Only a few years after the Tapunali orangutan was recognised as the 8th great ape species, a dam was planned for the area which would functionally wipe out this great ape species.
Apparently during the planning stage they did all the assessments that this dam would cause to the environment and came to the conclusion that it was acceptable. Scientists around the word are incredulous as as it is hard to believe that any environmental impact assessment that states a wild species will be wiped out virtually in entirety would be then greenlighted to go ahead.
A senior advisor to the project claims that have already been enough assessments and it is now time to start building, mean that people are merely picking the assessment that shows what they’re saying is true. It seems such a stupid argument as to to make you wonder how this woman is running a project like this. It doesn’t matter which assessment you choose, if you’re dam covers 90% of a wildlife species range building it will wipe out the species.
The problem comes from the Indonesian governments demarcation of the forest into to conservation zones and development zones, with this area falling in a development zone. Scientists say that a proper assessment of this area, allowed the government to reclassify the zone for conservation in it’s entirety thereby saving the area. The same senior advisor, bizarrely argues that if a full assessment was done the opposite would happen.
A Swiss NGO Paneco initially condemned the dam of the greatest threat the continual survival of the tapanuli orangutan however an intelligence officer visited and warn them against this and the advisor for the dam threatened to revoke the right for them to work in Indonesia if they did not support the project.
Frankly the fact that this is still being discussed is quite bizarre, it is entirely clear that this should not be allowed to continue but that doesn’t seem to matter. The eradication of this new orangutan species is not the only thing against this dam. This part of Indonesia suffers regular earthquakes, making it totally unsuitable for building a large dam – the project should have never be green lit in the first place, this is not simply other countries wanting to interfere.
Indonesia’s potential for clean energy is vast, however due to the vast amount of Carbon that would be released by the building of this dam he could never be called green electricity as it’s carbon footprint would like to be higher than a coal power plant. I applaud the Indonesian government’s desire to build a clean power plant, but that is their aim this is not the place.
