JAKARTA, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace has called on Indonesian government to apply stricter measures aimed at protecting the life and sustainability of endangered animal orangutans as their population is diminishing rapidly.
According to 2016 Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) on Indonesian Orangutans report released here on Tuesday, population density of Orangutan in Kalimantan has diminished to 13-47 individuals per 100 km square from the previous 45-76 individuals per 100 km square in 2004 survey.
The report also mentioned only 38 percent of 71,000 orangutan individuals would survive within the next 100 to 500 years.
Severe environmental damage has been suspected of leading to the drastic drop of orangutan population in Kalimantan, indicating that Indonesian government has yet to take serious measures in protecting the endangered animal.
"Orangutan population continues to diminish due to deforestation and massive opening of peat land," Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Campaigner Ratri Kusumohartono said in a statement.
Greenpeace said that government's existing blue print program, the 2007-2017 Indonesian Orangutan Conservancy Action Plan, was not capable enough to provide maximum protection for orangutans.
Government's measures to conserve orangutans mentioned in the action plan document including improvement of forest preservation, trans-locating orangutan population and setting up conservancy centers.
The environmentalist organization said the challenges in the future would be more severe along with companies' plans to further expand their operations in Kalimantan.
"Government must be stricter in enforcing the law aimed at protecting Indonesian forest and peat land which are the habitat to orangutans. If they fail to do so, orangutans will extinct within short period of time," Ratri said.
