Tapanuli Orangutan Faces Extinction From Forest Protection Rollback
The world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, is facing a population collapse after a devastating cyclone and a proposed zoning overhaul that threatens to strip protections from their last remaining habitat. Experts warn that weakening environmental laws and oversight now would be the “nail in the coffin” for this beautiful and intelligent species.
#News: After the deadly floods in #Sumatra, Tapanuli #orangutans face a bleak future. Now their legal protections are being stripped back to make way for more #mining. Fight back when you shop! 🧐🛍️ #
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Tapanuli Orangutan Faces Extinction From Forest Protection Rollback
The world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, is facing a population collapse after a devastating cyclone and a proposed zoning overhaul that threatens to strip protections from their last remaining habitat. Experts warn that weakening environmental laws and oversight now would be the “nail in the coffin” for this beautiful and intelligent species.
Learn more: Jong, H. N., & Muazam, A. R. (2025, December 18). Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans. Mongabay. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapa…
Reeling from a catastrophic cyclone that may have killed or displaced dozens of Tapanuli orangutans, the critically endangered species now faces a new threat: a proposed zoning overhaul in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. Local authorities have called for scaling back the Batang Toru “provincial strategic area” by nearly a third, a move that would significantly weaken legal protections and environmental scrutiny for mining and plantation projects. If approved, approximately 39,000 hectares—nearly a third of the orangutan’s forest range—would lose the safeguards that currently prioritise ecological function and landscape-scale assessment.
The timing of this proposal is especially alarming. A recent tropical storm unleashed torrential rains and landslides that severely damaged at least 3,964 hectares of previously intact forest, potentially impacting up to 54 individuals from a total population of just 800. Scientists warn that this extreme weather event, combined with the loss of forest cover, could push the Tapanuli orangutan toward population collapse. Removing strategic protections would also facilitate the expansion of extractive industries, including a nearby gold mine that has already faced intense scrutiny for its potential impact on the species.
Provincial officials suggested the downscaling was due to a lack of capacity and budget to manage such a vast area, even proposing that the central government take over as a “national strategic area.” However, conservation groups like Mighty Earth argue that opening the door to further extractive industries in the wake of a natural disaster is an “insane idea.” They are calling for emergency protections, a halt to habitat-damaging development, and the restoration of critical forest corridors to prevent the Tapanuli orangutan from becoming the first great ape species to go extinct in modern history.
While the central government has moved to suspend some industrial operations and review logging permits in response to the floods, the future of the Batang Toru ecosystem remains uncertain. Conservationists stress that this is a critical opportunity for the government to fulfill its environmental promises rather than allowing administrative or commercial interests to seal the fate of a species on the brink.
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[strong]Learn more: [/strong]Jong, H. N., & Muazam, A. R. (2025, December 18). Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans. Mongabay. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapa…
ENDS
Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
JAKARTA — Reeling from a cyclone that may have erased a chunk of its population, the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape population, now faces the prospect of losing more of its already constricted habitat.
#News: After the deadly floods in #Sumatra, Tapanuli #orangutans face a bleak future. Now their legal protections are being stripped back to make way for more #mining. Fight back when you shop! 🧐🛍️ #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife
#News: After the deadly floods in #Sumatra, Tapanuli #orangutans face a bleak future. Now their legal protections are being stripped back to make way for more #mining. Fight back when you shop! 🧐🛍️ #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife
Tapanuli Orangutan Faces Extinction From Forest Protection Rollback
The world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, is facing a population collapse after a devastating cyclone and a proposed zoning overhaul that threatens to strip protections from their last remaining habitat. Experts warn that weakening environmental laws and oversight now would be the “nail in the coffin” for this beautiful and intelligent species.
Learn more: Jong, H. N., & Muazam, A. R. (2025, December 18). Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans. Mongabay. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapa…
Reeling from a catastrophic cyclone that may have killed or displaced dozens of Tapanuli orangutans, the critically endangered species now faces a new threat: a proposed zoning overhaul in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. Local authorities have called for scaling back the Batang Toru “provincial strategic area” by nearly a third, a move that would significantly weaken legal protections and environmental scrutiny for mining and plantation projects. If approved, approximately 39,000 hectares—nearly a third of the orangutan’s forest range—would lose the safeguards that currently prioritise ecological function and landscape-scale assessment.
