the 1,234-hectare (3,049-acre) peat swamp. They found 17 nests, several newly constructed, indicating active use of the forest by orangutans. “We found new nests that we categorized as class one nests, which we can confirm to have orangutans,” Rio Ardi, the research manager at YOSL-OIC, told Mongabay. A previously unknown home of Tapanuli orangutans has been discovered in a peat swamp forest in North Sumatra. Image by Junaidi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tapanuli-orangutan-sumatra-endangered-ape-conservation-forest-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tapanuli-orangutan-sumatra-endangered-ape-conservation-forest-indonesia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307657</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia aims to redraw UNESCO site boundaries to allow geothermal projects</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-aims-to-redraw-unesco-site-boundaries-to-allow-geothermal-projects/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-aims-to-redraw-unesco-site-boundaries-to-allow-geothermal-projects/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 09:53:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/04/27072857/Sumatran-rhino-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306806</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Elephants, Energy, Environment, Forests, Geothermal Energy, Orangutans, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, Tigers, Tropical Forests, and UNESCO World Heritage Site]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is seeking to redraw the boundaries of a UNESCO World Heritage rainforest to pave the way for geothermal projects — part of its renewable energy push but a move environmentalists warn could devastate biodiversity and tarnish the country’s green reputation. The Ministry of Forestry has proposed excluding two degraded areas — Suoh [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is seeking to redraw the boundaries of a UNESCO World Heritage rainforest to pave the way for geothermal projects — part of its renewable energy push but a move environmentalists warn could devastate biodiversity and tarnish the country’s green reputation. The Ministry of Forestry has proposed excluding two degraded areas — Suoh and Sekincau in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, Lampung province — from the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS). The TRHS is a 2.5 million-hectare (6.2 million-acre) site that also spans Gunung Leuser and Kerinci Seblat national parks, making it one of the largest conservation areas in Southeast Asia and the last habitat for many endangered animals. Officials say the boundary change would free up some of the site’s vast geothermal potential, estimated at 5 gigawatts (GW), while maintaining TRHS’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) required by UNESCO. “TRHS sites cannot [be used for geothermal], but we know there is huge potential there. It would be a pity not to make use of it,” said Satyawan Pudyatmoko, the ministry’s director-general of ecosystem conservation, as quoted by local media Sept. 18. The government submitted the proposal in November 2023, with a decision expected in 2027. Location of Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS), UNESCO 2017 A clash of definitions As a country that heavily relies on coal for its power generation, Indonesia has pledged to transition away from fossil fuels and scale up renewable energy as part of its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Geothermal, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-aims-to-redraw-unesco-site-boundaries-to-allow-geothermal-projects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-aims-to-redraw-unesco-site-boundaries-to-allow-geothermal-projects/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306806</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global brands join drive for deforestation-free palm oil in Indonesia’s Aceh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-brands-join-drive-for-deforestation-free-palm-oil-in-indonesias-aceh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-brands-join-drive-for-deforestation-free-palm-oil-in-indonesias-aceh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2025 10:11:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/12174448/orangutan-with-light-flare-leuser-r-butler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304783</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Leuser Ecosystem, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, International Trade, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Some of the world’s biggest consumer brands are banding together to tackle deforestation in one of Earth’s richest biodiversity hotspots in Indonesia. The companies, including Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, on Aug. 13 launched the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group, which brings together major palm oil buyers, producers and refineries to align with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Some of the world’s biggest consumer brands are banding together to tackle deforestation in one of Earth’s richest biodiversity hotspots in Indonesia. The companies, including Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, on Aug. 13 launched the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group, which brings together major palm oil buyers, producers and refineries to align with a newly established road map for sustainable palm oil in the province of Aceh, on the island of Sumatra. The working group, the first province-level initiative of its kind in Indonesia, is “a much-needed, long-overdue step towards halting the devastating effects of palm oil expansion in this vital region,” U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) forest policy director Gemma Tillack said in a statement. Stakeholders pose together during the