Gold miners breached 14 hectares of Indonesia's orangutan refuge in three years; conservationists want government to intervene

Illegal gold miners have encroached on Indonesia's Jantho forest reservation, a vital reintroduction site for the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. The country's largest environmental pressure group, Indonesian Forum for the Environment, revealed that miners have breached the forest in Aceh province, where the animals rescued from illegal wildlife trade reside, according to a report by Mongabay. “The result of our monitoring indicates that maybe dozens of excavators are suspected of operating in the Jantho forest area,” said Afifuddin, campaign and advocacy lead at the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).The Indonesian government established the Jantho orangutan reintroduction area more than 15 years ago within the wider protected forest known as Jantho Nature Reserve. It was in 2011 that conservationists began releasing animals in the area where there were no Sumatran orangutans before. Since then, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), which works with the Indonesian government on the reintroduction effort, has released nearly 200 orangutans into the forest. It remains one of the country’s most successful release sites for...