The timing of this proposal is especially alarming. A recent tropical storm unleashed torrential rains and landslides that severely damaged at least 3,964 hectares of previously intact forest, potentially impacting up to 54 individuals from a total population of just 800. Scientists warn that this extreme weather event, combined with the loss of forest cover, could push the Tapanuli orangutan toward population collapse. Removing strategic protections would also facilitate the expansion of extractive industries, including a nearby gold mine that has already faced intense scrutiny for its potential impact on the species.
Provincial officials suggested the downscaling was due to a lack of capacity and budget to manage such a vast area, even proposing that the central government take over as a “national strategic area.” However, conservation groups like Mighty Earth argue that opening the door to further extractive industries in the wake of a natural disaster is an “insane idea.” They are calling for emergency protections, a halt to habitat-damaging development, and the restoration of critical forest corridors to prevent the Tapanuli orangutan from becoming the first great ape species to go extinct in modern history.
While the central government has moved to suspend some industrial operations and review logging permits in response to the floods, the future of the Batang Toru ecosystem remains uncertain. Conservationists stress that this is a critical opportunity for the government to fulfill its environmental promises rather than allowing administrative or commercial interests to seal the fate of a species on the brink.
Load more posts Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
[strong]Learn more: [/strong]Jong, H. N., & Muazam, A. R. (2025, December 18). Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans. Mongabay. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapa…
ENDS
Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
JAKARTA — Reeling from a cyclone that may have erased a chunk of its population, the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape population, now faces the prospect of losing more of its already constricted habitat.
Holy shadow bias! I think they might have focused on "fixing" the wrong thing. Well, good thing I haven't been particularly interested in any recent AAA titles for a while. This all looks like hot garbage.
Honestly, I have tried a number of times to implement this, but each time it has resulted in me corrupting the files for my users and myself and causing a lot of connection headaches. I would absolutely love to enable the feature if I knew I could use it confidently without interrupting my work or my users.
I wanted to but guides advised against it due to implementation, I would love to have it as long as it works with other nextcloud apps and is easy for users to understand
"it's hard not to laugh at how it changes character faces into what looks exactly like you would imagine generative AI beautification looksmaxxing tools would do. Or, yassifying, if you will. I'm learning a lot of new silly words thanks to this. This is the kind of stupid AI generative filtering I would have expected from some sort of AI porn generation website, not from the likes of NVIDIA. Who cares about art direction when you can plump up the lips of a character right?"
Holy shadow bias! I think they might have focused on "fixing" the wrong thing. Well, good thing I haven't been particularly interested in any recent AAA titles for a while. This all looks like hot garbage.
More hardware and software releases from Intel today with the launch of the Intel Core Ultra 200HX Plus series and their new "Binary Optimization Tool".
The Arch-based Linux distribution EndeavourOS Titan is out now, bringing with it plenty of nice sounding upgrades and some comments on age verification.
The Eastern long-beaked echidna Zaglossus bartoni is one of the planet’s most extraordinary mammals—a living relic from the dawn of mammalian evolution. Found only in the rugged, remote mountains o…
Please ask legislators to ask the following question:
If you are confident of the security benefits of developer verification, are you willing to accept legal liability for malware distributed by verified developers?
If so, great. If not, it’s obvious that they’re lying. Propose that a platform requiring this kind of verification will automatically come with this kind of liability.
We need a viable open source smartphone. I mean, a real one, not some of the garbage phones that have been produced in the last several years. I know there are other projects, and ones that turned out to be scams, but until we can buy something like a genuine open source alternative to the Pixel we are going to continue to be in this data-mining deathloop.