launch of the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group in Aceh in August 2025. Image courtesy of IDH. Forest loss pressures Despite its ecological importance, Aceh continues to face pressure from palm oil-driven deforestation. The province is home to Southeast Asia’s largest and most carbon-rich peatlands, as well as the Leuser Ecosystem — the last place on Earth where critically endangered Sumatran elephants, tigers, orangutans and rhinoceroses coexist in the wild. The Leuser landscape is part of the UNESCO-listed Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra World Heritage Site and is also designated as a Biosphere Reserve. Deforestation in Aceh fell after a peak in 2009, but has been on the rise again since 2021. Between 2020 and 2024, the province lost 41,834 hectares (103,374 acres) of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-brands-join-drive-for-deforestation-free-palm-oil-in-indonesias-aceh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-brands-join-drive-for-deforestation-free-palm-oil-in-indonesias-aceh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304783</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Orangutans make up for lost sleep with daytime naps, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/orangutans-make-up-for-lost-sleep-with-daytime-naps-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/orangutans-make-up-for-lost-sleep-with-daytime-naps-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 05:23:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24051616/Banner_Adult_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303107</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Forests, Great Apes, Orangutans, Primates, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to sleeping, few animals are as fastidious as orangutans. Each evening, as twilight approaches, the tree-dwelling great apes meticulously weave a cup-shaped nest out of branches, twigs and leaves, line it with comfortable soft foliage, and bed down for the night. The nest secures them high in the forest canopy and allows [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to sleeping, few animals are as fastidious as orangutans. Each evening, as twilight approaches, the tree-dwelling great apes meticulously weave a cup-shaped nest out of branches, twigs and leaves, line it with comfortable soft foliage, and bed down for the night. The nest secures them high in the forest canopy and allows them to grab up to 12 or 13 hours of shut-eye per night. For more than a decade, researchers studying a group of Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) in the forests of Indonesia’s Aceh province had observed individuals also taking daytime naps in more makeshift nests. They wondered whether the napping orangutans were catching up on poor sleep the previous night, in much the same way humans might flop down in an armchair or sofa for a quick power nap. In a new study published in Current Biology, the researchers show that the orangutans do indeed compensate for a poor night’s sleep by napping more the following day. They found the shorter an individual’s sleep period overnight, the longer its cumulative nap period the next day. “We were always wondering over many years, is this really what is happening? Are they really napping more when they had a shorter night’s sleep?” Caroline Schuppli, study co-author and group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior at the University of Konstanz in Germany, told Mongabay in an interview. “To see it materialize in the data was really nice.” The findings are based on 14 years of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/orangutans-make-up-for-lost-sleep-with-daytime-naps-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/orangutans-make-up-for-lost-sleep-with-daytime-naps-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303107</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Orangutan habitat under siege as palm oil company clears forest in Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/orangutan-habitat-under-siege-as-palm-oil-company-clears-forest-in-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/orangutan-habitat-under-siege-as-palm-oil-company-clears-forest-in-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2025 02:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/22043832/kalteng_0856-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298302</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Apes, Biodiversity, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, International Trade, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is gearing up to expand into critical orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo, raising alarms over the survival of the critically endangered great apes. PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) is part of Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, which is currently one of the most active deforesters in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is gearing up to expand into critical orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo, raising alarms over the survival of the critically endangered great apes. PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) is part of Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, which is currently one of the most active deforesters in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. ESR recently started clearing forest inside its 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) concession in West Kalimantan province. An analysis by U.S.