Indonesia Forests
AP-APTN-0930: Indonesia Forests
Friday, 30 March 2012
STORY:Indonesia Forests- Conservationists say deforestation further endangering orangutans
LENGTH: 02:09
FIRST RUN: 0430
RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only
TYPE: English/Natsound
SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/COALITION TO SAVE TRIPA
STORY NUMBER: 734523
DATELINE: Jakarta/Aceh - 28 Mar 2012/Recent
LENGTH: 02:09
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
COALITION TO SAVE TRIPA - AP CLIENTS ONLY
SHOTLIST:
COALITION TO SAVE TRIPA - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Aceh province, Sumatra - Recent
1. Various aerials of fires at Tripa Forest
2. Various ground shots of fire in forest
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Jakarta - 28 March 2012
3. Wide of Conservation Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, Ian Singleton giving presentation
4. Cutaway of journalists
5. Wide of map showing fire spots in Sumatra forest
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Singleton, Conservation Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme:
"And the fires that are being set now, are being set deliberately, the fires are used not to clear the forest. What they do is they chop the forest down first and then they burn it to get rid of the scrub, but what we see here is the final onslaught here, obviously these companies let this... The speed of destruction, and the fires, and the burning and everything has gone up dramatically in the last few weeks, let alone in the last year. And this is obviously a deliberate drive by these companies to clear all the remaining forests in those states. Now once they do that, everything is gone."
COALITION TO SAVE TRIPA - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Aceh province, Sumatra - Recent
7. Various of fires and smoke at Tripa Forest
8. Fire damaged forest
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Jakarta - 28 March 2012
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Singleton, Conservation Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme:
"If this is not stopped right now, then all those orangutans, all those forests will be gone before the end of 2012, whether we have a dry season of not. They'll all be gone. We are not talking about how many more years this population could play out, we are talking about how many more months. It really is that serious. This is the last opportunity to salvage that population."
COALITION TO SAVE TRIPA - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Aceh province, Sumatra - Recent
10. Various of fire at Tripa Forest
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of critically endangered orangutans in Indonesia could be wiped out by the year's end if palm oil companies keep setting land-clearing fires in their peat swamp forests, conservationists have warned.
Ian Singleton, conservation director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, said the Sumatran orangutans who live in the Tripa forest on the coast of Aceh province are barely hanging on.
"If this is not stopped right now, then all those orangutans, all those forests will be gone before the end of 2012," he said. "It really is that serious. This is the last opportunity to salvage that population."
The forest - though officially protected - is hemmed in by palm oil plantations, including one that was granted a permit just last year.
Land clearing fires, several set inside the perimeters, have sent orangutans fleeing.
Some risk being captured or killed by residents, Singleton said.
Others will simply die, either directly in the fires or of gradual starvation and malnutrition as their food resources disappear.
There are only 6,600 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild.
The Tripa forest - which in the early 1990s was home to around 3,000 of them - today has just 200.
But with eight individuals every square kilometre (mile), it's the densest population in the world.
A half-century ago, more than three-quarters of Indonesia was blanketed in plush tropical rain forest.
But half those trees have been cleared in the rush to supply the world with pulp, paper and, more recently, palm oil - used to make everything from lipstick and soap to "clean-burning" fuel.
Governments are now trying to find ways to convince the sprawling archipelagic nation to keep trees standing.
As part of a 1 (b) billion US dollar deal with Norway, Indonesia recently put in place a two-year moratorium on issuing new permits to clear primary forests.
But conservationists say that deal was violated when the government gave a licence to PT Kallista Alam last year to convert 4,000 acres of the Tripa peat swamp.
Three other companies are already operating in the area.
An environmental group has filed both a criminal complaint and a lawsuit against the government.
The Aceh Administrative Court is expected to hand down a verdict on the lawsuit next week.
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APEX 03-30-12 0613EDT