Orangutan numbers stable - Palm Oil Industry

​www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49036245?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/clm1wxp533pt/animals&link_location=live-reporting-story

Oragutan numbers are stable within the last 15 years despite their numbers falling in the same period where palm oil is farmed. Palm oil is a massive industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, generates billions of dollars, and has helped along the endangerment of orangutans. Palm oil is found in almost everything from lipstick to chocolate sauces and is found all over the world. This massive industry is ravaging forests that orangutans call home and has helped nearly 100, 000 orangutans be killed in the last 16 years.

Efforts to protect the forests and orangutans have definitely paid off because orangutan numbers have slowly increased. Large swaths of the forests on the Malaysian Island of Borneo are now protected and 70% of the orangutan population now reside in those protected areas which has helped see an increase of almost 600 orangutans. With that being said, those that do not live within these protected areas are rapidly decreasing because of the devastating palm oil industry.

The palm oil industry has ravaged the forests and the orangutans have suffered tremendously. Whether it be from the environmental damage, pollution, or being around the trees that are chopped down or burned to manufacture the oil, these orangutans face grave danger outside of the protected areas. 

There are however ways to make sure that you are not contributing to the deforestation. When purchasing products that contain palm oil, look for the seal of approval, the Round table of Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO certification which means that the palm oil was not harvested from areas suffering from deforestation. As stated, palm oil is very hard to avoid because it can be found in almost everything but we can do our part to try and avoid it or at the very least, purchase products with the RSPO label so that we are not contributing to the decline of the orangutan population.

These stories continue to indicate that humans are solely responsible for the destruction of the planet and the species that live on it. No animal is safe from our need for products and it appears that this is true regardless of the species or the purported necessity of the products we are taking. Whether it's rhino or elephant ivory which is completely unnecessary for us to be taking or palm oil which is now being used in virtually everything, we are responsible for the endangerment of thousands of species and if we continue down this path, we will see the extinction of so many recognizable species because of our actions. 

HAPPY VEG