International Orang-utan Day

The 19th August is International Orang-utan Day.

We all know, by now, that palm oil is in intensively farmed monocrop that is grown in the tropics. There are lots of people out there on social media calling for a boycott of this crop, as it rapidly increases in production in Borneo and Sumatra, the last refuges of orang-utans. Opinions are split, and the arguments on Twitter are heated and emotive. The only thing that seems certain is that it is a complex problem, without an easy solution. I've spent a lot of time reading the recent scientific papers, pondering, chatting to my colleagues and friends in the industry, and perusing the websites of organisations I trust. And the following is where I stand on the issue at the moment.

I think the best course of action for the consumer is to consider switching your products to those which include sustainable palm oil. I know some of you reading this would prefer to see a palm oil boycott, but the reality is that there is global demand for oil which will be met one way or another by the industry. Whilst we're waiting for the entire world to stop using oil crops(!), we might as well push to make what's currently in use as sustainable as possible.

As all of the alternative edible oilseed crops are less productive, a boycott would simply see a shift to an alternative which requires more land to produce.

The RSPO seem to be addressing several of the problems that have previously been highlighted with the initiative (I hear the phrases "sustainable palm oil doesn't mean anything" and "there are lots of problems with the RSPO" banded around in my line of work sometimes). It is also clear to me that a demand for sustainable palm oil (and I appreciate that a monoculture of any kind cannot be 100% sustainable) increases the motivation to improve the industry, which a boycott does not. Supporting initiatives such as the RSPO, whilst subjecting them to a healthy level of questioning and constructive criticism, pushes organisations to work together to find solutions that protect what we can whilst meeting the global demands for food and fuel.

I think it's great to make consumer choices that involve fewer processed products (which often contain oils such as palm), and choose locally sourced products for the good of the environment, and I'm in no way criticising anyone who is managing to sustain a palm-oil-free lifestyle, good on you! But I'm also supportive of any efforts to minimise the negative impacts of worldwide consumption on the environment, and aware that many of the alternative oils used in palm oil free products (and I'm talking here about something that contains an equivalent oil, not something like an apple!) are actually worse for our forests.

Enrichment Boxes for Orangutans

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Project work tirelessly to rescue and rehabilitate wild orangutans that have become tangled up in the human world. Many of them have been pets, and all of them have been separated from their forest homes. The process of getting these animals back to the wild is a difficult one, and equipping them with the skills needed to survive in the forest is vital to give them a good chance of survival.

The SOCP temporarily house the orangutans in a specialist centre prior to release. Whilst here they spend important time with other orangutans, learning important social skills with other youngsters of a similar age. The centre is currently raising funds for some new enrichment boxes. These provide the orangutans with fun ways to learn new skills and encourage problem solving to access their food, something which will be vital back on the forest.

If you would like to find out more about this project, or donate towards the orangutan enrichment, click here. To specifically sponsor a feeding box, you can donate through the Confiscation & Quarantine PayPal link.

Orangutan Genome Sequenced

Nature has published an article detailing the draft sequence of a Sumatran orang-utan genome. Unravelling an organism's genome reveals its complete DNA sequence, allowing us access to all of its hereditary information.

The paper (Locke et al., 2011) indicates that the genome of the Sumatran orang-utan has evolved more slowly than that of the other great apes. Geneticists can determine this sort of thing by looking at gene arrangement and, for example, whether or not individual sequences are duplicated or repeated. It also gives an estimate of the speciation time for the two orang-utan species, and suggests that they split from each other as recently as 400,000 years ago.

The team also studied short read sequence data, from both Sumatran and Bornean orang-utans, and found the Sumatran species to be more genetically diverse than the Bornean orang-utan. In a hypothetical situation where human impact couldn't influence the survival prospects of either species, this higher genetic diversity would give the Sumatran orangutan an advantage over the Bornean orangutan. This is because more genetically diverse populations are generally more able to adapt to a changing environment and better equipped to survive disease outbreaks. However, Sumatran orang-utan populations are suffering, with numbers thought to be as low as 7,000 indivuals, whereas the IUCN Red List website offers estimates of 45,000 - 69,000 for the Bornean orang-utan. Both species remain threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, fires and poaching for the pet trade. Unfortuantely for the Sumatran orang-utan, these are things that are unlikely to be dodged by having a high genetic diversity, which means it's down to us to make sure we don't force the orang-utan into the dark depths of extinction.

(For more technical information, see the full paper: Locke et al., (2011)Comparative and demographic analysis of orang-utan genomes. Nature 469, 529–533.

13 FEB 09

After a tense 48 hours last week wondering whether or not the snow would lift enough for Heathrow to begin operating like a normal airport again, Mum and Dad walked into the Arrivals Lounge of Kota Kinabalu airport.

The last eight days have been so busy that I've not had time to write anything, but I'll highlight a couple of our momentous points before the cafe who's internet we're using closes. It's just taken Dad over an hour to type three emails because he's not used to this laptop and has been repeatedly deleting and re-typing them. At least it's nice and warm outside; I imagine that sitting outside a shop at midnight typing an email in England is the last thing most people would be doing in the current weather situation.

Today we visited Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. For me this was the third trip in seven months, but orangutans never get old. Well, they obviously get old but not 'old'. Mum and Dad loved it (I think), and we watched several orangutans feeding on the specially built platform.
There was a young orangutan who seemed intent on winding up the adults in any way he could. This started with a mild pestering of his mother when he'd had his fill of bananas . Not getting anywhere he opted for swinging away from the platform along the rope, designed to protect the nearby saplings from the hungry mob twice a day, and bounding back onto the platform to stand over 'Mum' expectantly. Seeing that 'Mum' was still engrossed in her fruit-feast he chanced a tug at her fur, which resulted in an unimpressed look and Mum turning to face the other direction. The little one then turned to face Dad who was concentrating on a particularly juicy looking piece of lunch and climbed on top of him. Dad shook him off and gave him a very definite 'Do that again and I'll clock you one' stare. He went back to hang around on the rope for a while before getting fed up and swinging over to wind up a family of macaques who were patiently waiting for any leftovers from the great ape feeding session.
The next time I saw him swing into view he was holding a branch twice as long as he was tall in his left foot and trying to maneuvre back to the platform with his prize. I'm convinced he wasn't trying to be awkward, but like so many small children his intentions went misunderstood, and hitting his mother on the head with it whilst trying to drag it onto level ground didn't go down very well. She grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him back to a behaving, sitting position. Sulkily he snatched an entire bunch of bananas and retreated to the rope with the bunch grasped in his feet.
The 'eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome' soon set in though and he flumped down next to Dad in search of attention. None came his way, so he started poking his father. This, understandably, was as appreciated as accidentally hitting his mother on the head with a tree branch and resulted in a wrestling match with Dad, who must have been at least four times his size and weight. As we left, the little one stood up looking very proud of himself and probably would have been able to walk away with his head held high, but he chanced one last swipe at Dad and the fiasco recommenced, just as the park closed and we were ushered away from the feeding area.

The jungle's been flooded since the day Mum and Dad (human versions) arrived and it's been touch and go as to whether we'll be able to get there or not, but fingers crossed...