THE BORNEAN ORANGUTAN

Today, people in Borneo are increasingly recognizing the value of the forests and the services that they provide and that were previously taken for granted by all. In places where forests are gone, many communities complain of high temperatures and dry weather, water pollution and loss of fisheries, increased floods and overall decline in their quality of life [6]. Protecting or restoring the forest then becomes one of their concerns: the orangutan is often perceived as a symbolic icon that illustrates this situation. More globally, the role of forest in maintaining the climate is also currently widely established. So preserving the forest goes far beyond protecting a species like the orangutan.

Some may argue that we could maintain orangutans in captivity if they don’t have enough forests to live in. However preserving animals in captivity and in their natural state pursue different goals. For example, nature tourism in Malaysian Borneo is an essential draw for local and international visitors because of the wealth of natural esources that tourists come to admire and enjoy. Orangutan is a major icon and is attracting a large number of tourists to Malaysia and Indonesia. Losing out this species and its forest habitat would be hugely detrimental to local economies.

We can also expect that orangutan extinction would tarnish considerably the international image of both range countries, and would trigger global criticism against industries, practices and parties who are perceived as being responsible for it. 

On a global scale, we have to admit that every single living species has a function and a role to play in maintaining healthy and functional ecosystems that all species need to survive and prosper. Everything is interrelated, and nothing exists in isolation. For example, orangutans eat fruits and by doing so, they disperse their seeds. They play an important role in forest regeneration. Healthy forests in turn fix carbon and release oxygen in the atmosphere; they are the lungs for the entire planet. Some people will argue that many other species have disappeared in the past and that the forests are still breathing. It is true that many other species can also disperse seeds and could replace the orangutan’s dispersal function. But everything is a matter of threshold: species could disappear without noticeable consequences on the ecosystem functions we depend on to survive. But no one knows how many and what species can be lost before a massive collapse of ecosystem functionality takes place.

One can compare a complex forest ecosystem to a multifunctional and highly diversified organism like the human body. Cells and organs are all connected and interrelated in a healthy human body. Every cell has its function, its role and importance. We now know that many individual cells or organs can be damaged or even destroyed without jeopardizing the overall life of the body. But there is a threshold of how many cells can be damaged or destroyed before an organ stops functioning, and the entire system starts to collapse. Maybe the extinction of a species like the orangutan will not have a dramatic impact on forest ecosystem health, but this will definitely show that the entire system is increasingly degraded and is suffering.

Animal species are indicators of the global health of our environment. Extinction is the symptom of a disease where the natural world is deteriorating on a large scale. The more species disappear, the more difficult will be for us, the human species, to survive in an increasingly dysfunctional world. Saving the orangutan from extinction is synonymous to saving our own selves from extinction. We will not be far from being added to the list of extinction the day the orangutan will disappear forever. Mother Earth doesn’t need Humanity to save it, but Humankind needs Mother Earth to survive.