Answers sought to save Asia's orangutans

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The remaining 62,000 orangutans in the wild could be wiped out within decades as forests in their Asian island habitat are decimated by loggers and palm oil farmers, conservationists said on Thursday.

American zookeepers met this week at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo with conservationists working on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra to sort through problems faced by the red-haired Asian apes and find solutions.

"There are quick and easy things everyone can do," said Ian Singleton, director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program on the Indonesian island, home to 6,700 of the critically endangered fruit-eating animals, distinctive for their thoughtful dispositions, strength, and lion-like mating call. Borneo, shared by Malaysia and Indonesia, is home to 55,000 orangutans.

"Don't play into stereotypes when buying a (greeting) card with an orangutan with his hair teased up. Education is one of the strongest components and one of the best ways forward," Singleton said.

Zoos can play a role educating the public to purchase foods or biodiesel fuel made only with sustainable palm oil, rather than from palm oil from plantations carved out of newly cut forests, Singleton and other experts said.

Do not buy furniture -- even toothpicks -- made from tropical hardwoods that is not certified, which could mean it was harvested illegally inside areas designated as "protected," they said.

And drop a contribution into zoo collection boxes destined for underfunded conservation efforts, they said.

"American zoos receive 180 million visitors a year -- an astonishing number of people. If all those people put in $1," current funding of a few million dollars from The World Bank and other donors would be multiplied, said Serge Wich, who surveys orangutan populations for the Great Ape Trust.