Month: June 2024

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Norway pension fund has disinvested from a British firm Jardines of destructive plans for the Tapanuli orangutan habitat

Tapanuli Orangutan

With an estimated historical habitat of this species 95% destroyed already, only leaving a small patch of rainforest with an estimated 800 Tapanuli orangutan, it would seem obvious that this small patch of rainforest should be protected, no matter what. however this opinion is not shared by everyone.

Having said this, thankfully, it is shared by an increasing number of organisations, and at current count, a total of 29 financiers have excluded Jardines and all subsidies from financing (according to the Financial Exclusions Tracker).

What is worse, is that the Martabe mining concession lies in a portion of the orangutan habitat called the Batang Toru forest, which has the largest orangutan population, and not only is this the area that has the highest chance of survival, but without this block of orangutan population, the future of the whole species is put at risk.

While this is a great move, one does wonder why it took 7 years to come to this decision. We have known about the Tapanuli Orangutan since 2017, and how precarious its survival is.

At the current time, there is an effort to expand the mine. While owners of the mine have said initially, this would just mean boreholes which do not disturb to too great a degree, recent studies have shown a correlation between this type of drilling and a reduction in Orangutan density, which proves these former assumptions to be incorrect.

It seems obvious that this area needs protecting, but perhaps for some people the earning potential is too great.

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Back to normal: moving forwards

For those who come to this site regularly, you may well have noticed a break in out blog contents – we have been concentrating on other parts of the website. Should you go looking, we have now built a series of animal databases – these are just the first few. Our aim is to link to as many species of wildlife as possible, and offer visitors the ability to book to go to places where a specific species lives. It is true, that some species are rarely seen – so if pangolin or beaked whale is the species you want to see, while we can help put you in the right place, we cannot guarantee a sighting.

On the other hand, with the incredible pressure on ecosystems around the world, without tourists visiting regularly, many of these ecosystems will be destroyed – and then the chance of seeing these species will be very low (and if this happens too often, the chance of seeing some of these species may drop to zero as they become extinct).

A depressing thought, but understand, we have the power to change things.

It is often not easy, to live alongside wildlife, particularly as a farmer. From minor irritants to crop damage or even livestock predation, there are many pitfalls. This website is finally reaching a point where we are aiming to help with this. Whatever the primary use of your land, we believe that there is enough interest to produce a second income from interested parties – and while this could range from enough to live on, to extra ‘pocket money’, we want to reach a point where destroying wildlife is a financial insanity. Help us!

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