-based campaign group Mighty Earth found that more than 200 hectares (about 500 acres) of forest had been cleared in the far west of ESR’s concession between August 2024 and February 2025. Mapping analysis of deforestation in palm oil company PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR), part of First Borneo Group, in West Kalimantan. Image courtesy of Mighty Earth. And there are signs ESR plans to clear even more forest. The company is currently in the process of mapping the exact boundaries of its concession, which covers an area the size of Washington, D.C., and surveying the land to match physical terrain with legal land parcels, a process known as cadastral registration. This process typically precedes the issuance of a license known as the right to cultivate, or HGU, which is the final one in a series of permits needed before large-scale land clearing and plantation activity can begin. The issue with this is that the ESR concession consists of mostly intact, high-quality forest. Although First Borneo Group has never conducted an official assessment, conservationists estimate that at least&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/orangutan-habitat-under-siege-as-palm-oil-company-clears-forest-in-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/orangutan-habitat-under-siege-as-palm-oil-company-clears-forest-in-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As apes adapt to human disturbance, their new behaviors also put them at risk: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/as-apes-adapt-to-human-disturbance-their-new-behaviors-also-put-them-at-risk-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/as-apes-adapt-to-human-disturbance-their-new-behaviors-also-put-them-at-risk-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2025 17:30:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/24131520/orangutan-borneo-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296353</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Human activities such as mining, agriculture, urbanization, damming and logging threaten the habitats of great apes in Africa and Asia. Apes have shown resilience to these disruptions by adapting their behavior in a variety of ways, including crop raiding and changing nesting sites, a new study finds. But while such adjustments appear to facilitate their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Human activities such as mining, agriculture, urbanization, damming and logging threaten the habitats of great apes in Africa and Asia. Apes have shown resilience to these disruptions by adapting their behavior in a variety of ways, including crop raiding and changing nesting sites, a new study finds. But while such adjustments appear to facilitate their short-term survival, they can make apes vulnerable to more dangers in the long term. “Under many contexts changing great ape behavior is putting a strain on the human-ape relationship, resulting in injury, harassment and even the killing of apes,” reads the study, a global review of studies on apes’ adaptations to human-caused disturbances. Since great apes are both behaviorally flexible and among the most threatened species on the planet, identifying patterns in their responses to human-generated disturbances can help categorize common concerns and long-term outcomes, the researchers say. Co-author Miranda Gilbert, from the Great Ape Behaviour (GAB) Laboratory at the University of Victoria in Canada, told Mongabay that since human activities are increasingly affecting ecosystems, it’s important to understand how wildlife cope with such changes. This, she said, helps us determine whether certain species can survive such changes in the long term, as well as understand any additional impacts animals may experience due to behaviors they adopt in order to survive in the altered environment, or because they decide to move to new habitats. Together, these help generate effective conservation strategies. In this study, Gilbert and co-author Ammie Kalan, head of the GAB Lab, conducted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/as-apes-adapt-to-human-disturbance-their-new-behaviors-also-put-them-at-risk-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/as-apes-adapt-to-human-disturbance-their-new-behaviors-also-put-them-at-risk-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global outcry as petitioners demand no mining expansion in orangutan habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/global-outcry-as-petitioners-demand-no-mining-expansion-in-orangutan-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/global-outcry-as-petitioners-demand-no-mining-expansion-in-orangutan-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 15:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/11154114/Orangutan_Tapanuli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296088</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mining, Orangutans, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition calling on U.K. multinational Jardine Matheson to cancel its plan to expand deeper into Indonesia’s Batang Toru Forest, the only known habitat of the world’s most threatened great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan. Jardines is the parent company of Indonesian conglomerate Astra International, which in turn is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition calling on U.K. multinational Jardine Matheson to cancel its plan to expand deeper into Indonesia’s Batang Toru Forest, the only known habitat of the world’s most threatened great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan. Jardines is the parent company of Indonesian conglomerate Astra International, which in turn is the parent of Agincourt Resources, the company operating the Martabe gold mine in northern Sumatra. From 2016 to 2020, Agincourt cleared 100 hectares (about 250 acres) of forest in its concession. And it’s set to clear even more under its expansion plan, which calls for a new site for its mining waste, or tailings, as the current tailings facility nears capacity and production is expected to ramp up. Location of the Martabe gold mine in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Under the plan, laid out in the company’s 2020 environmental impact assessment, 583 hectares (1,441 acres) will