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Sumatras Orang-Utans
The Sumatran orang-utan is one of the two species of orang-utans. Found only on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, it is rarer than the Bornean orang-utan. Its northern, riverside town of Bukit Lawang has a well-known orang-utan rehabilitation center. Orang means "person" and hutan means "forest", thus "person of the forest".
The main threat to the survivial of orangutan populations in the wild is the massive expansion of palm oil plantations in Borneo and Sumatra. Palm oil is the most widely used vegtable oil in the world, having even surpassed soya in terms of usage. Surging global demand for palm oil has fueled massive forest destruction throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, countries that together account for 85% of the world’s palm oil production. Palm oil is ubiquitous! Oil palms only grow in the tropics and need much water. The problem with palm oil is that vast areas of virgin tropical rain forest are clear cut to open up land for cultivation.
