Casey was one of the orangutans released on Tuesday in the Kehje Sewen forest in East Kalimantan. (Photo courtesy of BOSF) |
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Conservationists
have released three more orangutans into the wild in East Kalimantan, the third
such release this year.
The three
endangered primates — Casey, Lesan and Mail — were flown by helicopter from the
Samboja Lestari Orangutan Reintroduction and Rehabilitation Program in Samboja
subdistrict, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, to the Kehje
Sewen forest straddling East Kutai and Kutai Kartanegara districts.
Before
their release at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, they were placed in a cage overnight to
adapt to the new environment, the BOSF said in a statement on Wednesday.
The release
was attended by several senior government officials, including Forestry
Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya and Hatta
Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy.
The three
orangutans were the first batch of six orangutans from East Kalimantan
scheduled to be released in April and May. The other three orangutans — Abbie,
Hamzah and Berlian — will be released next month.
The BOSF
plans to release 30 orangutans this year and next from the Samboja Lestari rehabilitation
center. It has already released 15 orangutans from its rehabilitation center in
Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan — four in February and 11 in March — into the
Batikap protected forest in Murung Raya district.
The
foundation plans to release a total of 40 orangutans from Nyaru Menteng.
There are
still 160 orangutans at Samboja Lestari waiting to be released back into the
wild, and at least 70 others that cannot be released because of illness or
injuries, or waiting for available land for a suitable habitat.
“If there
is sufficient land for them, the target to release all the orangutans from the
rehabilitation center by 2015 can be achieved,” said Aschta Boestani Tajudin,
the Samboja Lestari program manager.
The 2015
target date, she added, is in line with the Orangutan Conservation Action Plan
2007-17, announced in 2007 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
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