Saving Planet Earth
Nick Knowles: Saving Orang-utans
It's predicted that orang-utans will be extinct in the wild by 2020. Their forest home is being destroyed by logging and agriculture, and about 80 per cent of their habitat has been lost over the past 20 years.
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Nick Knowles travels to the rainforests of Borneo to witness the destruction first hand and to see the inspiring work of Lone Droescher Neilsen, who has dedicated the past 15 years of her life to saving orphaned orang-utans.
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Lone runs the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation. Although originally built to house only 100 young orphaned orang-utans, it now provides a home for over 600.
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Orang-utans are one of our closest cousins, and each of the 600 orang-utans has its own name. On his visit to the centre, Nick gets to name the latest arrival, choosing Othello, after his dad.
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The bond between a baby orang-utan and its mother is the same as in humans, so the orphaned orang-utans need a great deal of attention and care. Othello will need five years of care and support before he is ready to be re-introduced to the wild.
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Like many of the others in the centre, Othello was orphaned because of the destruction of the animals' natural habitat.
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The main cause of this deforestation is palm oil. Swathes of rainforest are being cleared to make way for plantations of palm oil which is used in countless everyday products in the home – from toothpaste to biscuits.
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Every minute, three football pitches of rainforest are destroyed. It takes nine to ten football pitches of forest to sustain just one orang-utan.
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While at the centre, Nick helps rescue an orang-utan whose habitat is literally being chopped down around her. Driving for hours through fields of young palm trees to reach the orang-utan, Nick witnesses the extent of the loss of natural habitat.
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It's a rescue, but one that ends tragically when the female orang-utan dies. This is a risk which the rescue team can face when trying to save the animals.
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Expressing his anger, Nick says: "This is what is so annoying. This wouldn't be happening if we didn't have to rescue them. This wouldn't be happening if the forests weren't being cut down.
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"This animal would be perfectly happy if it wasn't for the fact that we were driving them out of their habitat and having to rescue them; having to attempt to rescue them with all the dangers that are involved with that."
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As Lone adds: "If people would just think a little bit, this is exactly why we have to just care a little bit more about the world."
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A donation of £10 to the 91Èȱ¬ Wildlife Fund (charity number 1119286) will help the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation feed one orang-utan for a whole week.
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