While scientists worked to confirm Tapanuli orangutans were a distinct species, pressure was mounting on the apes' habitat.
Geneticists, morphologists and behavioral scientists reveal the inside story of how their research led to the description of the Tapanuli orangutan.
MEDAN, Indonesia — Police have charged the brother of a top official in Sumatra with clearing a protected forest for a palm oil plantation. Musa Idishah, better known as Dodi…
JAKARTA — A planned hydroelectric dam that threatens the world’s most endangered great ape is already having an impact, days after a ringing endorsement from Indonesian officials and academics. On…
JAKARTA — Officials in Indonesia have released a predictive calendar they hope will give fish farmers in the country’s largest lake a heads-up on water conditions that have previously killed…
Millions of fish in floating cages died suddenly this week in Lake Toba, the biggest lake in Indonesia. E. Naibaho, a local aquafarmer, noticed the fish in his floating pens…
JAKARTA — A battle to save the world’s most endangered great ape has intensified as conservationists lodge a lawsuit and collect over a million signatures against a planned hydroelectric plant…
JAKARTA — Twenty-five of the world’s top environmental scientists have lambasted plans to construct a hydroelectric dam in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, because it would threaten the rarest species of great…
In July last year, Abdon Nababan, one of Indonesia’s most prominent activists, announced his intention to run for governor in his home province of North Sumatra. During his decade-long tenure…
JAKARTA — Activists in Indonesia have called on the Chinese government to withdraw funding for a hydroelectric dam that threatens to fragment the only known habitat of the most endangered…
JAKARTA — The rate of deforestation in selective-logging concessions in parts of Indonesia has unexpectedly overtaken those of pulpwood and oil palm concessions, a new study shows. A study by…
JAKARTA — Conservation authorities in Indonesia are investigating suspicions that the illegal trade in tiger parts drove the killing of one of the rare big cats earlier this month. The…
JAKARTA — PepsiCo has suspended its business with Indofood Agri Resources (IndoAgri), one of the largest palm oil companies in Indonesia, citing sustainability and labor rights concerns. PepsiCo, the U.S.-based…
JAKARTA — An artist working with environmental activists has carved out a distress call from a stand of thousands of oil palm trees in a former plantation on the edge…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced three men, including a former soldier, to two years in jail for illegally trading in body parts from a critically endangered…
JAKARTA – For almost a decade, Bambang has labored on an oil palm estate owned by the Salim Group conglomerate in North Sumatra. Every day, he and his wife rise…
The Indonesian government is rushing to protect the newly described Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), a species already regarded as the most endangered great ape on the planet. The discovery that…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Several NGOs in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have established a joint team of legal experts to focus on addressing environmental crimes in the region. “This team is…
Researchers from Indonesia and several other countries today (including authors of this piece) published in the journal Current Biology one of the most exciting new species descriptions in this century…
Park rangers in Indonesia said this week that they had photographed the nearly extinct Sumatran ground cuckoo (Carpococcyx viridis) for the first time in a protected area in North Sumatra,…
Dozens of indigenous people gathered in a village in western Indonesia last month to protest against the development of a planned 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam that threatens to evict them from land they hold sacred.
Environmental law enforcement authorities in Indonesia's Sumatra Island arrested three people on Aug. 13 in connection with the attempted sale of a rhino horn. A man identified by authorities as…
One of the last and largest remnants of tropical rainforest in Asia is under threat from multiple road development plans. This forest complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as…
The outgoing secretary general of Indonesia’s main indigenous rights organization today declared his intention to run as an independent candidate for governor of North Sumatra, one of the Southeast Asian…
RUMAH KINANGKUNG — Authorities were explaining the rules governing protected animals to residents of this North Sumatran village when a man appeared, carrying a small, scaly creature by the tail.…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A key stopover site for migratory shorebirds in western Indonesia is imperilled as the area’s mangrove forests are exponentially developed for human land use, according to research…
A new campaign by a leading environmental NGO offers a rare glimpse into the frontlines of Indonesia’s “deforestation crisis,” where communities are locked in land disputes with some of the…
MEDAN, Indonesia — The top mining official in North Sumatra has been arrested for corruption. Police in the province caught Eddy Saputra Salim red-handed taking a bribe. It was just…
A group of researchers in Indonesia has created a new genus of arboreal toad to fit what they say are two new species, according to a recent article in the…
KABANJAHE, Indonesia — Zulbaidah used to take her family’s pet orangutan on road trips. He’d ride in the back with the kids. “He was like my own son,” the 55-year-old…