Funds needed to save Orangutans in Borneo forest fire fight

Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard, a research fellow at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, fears that the fires, which have been raging across the peatlands and forests of Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo for the last month, causing untold damage to the environment and people’s health, are now heading for the orangutan research and conservation project where she has been working for the past 20 years with her husband.

“These forests are one of the world’s most important eco-systems and home to the largest population of orangutan in the world,” said Dr Morrogh-Bernard. “I am devastated. Already a lot of orangutans have died. If the project where we are based burns down our workers will lose their jobs and all the research that we have been doing will come to an end. All of our 20-strong team are working 24 hours a day trying to put the fires out.”

It is estimated that nearly 10,000 forest fires have swept across the islands, destroying wildlife habitat and creating a cloud of thick, dangerous haze across the region, causing vast amounts of carbon dioxide to be emitted and respiratory problems amongst the population.

Such forest fires occur every year – some are accidental but others are started deliberately as a means of land clearing by large oil palm producers and plantation companies or individuals involved in land clearance – but this year’s problem has been exacerbated by the El Niño weather event, which is expected to last into spring 2016 and could prolong the drought in Indonesia.

The worst fires in Indonesia to date occurred during the strong El Niño winter of 1997-98, and some forecasts have predicted that this year might be worse.

Dr Morrogh-Bernard has just started a two-year Daphne Jackson Trust fellowship at the Penryn Campus, where she will write up 12 years of research on orangutan social networks. The work was carried out at the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (OuTrop), in the Sabangau Forest in central Kalimantan, which she co-founded in 1999 and which is now under threat.

OuTrop, which is a registered charity as well as a conservation and research organisation, is aiming to raise £10,000 to help local firefighters. “We urgently need money for wages to pay for manpower, equipment such as water pumps and protective clothing,” added Dr Morrogh-Bernard. “All donations will go direct to the charity.”

Donations can be made via mydonate or the OuTrop website.