have to be cleared for the tailings site, service roads, a dam and a buffer zone, according to Riezcy Cecilia Dewi, a campaigner at Indonesian environmental NGO Satya Bumi. She said this is much larger than the total 98 hectares (242 acres) that Agincourt stated in January 2024 would be needed for the tailings facility and for slope stability and drainage. But regardless of how much deforestation the expansion plan entails, any clearing of the native forest will be devastating for the survival of the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), Riezcy said. The critically endangered species has a total estimated population&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/global-outcry-as-petitioners-demand-no-mining-expansion-in-orangutan-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Surge in legal land clearing pushes up Indonesia deforestation rate in 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/surge-in-legal-land-clearing-pushes-up-indonesia-deforestation-rate-in-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/surge-in-legal-land-clearing-pushes-up-indonesia-deforestation-rate-in-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 04:53:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/07035830/6-pt-ksm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294051</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Papua, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mining, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation is once again rising after several years of decline, with 2024 marking the highest rate since 2021. The data also show that the vast majority of forest loss is legal, a stark difference from previous periods dominated by illegal deforestation. The country lost 261,575 hectares (646,366 acres) of forests, an area [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation is once again rising after several years of decline, with 2024 marking the highest rate since 2021. The data also show that the vast majority of forest loss is legal, a stark difference from previous periods dominated by illegal deforestation. The country lost 261,575 hectares (646,366 acres) of forests, an area four times the size of Jakarta. That’s up 1.6% from 2023, according to data from environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara, which has been monitoring the country’s forest cover for years. “While it’s only 4,000 hectares [nearly 10,000 acres] of increase [in forest loss], it’s still a worrying trend,” Auriga Nusantara director Timer Manurung told Mongabay. “At a time when natural forests [in Indonesia] keep shrinking, this number is still significant.” This increase after years of declining deforestation shows how the government has failed to protect the country’s remaining forests, estimated at less than 90 million hectares (222 million acres), according to official data, Timer said. While the government has issued a number of forest protection policies, they’re aimed mainly at restricting the issuance of new concessions for plantations and other commercial activities that involve clearing forests. But there’s no policy to protect the remaining stands of forest that lie within existing concessions that have already been granted by the government, Timer said. In fact, the government incentivizes companies to clear forests within their concessions once they have the permits to do so, and punishes them for not doing so fast enough by rescinding the concessions and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/surge-in-legal-land-clearing-pushes-up-indonesia-deforestation-rate-in-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/surge-in-legal-land-clearing-pushes-up-indonesia-deforestation-rate-in-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294051</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coming to a retailer near you: Illegal palm oil from an orangutan haven</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coming-to-a-retailer-near-you-illegal-palm-oil-from-an-orangutan-haven/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coming-to-a-retailer-near-you-illegal-palm-oil-from-an-orangutan-haven/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2025 11:36:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/12174448/orangutan-with-light-flare-leuser-r-butler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293374</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Great Apes, International Trade, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Illegal deforestation has reportedly surged to record levels in a wildlife reserve at the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island that’s known as the “orangutan capital of the world.” A newly published report by U.S.-based NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says 2,577 hectares (6,368 acres) of forests in Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Illegal deforestation has reportedly surged to record levels in a wildlife reserve at the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island that’s known as the “orangutan capital of the world.” A newly published report by U.S.