Two hundred fine for killing orangutan
Two 11-month-old baby orangutans cuddle together, a Sumatran orangutan and a Bornean orangutan, both critically endangered. PHOTO: JOEL SARTORE August 19 is International Orangutan Day. Orangutans belong to the hominin family and, like gorillas and chimpanzees, are the closest relatives of humans. Today, these emotional and intelligent animals are on the verge of extinction due to human deforestation and illegal hunting. Author: RACHEL FOBAR Editor: Box Brother In January 2018, in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, a villager found the body of a headless orangutan floating on the river. It was a critically endangered Bornean orangutan that was hit by an airsoft bullet. 17 times, fractured multiple ribs and was decapitated with a machete. Two rubber farmers claiming to be in self-defense were arrested and convicted of unlawful killing, a very minor crime - the criminals were sentenced to 6 months in prison and 500,000 rupiah. And what is the exchange rate? ——1 RMB ≈ 2257 Indonesian rupiah; that is to say, the criminal who killed the critically endangered orangutan was fined a little more than 220 RMB. What is even more terrifying is that in February 2018, another more violent case occurred in the same year: in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, researchers from a conservation organization found through X-ray photos that the Bornean orangutan had as many as 130 air guns in its body. bullet! Source: Why does the Centre for Orangutan Protection say that the guilt is light? It should be noted that according to Indonesian law, capturing, harming, transporting, trading orangutan and other protected species is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 100 million Indonesian rupiah (about 44,000 yuan) - this is different from the actual sentence of 6 months, Compared with 220 yuan, it is far from the difference; the critically endangered orangutan is ostensibly protected by Indonesian law, but the law enforcement is not strict. Another case: In March 2019, Sumatra, Indonesia, X-rays showed that a female orangutan had 74 airsoft bullets in her body. The cub in her arms died on the way to the hospital due to malnutrition; the female orangutan later recovered, But her eyes were blind and she lost her beloved son. Later, "she" was named "Hope". The orangutan was attacked because the palm oil industry was invading its homeland. Indonesia is one of the two largest producers of palm oil, the other being Malaysia. Source: Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press In addition to being too lightly punished, the attention is also very low - according to the 2020 report released by the scientific consulting group Borneo Futures and the non-profit organization Wildlife Impact (Wildlife Impact) said - Less than 1% of orangutan-related crimes were ultimately convicted. Even in the very few cases that were prosecuted - "Only if the violence is too violent, the injured orangutan is too shocking, and the image is published and makes international media headlines, we will see enforcement action; otherwise, it will be ignored. ” said Taylor Tench, an environmental analyst with the U.S. Environmental Investigation Agency. In February 2018, East Kalimantan police held a press conference announcing that four local farmers were charged with killing the Bornean orangutan with more than 100 rounds of airsoft ammunition. Source: Environment and Forestry Ministry in East Kalimantan What is the reason for the low and light penalties? Very simple - Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University, UK, who has been studying the orangutan trade, said: "Like many countries around the world, the Indonesian government has decided - 'wildlife is not a priority'." Photo: TIM LARMAN IN INDONESIA RELATED In the 30 years of animal protection laws, no one has ever been sentenced to the highest penalty for illegally trading, possessing or killing orangutans. For example, from 1993 to 2006, authorities confiscated 440 orangutans from the illegal pet trade, but only seven cases were prosecuted. According to research by Vincent Nijman, most of them received sentences of less than eight months in prison, a far cry from the maximum sentence. A male Sumatran orangutan shows sharp teeth and shakes a branch in deterrent photography: TIM LARMAN About 150,000 orangutans were killed in Borneo between 1999 and 2015 as industrial plantations expanded and deforestation increased. There are three known species of orangutans in Indonesia: the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), and the newly discovered orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), all of which are critically endangered. From left to right, male Bornean orangutans, Sumatran orangutans, and Tapanuri orangutans. Source: Eric Kilby Aiwok Tim Laman, wikipedia According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (WWF), the number of Bornean orangutans in the 1970s Nearly 300,000, it dropped to 55,000 in 2016; about 13,800 Sumatran orangutans remain; the Tapanuri orangutan was classified as an independent species in 2017, and now there are fewer than 800. Orangutan pets The local orangutan pet trade in Indonesia is very prosperous. One of the reasons is that the source of small orangutans is stable. Julie Sherman, executive director of Wildlife Impact, an American conservation nonprofit, told National Geographic: "Buyers will be told that these little orangutans are orphans, so they will feel that their purchases are 'an act of rescue.'" In fact, because Baby orangutans need to be with their mothers for 6 to 9 years, and the only way people get baby orangutans is by killing their mothers. Each pet orangutan represents two crimes: illegal hunting and illegal trading. Young orangutans can fetch high prices as pets on the black market, and the only way to capture them is to kill their eager mother. The orphans in the picture were sent to the "International Animal Rescue Center" for rearing. PHOTO: TIM LAMAN An 11-month-old orangutan cub mimics its mother's movements Photo: TIM LARMAN Sherman said: "Young orangutans may be kept locally as pets or smuggled to other countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. "While baby orangutans are cute, it's illegal to keep them as pets, and it's extremely difficult and expensive to care for; they sometimes bite in self-defense," says Julie Sherman. It's hard to feed an orangutan - according to a 2020 report by Borneo Future and Wildlife Impact, there are more than 1,000 orangutans in rescue centres who are often brought in malnourished and in dire need of medical care. The male orangutan has been kept as a pet for many years, has lost his ability to survive in the wild, and will spend the rest of his life in a rescue center. Photo: TIM LARMAN In 2015, Indonesians set fire to 2.5 million hectares of rainforest in order to open up wasteland to plant oil palm trees and other crops. Photo: TIM LARMAN At the 2021 Global Climate Summit in Glasgow, more than 100 countries pledged to end deforestation by 2030; Indonesian Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar tweeted that commercial development "should not be due to carbon emissions or deforestation. and stop". In November 2021, Julie Sherman analyzed in a co-authored paper that protecting and patrolling orangutan habitat is the most effective way to save it. The 180-pound "big man" quickly climbed the smooth and straight tree, 30 meters above the ground, making people dizzy - the orangutan is the world's largest arboreal animal. PHOTO: TIM LARMAN Near Palong National Park in Borneo, neat rows of cash crop oil palm trees have replaced virgin rainforest. Source: COMPOSITE OF THREE IMAGES (Swipe below for a panorama of "Scars of the Earth") Forests and peatlands in Borneo and Sumatra have been cleared and burned to make room for palm plantations. Photo: ULET IFANSASTI, GREENPEACE environmental analyst Taylor Tench said: In 2017, Indonesia's national ten-year orangutan protection plan expired; in 2019, a new plan was introduced, with the goal of protecting 45,590 Bornean orangutans (the number in 2016 was still 5.5 10,000); the plan has since been shelved, and Indonesians appear to be "acceptable" to the reduction of orangutans. Orangutans may be very friendly to humans: The picture shows a Borneo forest manager removing snakes from an orangutan. The orangutan thought the manager was trapped in the water and helped him. Source: ANIL PRABHAKAR data show that between 2005 and 2014, Indonesian authorities conducted 619 investigations into Sumatran tiger poaching, and more than 90% of poachers and traders were convicted; in contrast, orangutan-related crimes, In the end, less than 1% were convicted, very minor crimes. Julie Sherman said: "There is no shortage of law enforcement resources in Indonesia, it's just that the orangutans are not given the same attention." If you read this article