A survey by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia in 2009 showed that orangutan habitat in West Kalimantan province is narrowing due to damaging forests they live in, the national news agency Antara quoted the organisation’s official as saying on Monday.
The agency’s Coordinator for Species Conservation Chairul Saleh said that there are two sub species of orangutan in the province, namely Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii and Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus. “The condition of Pongo pygmaeus is more worrying with only 1, 330 to 2,000 populations left around the National Park of Betung Kerihun and 1,090 in the National Park of Danau Sentarum in the Kapuas Hulu regency,” he said. According to the survey, about 70 per cent of orangutans in Kalimantan Island live outside the conservation forest, with the biggest population is concentrated in low-lying planes forests.
Meanwhile, Forestry Ministry’s Director for Biodiversity Conservation Harry Santoso said that orangutan habitat had several ecological functions, namely erosion prevention, water conservation and supporter for people’s social and economy life, among others.