-based NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says 2,577 hectares (6,368 acres) of forests in Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve have been cleared since 2015, with deforestation spiking dramatically between 2021 and 2023. Map of the Leuser Ecosystem, of which the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve is a part of. RAN said these rates of deforestation are unprecedented over the last decade that it’s been monitoring the region. And since it occurred after the cutoff date for eligibility for an important “no deforestation” framework, it raises concerns about both deforestation-free commitments and the efficacy of global conservation efforts. Palm oil from trees grown on this illegally deforested land risks entering the supply chains of major consumer brands like Procter &amp; Gamble, Nestlé, Mondelēz, PepsiCo and Nissin Foods, the report warned. Some of the brands and palm oil traders have acted in response to the report, including by suspending sourcing from illegal plantations and launching investigations into the matter. But observers question whether these actions are enough to halt illegal deforestation in the wildlife reserve. Significant areas of forests are being cleared inside Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve to make way for new illegal palm oil plantations, north of the Ie Meudama village, Aceh Selatan. Image courtesy of Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Significance of Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve Rawa&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coming-to-a-retailer-near-you-illegal-palm-oil-from-an-orangutan-haven/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293374</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian company defies order, plants acacia in orangutan habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/indonesian-company-defies-order-plants-acacia-in-orangutan-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/indonesian-company-defies-order-plants-acacia-in-orangutan-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jan 2025 16:42:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/31135707/orangutan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292676</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Orangutans, Peatlands, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian company responsible for the largest amount of deforestation, PT Mayawana Persada, has largely ceased clearing peatlands in the western part of Borneo. However, it has shifted focus to planting acacia trees on previously cleared peatlands, defying a government directive to halt activities and rehabilitate degraded land. Environmental activists warn that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian company responsible for the largest amount of deforestation, PT Mayawana Persada, has largely ceased clearing peatlands in the western part of Borneo. However, it has shifted focus to planting acacia trees on previously cleared peatlands, defying a government directive to halt activities and rehabilitate degraded land. Environmental activists warn that the company’s actions pose ongoing threats to the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), whose habitats overlap significantly with the concession. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry issued a directive on March 28, 2024, ordering Mayawana Persada to stop logging in its pulpwood concession and focus on restoring damaged peatlands. Despite this, the company has continued planting acacia trees on cleared peatlands, including in areas designated as protected. “The forestry ministry should act tougher by ordering Mayawana Persada to halt all activities and begin rehabilitating the damaged land,” said Andi Muttaqien, executive director of the environmental NGO Satya Bumi. Satellite imagery and field visits by Satya Bumi revealed young acacia trees planted in areas like Padu Banjar and Sungai Mata-Mata villages. Analysis in September 2024 also detected heavy machinery building canals in the Sungai Mata-Mata village, supporting further planting activities. Newly planted acacia trees in Mayawana Persada&#8217;s pulpwood concession in North Kayong, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, on December 13, 2024. The age of the acacia trees indicate that the planting was done after the forestry ministry had ordered Mayawana Persada to halt activities, according to Restu Diantina Putri, a communication strategist from Satya Bumi who made the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/indonesian-company-defies-order-plants-acacia-in-orangutan-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292676</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Canopy bridges serve a lifeline for Sumatra’s tree-dwelling primates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/sumatra-orangutan-forest-fragmentation-canopy-bridge-endangered-wildlife-roads-primates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/sumatra-orangutan-forest-fragmentation-canopy-bridge-endangered-wildlife-roads-primates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 00:56:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/30104027/Langurs-using-bridges-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289425</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Great Apes, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Orangutans, Rainforests, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, conservation groups and authorities have built canopy bridges that stitch back together primate habitat, including for orangutans, that were fragmented by roads over the years. Road building has expanded throughout Pakpak Bharat district to connect communities living on the edges of the forest to schools, hospitals and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, conservation groups and authorities have built canopy bridges that stitch back together primate habitat, including for orangutans, that were fragmented by roads over the years. Road building has expanded throughout Pakpak Bharat district to connect communities living on the edges of the forest to schools, hospitals and other facilities. For the region’s wildlife, however, these roads have reduced connectivity between habitats, especially for tree-dwelling primates like the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii). Wildlife movements across habitats are essential to sustaining viable populations, according to ecological surveys by the Resilient Equatorial Forests Foundation (TaHuKah), an NGO based in Medan, the provincial capital, which started working in the area in 2022. &#8220;This [canopy bridges] project was born from a shared vision with the local authorities, recognizing