Warning: Some images in this story contain graphic content. Residents of the Indonesian village of Sibide pose with a dead Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species. Pictures of the photo…
Orangutan orphaned after its mother was killed in an oil palm plantation in Sumatra. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Shoppers may be willing to pay a 15 to 56 percent…
A female orangutan carries her baby down a newly built logging road. Photo credit: Brent Loken. For years scientists have believed that orangutans are primarily arboreal. Indeed, most photographs and…
A baby orangutan in Indonesia. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Thirty orangutans being kept as household pets in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province have been seized and placed in a rehabilitation center,…
A large male Sumatran orangutan is released, some 50 kilometers from where he was rescued in the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo: Paul Hilton for OIC. Conservationists rescued another orangutan stranded in…
A Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) at Sepilok Rehabilitation Center in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The three nations that share Borneo could save themselves $43 billion by more…
GLobal Forest Watch map showing protected areas and industrial concessions in and around the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh and North Sumatra on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The rate of…
An orangutan in the forest of Central Kalimantan. Photos by Rhett A. Butler One question that desperately needs to be asked when we talk about the rights of an…
This article is the second in a two-part series about logging in Malaysia. The first part can be seen here Two international NGOs have called out Malaysia in recent months…
This article is the first in a two-part series about logging in Malaysia. Read the second part here. A recent report by the international affairs think tank Chatham House has…
While Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) has made some strides towards becoming more environmentally conscious, conservation organizations are still concerned about continued deforestation as demand for dissolving pulp grows. Graffiti on…
Enormous wood fiber concession appears in West Kalimantan, threatening critical habitat. Environmental groups cry foul, claiming impact assessments were not properly done before plantation company set up shop. A major…
Indonesia Chamber of Commerce plans to lobby for expansion of sustainable business practices Four of Indonesia’s largest palm oil producers signed a landmark commitment in New York in September to…
UK's Chester Zoo raises funds and awareness for reforestation project in Borneo A pair of orphaned orangutans in Borneo. Many orangutans have become orphaned across the island due to forest…
This is the second of a two-part series, Part I of which overviews the status of Bornean orangutans in southern Kalimantan. Two decades ago, a project to convert one million…
This is the first part of a two-part series, the second of which goes more in-depth about the efforts to connect habitat fragments and help secure the future of the…
Critically endangered orangutans threatened by palm oil, wood fiber, logging, poaching; populations fragment and dwindle as habitat is lost Orangutans have long been the reluctant spokesanimal for Indonesia’s rampant deforestation.…
CITES has responded to this commentary, refuting certain points: Information on CITES and great apes, including on the outcomes of Standing Committee 65, can be found on the CITES website.…
Bornean orangutan in Indonesia. August 19 is World Orangutan Day, a designation intended to raise awareness about the great red ape, which is threatened by habitat loss, the pet trade,…
Singkil Swamp Forest Wildlife newly burned for palm plantations in Trumon, South Aceh District, Aceh. Photo: Chik Rini. Oil palm plantations and other developments are threatening Rawa Singkil Wildlife Preserve—Aceh's…
Researchers urge collaboration between NGOs, corporations At first the forest seems still, with only the sounds of busy insects and slight movement of wind betraying activity in the patchy undergrowth.…
Peat swamp in Malaysian Borneo Long considered an unproductive hindrance to growth and development, peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia have been systematically cleared, drained and burned away to make…
More than 30 percent of Borneo's rainforests have been destroyed over the past forty years due to fires, industrial logging, and the spread of plantations, finds a new study that…
Global Forest Watch map showing forest loss in and around Tajung Puting and the Rimba Raya project area. Just over a year ago, the Indonesian government officially approved the country's…
Five years after landmark agreement in Sabah, government shows signs of moving forward on wildlife corridors The Kinabatangan River winds through rainforest and palm oil plantations in the Malaysian state…
Oil palm plantations cannot sustain orangutan populations in the long-term One of humans’ closest relatives, the charismatic orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), has been listed as Endangered by the IUCN since 1986…
Study finds chimps at high risk for epidemics The year was 1854, and cholera outbreaks had rendered London terrified and British anesthesiologist Dr. John Snow fascinated. In what is thought…
Orangutan in Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Next week, the rainforests of Southeast Asia are going live. On June 2nd, 11 organizations in the region will be posting lives…
In 2004 and 2012, scientists recorded rare encounters between two very different primates: southern Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) and Philippine slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis). But in neither case did…
Clearing and burning of peat forest for palm oil production in Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Despite a high-profile campaign that caused one of the world's largest food companies…