Here are some palm oil free makeup, cosmetics and perfume brands that do not use rainforest-destroying palm oil. If you are ever in doubt look for the prefixes: LAUR, STEAR, GYLC and PALM in the in…
Studio 44 – das neue Boxgym in Bochum. 🥊
Hier trainieren Anfänger, Fortgeschrittene und Profis.
Komm vorbei und überzeuge dich selbst.
Jetzt Probetraining vereinbaren. ✉️
Studio 44 – das neue Boxgym in Bochum. 🥊
Hier trainieren Anfänger, Fortgeschrittene und Profis.
Komm vorbei und überzeuge dich selbst.
Jetzt Probetraining vereinbaren. ✉️
Your reminder that realism is not a universal creative goal. In fact, realism is rarely the most important art goal, even when it hits the list.
Anyone telling you a machine’s realism matters more than human agency and human choices in creation doesn’t understand what they’re working (read: fucking) with.
We need to separate “tech” companies from videogames. This level of ghoulishness is insufferable. This is not progress in visual tech. This is defacing of an art form by people with ugly souls.
We need to separate “tech” companies from videogames. This level of ghoulishness is insufferable. This is not progress in visual tech. This is defacing of an art form by people with ugly souls.
Act now to save Tesso Nilo Park. This vital Indonesian park has lost 78% of its primary forest, threatening the habitat of Sumatran tigers and elephants
"One thing that should be clear is the intimate link between economic wealth and political power. It is no coincidence that authoritarianism is rising in one of the countries with the highest levels of income and wealth inequality in the world, and the greatest number of billionaires. Extreme wealth gives rise to extreme power, undermining democracy."
Humanity needs to embrace the concept of Enough. I did it long ago. I don't live a great deal differently than I did as a college student. Yes, my condo is twice the size of my first apartment and better furnished, but that's about all the difference. I still drive a cheap car (21 year old Honda Civic) and otherwise live simply. Why that's so hard to embrace is beyond me. It saves all kinds of grief.
I’m of the opinion that having too much actually makes you unhappy. It’s why they are never satisfied. They never reach Enough and are constantly unhappy, so they want us to be unhappy too.
Some of the wealthy people I know personally here in Canada are literally asking to be taxed more. I'm not sure if they are in the 0.01%, but definitely in the top 1%. Some of them do grumble when their tax bills don't make total sense, but don't we all! Either way they fully support a social democratic society and understand the consequences of their wealth. In the mean time they are creating philanthropic foundations and trying to do the mostthey can for society with most of their money.
Indeed I know of many wealthy folks in the USA who would also be more than willing to pay more taxes and who also try to support social services as much as possible through foundations and donations. However there does seem to be a more overt group of the 0.01% in the USA who flaunt their wealth and do everything they can to avoid taxation and to continue to make even more money. I think this is a consequence of extreme "celebrity culture" for the most part.
Indeed -- some people just like to write the cheque and get back to their other troubles, but some thrive on the attention they get from the recipients.
Accepting astronomically inflated wages and avoiding taxes on the one hand, then giving to charity what seems a large amount to ordinary people on the other, is a swindle. It is calculated to keep people from storming the castle and calling wage thieves to account.
Are they giving as much as they have deprived our governments in taxes? Do we get to vote on where that money goes? Do I have to beg for a handout?
Re-establish democracy, take the money, and distribute it to services that benefit the people of your nation!
@Tom G. And yet Obama managed to not commit adultery in the people's White House - because he and his are not trash like (IMO) Bill Clinton was at that time.
Unfortunately Canada has had an "old boys club" mentality right from the beginning. It's often quite hidden and even journalists don't catch on about it. And of course a good number of politicians cater to the old boys club without bringing it to the attention of the rest of their real constituents. It's talked about on occasion, but it's insidious, deeply buried, and hard to untangle and fight against.
Perhaps "celebrity culture" is a way to bring the "old boys" out into the limelight and thus get a handle on who they are and what they're doing. Not a pretty way, but a way.
But even in the USA there are quite a number of "silent" billionaires who fund politics in nefarious ways.
Devine Lu Linvega
in reply to Mastarmi • • •