that alongside essential development like road infrastructure, we must safeguard the movement of wildlife,” Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of TaHuKah, told Mongabay in an email. A team from the Resilient Equatorial Forests Foundation (TaHuKah) and Vertical Rescue Indonesia builds a canopy bridge for primate connectivity in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. Image courtesy of TaHuKah. The foundation approached local public works authorities, forest management units, and communities to build artificial canopy bridges to stitch back together the landscapes fragmented by new and upgraded roads. TaHuKah also partnered with the conservation group Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), which helped identify the fragmented, smaller populations of the great apes and viable ways to reconnect them based on data from the last&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/sumatra-orangutan-forest-fragmentation-canopy-bridge-endangered-wildlife-roads-primates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289425</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Orangutan conservation and communication: Gary Shapiro’s half-century journey from zoos to the wilds of Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2024 16:19:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/06211346/Gary-and-Rinnie-Brindamour-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288231</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Green, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro.  A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro.  A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing not only groundbreaking studies in orangutan cognition but also a lifelong commitment to their conservation. Now, as his book Out of the Cage: My Half Century Journey from Curiosity to Concern for Indonesia&#8217;s “Persons of the Forest” prepares to hit the shelves, Shapiro reflects on the unique journey that brought him from the academic study of animal behavior to the jungles of Borneo, where he lived among and communicated with ex-captive orangutans. Shapiro’s foray into the world of orangutan communication was almost serendipitous. As a graduate student in the 1970s, he was inspired by the pioneering work of Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner, who had famously taught a chimpanzee to use American Sign Language. Shapiro soon found himself at Fresno City Zoo, where a juvenile orangutan named Aazk became the first of her kind to be taught an artificial symbolic language. This initial research planted the seeds of what would become Shapiro’s lifelong fascination with orangutan cognition and communication, leading him to a remote part of Indonesian Borneo in the late 1970s, where he conducted the first study of sign language in great apes living in their natural environment. Ex-captive orangutans at Camp Leakey in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288231</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hold my ointment: Wild orangutan observed healing wound with medicinal plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/wild-orangutan-medicinal-plant-sumatra-endangered-species-indonesia-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/wild-orangutan-medicinal-plant-sumatra-endangered-species-indonesia-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2024 13:13:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/14090318/Picture_5_credits-Armas-Fitra-TNGL-KLHK-MPI-UNAS-YEL--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282051</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Leuser Ecosystem, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Strange, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Self-medicating in animals has been reported before, but scientists noted something particularly special when they observed a wild orangutan in Sumatra treating a wound on its face with a plant known to have healing properties. It was June 22, 2022, when the research team in the Suaq Balimbing area of Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Self-medicating in animals has been reported before, but scientists noted something particularly special when they observed a wild orangutan in Sumatra treating a wound on its face with a plant known to have healing properties. It was June 22, 2022, when the research team in the Suaq Balimbing area of Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park first noticed that the male Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), which they named Rakus, had a fresh wound under his right eye and inside his mouth while vocalizing a long call. Three days later, the team observed Rakus start to selectively chew on the stem and leaves of the Fibraurea tinctoria liana, and then repeatedly apply the subsequent sap precisely onto the facial wound for several minutes. The orangutan eventually covered the wound with the chewed leaves, and by June 30, the wound was already closed and showed no sign of infection, the researchers reported in their recently published study in the journal Scientific Reports. “This observation is the first time that a wild animal was observed actively treating his wound with a healing plant. So, that’s a very important finding,” study lead author Isabelle B. Laumer, a cognitive and evolutionary biologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, told Mongabay in an email interview. The male Sumatran orangutan, named Rakus by researchers, with a fresh facial wound in June 2022. Image courtesy of Armas Fitra/Suaq Balimbing Research. Research has shown that some animals, especially primates and apes, engage in self-medicating behavior. However,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/wild-orangutan-medicinal-plant-sumatra-endangered-species-indonesia-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282051</doi>				</item>
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