Has The Palm Oil Industry Negatively Impacted The Orangutan Population In Borneo And Sumatra?

Biology Depth Study
Lulu Miskin
Inquiry question

How has the palm oil industry negatively impacted the Orangutan population in Borneo and Sumatra?
2. Background information - the problem

Orang-utan means 'person of the forest' in the Malay language.

Biology of an Orangutan

Orang-utans have the typical ape shape, orange shaggy hair and hands and feet that can grasp branches and other objects. They have very long and strong arms that help them to swing through the tree tops.

Lifecycle and Reproduction

Orang-utans can live up to 50 years in the wild. With females generally reproducing between the ages of 10 and 15. There is usually a gap of at least five years (sometimes up to ten) between births

Once born the baby Orang-utans will

Over 90% of orangutan habitat has been destroyed in the last 20 years, and as such, is considered “a conservation emergency” by the UN. An estimated 1000-5000 orangutang are killed each year for this development. The orangutan is a keystone species and plays a vital role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. An example of this being the spread of rainforest seeds in Indonesia, many of which can only germinate once passed through the gut of an orangutan, hence this primate is essential for the existence of the forest. But the orangutan is not the only species affected by palm oil development; their situation represents the story of thousands of other species facing the same fate in South-East

This is due to the deforestation the plantations required to grow the product is causing. Therefore the only way to stop the habitat loss it to limit the demand for the highly sort after product. One way of doing this would be to simply ban the oil from supermarket products, thus forcing the companies to find different and hopefully more sustainable options. Another method is to place laws stating the protection of the remaining Orangutan habitat, intern prohibiting any further damage to the species.
You must evaluate the possible solutions that you propose. In order to do this, you will need evidence to support your judgements. This evidence could be from secondary sources, or it could be from the result of a simple investigation you complete yourself.

Evaluation

Although both ideas are good in theory, the implementation would be difficult. This is due to the fact that it isn’t in the governments interest to shut down the multimillion dollar industry. This means that in oder to change the current situation it would require the support of a member of parliament or a drastic increase in petitions and charity work.
You should include data tables and graphs to support your evaluation. You must identify trends and patterns in the data and refer to data tables/graphs in your writing.
What you write in this section will lead to you being able to answer your inquiry