Borneo Apes - Borneo, October 2006

October 2006
By some estimates, Borneo's vast forests are being cleared faster than the Amazon. Unless something is done now, Orang-utans could be extinct in 20 years.

The practice of bulldozing everything to make way for palm oil plantations has left Orang-utans without their customary habitat. "Palm oil is totally destructive. They're cutting down every single tree", complains Lone Droescher-Nieslen from the Orang-utan Survival Foundation. When the forests disappear, Orang-utans cling to any stump in the cleared land, unable to understand their homes are gone. It's left to charities to rescue the apes before the plantation workers kill them. Lone hopes she can rehabilitate the Orang-utans back into the wild. But if the rate of de-forestation continues, there may soon be no forests to release them into.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

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