Indonesian Wild Fires Update: November 5

Wild fires having been raging in Indonesia since mid September. The effects of these fires have been fueled by the long dry season this year in Indonesia. While small scale farmers have been setting fires to clear their land for cultivation before the rainy season that starts in November, large palm oil plantations have been clearing the acquired forest land for cultivation by setting fires.

These fires have spread across the region affecting wild orangutan habitats. Orangutans have been forced more frequently out of their habitats into palm-oil plantations in search of food and safety. While the much awaited rains doused many fires during the last week of October, some of them are still burning uncontrolled. Worse still, even though some of the large fires have been put out by the rains, the peat swamps which form much of the ground cover in these forest habitats in Kalimantan are still smouldering, sending a thick pall of smoke all across the region. While we drove towards Nyaru Mentneg yesterday, the IFAW ER team witnessed many of these fires and the haze stemming from these peat fires in the orangutan habitats.

Since the large fires started this year, BOS has rescued 42 orangutans, mainly from oil palm plantations in the Sampit region. Twenty of these rescued orangutans have been released back to the safety of the wild away from the fires and exploitation by plantation agriculture. Another 22 orangutans ranging from 4 months of age to over 15 years are currently under treatment and care at the BOS Nyaru Menteng center for various medical conditions such as malnutrition, dehydration and traumatic injuries like wounds & fractures, including burn wounds suffered by a 4 -onth old orangutan infant. These recently rescued orangutans are tested while in captivity for various infectious agents like hepatitis A, B, C, herpes and TB prior to their release back to the wild.

Tomorrow IFAW ER team members will be joining BOS field teams in fire fighting and rescue operations for the next few days at another area near Mawas reserve, which BOS has been using as a major orangutan release site. This area is also burning and so fire fighting exercises are underway to prevent the site from being destroyed.

Although many of the forest fires have been extinguished, large areas of peat are still smouldering, sending a thick pall of smoke across regions of Indonesia. Foto © IFAW