WWF Logo


WWF Press Release






Back to the News Room

Related Information:

Haze Alert Update (Provided by WWF Malaysia)

WWF Netherlands Statement: Fires in Protected Areas

Special Fact Sheet: Species Threatened by the Fire


Indonesian Fires: 30 Orangutans Dead, Other Species Threatened

October 3, 1997

Orang utan GLAND, Switzerland -- The 2-month-old Indonesian fires that have submerged large areas of Southeast Asia in a thick haze and chaos have now become a real threat to some of the region's most vulnerable wildlife and protected areas, and are already claiming victims, WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature said today.

"About 30 female orangutans have died as a result of the fires in Kalimantan," said Mr. Willie Smits, coordinator of orangutan conservation activities at the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry. "Twenty-nine orphaned orangutans have been found in several villages and alongside the roads after escaping from the forests, probably in search for food and water."

Mr. Smits explained that it was likely the animals left the forests with their mothers and that the mothers had been shot in order to take the babies as pets or for sale into the illegal wildlife market. When found "they were dehydrated and hungry," he said.

The dead females would be the first confirmed wildlife victims of the fires, but experts say that the situation could get much worse if the fires are not put out soon. "Already, some 11 protected areas are burning in the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Irian Jaya and Java," said Mr. Darmawan Liswanto, who works with the Species Monitoring Project at the WWF office in Jakarta.

According to Mr. Liswanto, "there are reasons for serious concern about the future of the orangutan populations in Sumatra and Kalimantan, where satellite images have shown major forest destruction." Whereas prior to the fires the entire orangutan population was estimated to be around 30,000 individuals, only about 2 percent of the orangutan's original forest habitat remained, much of it in areas now ravaged by fire or affected by the thick haze. The primate is listed as 'vulnerable' in the categories established by IUCN-The World Conservation Union and its trade is prohibited by CITES, the convention which governs and restricts international wildlife trade.

But the orangutans are not the sole species threatened by the fires. Indonesia is home to several unique species whose ability to survive may be negatively affected by the fires. Three of them, the Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses and the Sumatran tiger have been listed as "critically-endangered" by the IUCN.

"Although the main concentrations of the Indonesian population of Sumatran rhinos (some 100-200 animals) are still outside the fire areas, there are small groups in some of the affected protected areas that are very threatened," said Elizabeth Kemf, Species Information Officer at WWF International. "Meanwhile there are only about 60 Javan rhinos in the wild in Indonesia. This is the rarest rhino in Asia, making it extremely vulnerable to any extraordinary event, such as the viral infection that killed five of these animals in the 1980's," she added.

With some 400-500 individuals left, the Sumatran tiger is the last species of tiger remaining in Indonesia. The Javan and Bali tigers were driven into extinction in the 1980's and 1940's, respectively. Other threatened species that are at risk in Indonesia's forests are the Asian elephant and the Sun bear. All of these species are present in areas that are currently or have been affected by the fires.

For more information or a list of species affected by the Indonesian fires, please contact Javier Arreaza at +41 22 364 9550.