Pangkalanbun, Ekuatorial – Thousands of orangutans in Tanjung Putting National Park of Central Kalimantan were being pushed to the oceans as their habitat constantly encroached and deforested by oil palm plantations and mining industries, said an activist on last Thursday (25/9).
“[We are facing] boundaries issues as the National Park covered 415,040 hectares of which 30,000 hectares are located in the ocean,” said President of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) Biruté Mary Galdikas, at Camp Leakey, Sekonyer river, Central Kalimantan.
With 6,300 orangutans, Tanjung Putting National Park is the largest habitat for the endangered species in Indonesia. In addition, there were at least 300 orangutans released in the national park after being rehabilitated by OFI.
Galdikas said that encroachment has been going on for twenty years in the National Park and it was getting more difficult because of oil palm plantation.
“If we go along the Sekonyer river, we can see the buffer zone had already gone,” she said. “They were not supposed to cut trees located 500 meters from the river bank, being the buffer zone, but it was ignored.”
She added that Sekonyer river had been polluted by illegal mining at the northern part of the National Park.
“Miners were once banned but they burned down the guard’s post. We still don’t know who was behind all of that,” she said adding that the forest police have been guarding the site for the past three years which brings protection to the areas. “Honestly, if there were no patrols, we wouldn’t be able to tackle these encroachment by ourselves,” she underlined.
Arifin, an officer of the national park confirmed that the Sekonyer river has become polluted because of illegal mining in the areas. However, he said that it was difficult to ban mining because it has become people’s livelihood.
Meanwhile, Hamdani, a villager of Kumai located near Tanjung Putting National Park, said that oil palm plantations have been approaching villagers living in the park to sell their areas and promised them employment. He said the offer had attracted local villagers because working as a guide in the national park was not profitable. Maturidi.